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Creating Space for Innovation: The Role of “Design Zones”

Jan Spruijt
For quite some years already, we (as in educational institutes) have been trying to set up the best ‘creative classroom’ possibile, because we believe that it is an essential element of modern education. I believe it contributes to collaborative learning and a strong attitude towards innovation. We are not the only one, many institutes are testing educational concepts based upon collaborative workspaces, Babson College and the Design School probably the most well-known of them.

I stumbled upon the following article about the ‘design zone’ at Babson College. After some years of analysis, they conclude that these zones:

  • increase student participation and therefore create more positive energy;
  • increase personal contact between lecturers and students;
  • the layout can be easily adjusted to the requirements needed at the moment.

There are also some challenges:

  • Set-up and clean-up times take away part of lecture times;
  • Because of its size and layout, these rooms don’t work well for presentations (i.e. sharing knowledge);
  • It requires more participative teaching methods by the lecturers, which some seem to struggle with.

I have found it relieving that ‘even’ Babson College seems to deal with the same problems as we do. On the other hand, it strikes me that even there, they are still small-thinking in terms of classrooms (with walls), whereas we can easily find much better examples especially in business.

Do you know of any extraordinary collaborative workspaces that increase sharing and learning? What is your experience with this way of working?

Read full article: Creating Space for Innovation: The Role of “Design Zones”

Teamwork and Organizational Innovation: The Moderating Role of the HRM Context

Jan Spruijt
This study examines whether staff groups which are organized in teams are better at organizational innovation than staff groups who aren’t. Moreover, it examines whether human resource management (HRM) systems, which can be of facilitating or constraining nature, enhance the teamwork and therefore innovation outcomes.18 to 45 organizations from the UK manufacturing sector have been researched. Results suggest that the more widespread the use of teamwork in organizations, the higher the level of organizational innovation. Furthermore, this effect depends on the overall quality of the HRM systems that exist in their organizations. Teamwork is further moderated by an HRM practice that provides teams with time for thoughtful reflection. Thus, HRM systems can be of more or less facilitating or constraining nature for teams in organizations.

Read full article: Teamwork and Organizational Innovation: The Moderating Role of the HRM Context

The world of Patents in Europe (Infographic)

Jan Spruijt

Did you know for example that there were 265.690 European Patent Filings in 2013 but only 66.712 were granted? Did you know that your invention will be protected in up to 40 European countries based on 1 single application? James Sherwin from SOR Solicitors, a Dublin-based law firm, created an infographic about European Patents.

This infographic is published with permission of James Sherwin.

The world’s best e-courses on Innovation Management

Jan Spruijt

This autumn, we gathered some of the best 21st century courses on Innovation Management for you. While specialist courses at Insead, Berkely or IESE are extremely good, they are expensive and intense. You don’t want to get into the hussle of persuading your employer you’re worth the 50K investment, but still want to learn something? Go for one of the following excellent online courses on innovation (management):

  1. Innovation Management Game – individual course
    The Innovation Management Game is “a serious game for serious professionals”. Their individual course lets you battle against well-known innovation companies worldwide by learning and practising the newest theory on innovation management. According to some of their clients “The key learnings from the game for us were especially the multidimensionality of the innovation process inside a company and the idea that companies can influence their innovation success in many different ways” and “It introduces innovation in a learning environment and it is completely different than just learning theory.”
    The price: €495,-
  2. THNK – School of Creative Leadership
    THNK is a worldwide renowned institute for linking Design Thinking with Business Thinking. It has an online course, Start Innovating Now, “to build your innovation muscle, and come up with real innovations. An innovative real-life course that will keep you on your toes.” Or as someone says it on their website: “I use TNKS’s innovation process and tools to brainstorm new ideas, synthesize them into innovations that scale and then prototype, test and finetune them.”
    The price: €945,-
  3. Entrepreneurial Leadership – Babson College
    The definition of a short course: it takes only 30-60 minutes to complete. But who doesn’t want a glimpse of the world’s best school on entrepreneurship education?
    The price: $59,99

Any other suggestions? Please let us know.

The future of planes: one huge artificial window

Jan Spruijt

The Center for Process Innovation in the UK has released a video that shows the ‘plane of the future’… without windows to decrease weight and CO2 emmission and to increase comfort. A beautiful example of Open Innovation where Aerospace Engineering meets Consumer Electronics meets Sustainability.

Read full article: The future of planes: one huge artificial window

Barroso about boosting innovation in the European Union

Jan Spruijt

viEUws just published an exclusive video interview in which José Manuel Barroso, the outgoing President of the European Commission, talks about what needs to be done to boost innovation, competitiveness and business in the European Union. Barroso discusses the benefits of TTIP (the EU-United States trade deal) for Europe, identifies measures to improve access to credit for SMEs as well as ways to boost Europe’s skills & innovation, including the impact of Horizon 2020.

Read full article: Barroso about boosting innovation in the European Union

The Rise of Innovation Districts in Europe

Jan Spruijt

According to High Tech Campus frontman Bert-Jan Woertman, building bridges between innovation district is the way forward. He follows up upon a recent publication of Brookings Institution, The Rise of Innovation Districts, and benchmarks the Technology Region of Southern Netherlands with districts mentioned in the report. So, this would be a form of open innovation of open innovation regions.

According to Katz and Wagner, Innovation Districts are: “a new complementary urban model is now emerging, giving rise to what we and others are calling “innovation districts”. These districts, by our definition, are geographic areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators and accelerators. [….] Our most creative institutions, firms and workers crave proximity so that ideas and knowledge can be transferred more quickly and seamlessly.”

Read full article: High Tech Campus Eindhoven – Campus Newsletter

Disruptive Innovation: why the theory absolutely makes sense.

Jan Spruijt

Recently, there has been some debate about whether or not the theory about Disruptive Innovation should be followed upon by business leaders or not. In her article The Disrupting Machine Jill Lepore suggests that the theory is based upon flawed assumptions. Many articles have tried to support Lepore – such as John Parkinson – and many others, including Christensen and Irvin Wladawsky-Berger have tried to proof why it’s a trustable theory.

But the discussion is about the wrong topic: it shouldn’t be about whether or not the theory is suitable, it should be about whether or not theories could ever be undiscussible. They can’t. Theories are build upon models; aggregated from results, averages of true situations and therefore there will always be examples of situations in which they don’t seem to fit. That is the nature of theories. Reality is far more complex than theories could ever describe and business owners and leaders should always keep that in mind before rigurously implementing one single strategy based upon a certain theory.

We should embrace scholars who use true data to gather results, analyse them and draw significant conclusions. But we should even more embrace scholars who have the courage to use their intuition and vision to fill in the gaps – and of course make those steps clear to the reader – and create possible new ways of thinking about ongoing matters. It is them who have changed management and business in general.

Please read the article below for another way of looking at disruptive innovation – and sustainable innovation.

Read full article: Disruptive Innovation: why the theory absolutely makes sense.

Where does ‘The Innovation Funnel’ come from? A short history.

Jan Spruijt

This great article from 2011 by Gerry Katz provides us with an overview of the different models that have been developed around innovation processes and New Product Development. In short:
— 1980: New Product and Development Service Process (Hauser)
– 1986: Stage Gate (Cooper)
– 1992: Innovation Funnel (Wheelwright & Clark)
– 1992: New Product Development Funnel (McGrath)
– 2005: Innovation Funnel (MIT)

And he proposes a new design in the end. The article, however, misses the evolution of Open Innovation.

Read full article: Where does ‘The Innovation Funnel’ come from? A short history.