This article has been taken from The Gen Newsletter - Autumn 2007. Click here to download the PDF.
Innovation is a prominent theme in the boardrooms of US companies. All companies are moving innovation up the corporate agenda, but US companies have been treating the matter as a vital and distinct activity for some time, one indicator being the change of meaning of CIO in the US – no longer is the I for Information, but Innovation i.e. a CEO report with the sole charge of ‘getting more innovation’. This is also reflected in the level of conferences and academic work on innovation state-side; several top US universities, such as MIT/ Sloan and Harvard, pioneer innovation as a major theme in their research and teaching; innovation journals such as JPIM and organizations such as the Product Development Management Association (PDMA) have been instrumental in promoting the innovation agenda. The PDMA’s own innovation conference has been held for many years. It re-branded as the ‘Front End of Innovation’ (FEI) in 2003 and rapidly became the top forum in the US on the topic with more than 700 attendees, the majority of whom are Director, VP or C-level executives. It continues to attract an international audience seeking best practice and leading insights on this topic. By contrast, 2007 was the first year that this forum ran in Europe with the first European FEI conference in Munich. The good news is that European attendance was similarly impressive, hopefully indicating a sea-change. It will be taking place in Vienna in January 2008. We are seeing US companies taking major steps towards improving both innovation management and culture, the latter comprising cutting edge human resources policies which play an equally important role in pushing the US industry forward to a leadership position globally. We have also seen a dramatic increase in the number of companies asking us for guidance in this whole area, therefore acknowledging the importance of both innovation management and culture to their future success. Consequentially, Sagentia’s US team has been instrumental in developing much of Sagentia’s leading-edge approach to innovation – both the doing and the managing of it. Due to our open culture, sharing best practice and ideas across regions and sectors is seamless. However, talking amongst ourselves about the best approach to clients’ issues is not enough, so we are pleased to be regularly invited to present at a variety of forums including the PDMA, Management Roundtable and Frost & Sullivan events, to share this knowledge with our peers. Most importantly we enjoy working with clients at corporate strategy innovation ‘away-days’ and ‘bootcamps’, where we can focus on real day-to-day issues that impact innovation and help improve innovation performance.
