Innovation is already one of the pillars of success for companies and countries, and it will be even more so in the coming years. Whether incremental or disruptive, there is no other long-term alternative for those who want to survive in this world of global competition and continuous change. But what distinguishes the most innovative organizations and geographic areas?
Of the various key elements (talent and leadership, access to financing, regulation, innovative environment, investment in R&D…), I will focus on the collaborative mindset as an essential aspect to turn particular good ideas into systematic, scalable innovation with a powerful impact.
Beyond their deep cultural and value differences, it is a common attitude in places as diverse as Silicon Valley, Boston, Tel Aviv, Toronto, London, Shanghai, Stockholm, or Beijing, to name just a few examples.
A critical aspect is ‘connectedness’: a mindset to share ideas, enhance diversity among different people and actors in the ecosystem, and a total openness and support for good ideas, even if they do not come from the establishment or our known circle.
Successful and established ecosystems think big and bet on powerful open innovation. Innovative cultures that avoid the very human temptations of “egosystems,” the pursuit of personal goals, self-benefit or corporatist interests, and the prioritization of support for friends or elites close to the establishment rather than outsiders who do not have a good sponsor or sufficient initial resources.
They know that not being collaborative means thinking small, playing not to lose rather than to win. An approach that they apply not only to startups but also to larger corporations, and where disruptive movements (e.g., “pracademics,” people moving from academia to business) are not uncommon.
Traps to innovation
Xavier Ferrás discusses in this excellent article three traps that distract us from true innovation: capabilities, publications, and improvisation.
Companies trapped in maximizing their current capabilities rather than those of the future. They are organizations too focused on short-term results due to market pressures, neglecting long-term vision and building new capabilities that generate new products or services.
Universities obsessed with the number of publications rather than achieving real patents, reducing their impact and the desirable transfer of academic research to the real business world.
Administrations without clear strategies in industrial or innovation policies that usually require maturation time to evaluate results and effectiveness. The lack of sustained direction due to frequent political changes harms the real impact of public policies that could be much more relevant.
The Champions League of innovation
Spain is well-positioned in emerging areas, but realistically, we are not yet playing in the Champions League of entrepreneurship and innovation.
It would be worthwhile to delve into our strengths, and an undeniable one is that we have good innovative talent and increasingly more examples of successful innovation, both in startups and established companies.
And, in parallel, I believe it is essential to be self-critical to advance to the next level. At least a couple of elements seem to have room for improvement: we have the opportunity to think bigger and avoid personalisms (egosystems) that prevent us from taking advantage of good ideas.
The best of all is that we have already done it in the past. One of the best-known examples was the Barcelona Olympic Games. A clear exercise of transversal collaboration, building through ecosystems and not through egosystems. Transforming a city beyond the original intention of organizing a good sporting event.
This article has also been published in Do Better by ESADE, July 24, 2024
David Reyero Trapiello – Senior HR Business Partner – Sanofi Iberia
e-mail: David.reyero@sanofi.com / Twitter: @davidreyero73 / Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/davidreyerotrapiello/
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