Embarking on ‘Roads to Innovation’
Innovation goes hand in hand with entrepreneurship, and with this notion in mind, a couple of us set off to attend a pretty promising conference over two days during the weekend; “Roads to Innovation – International perspectives on the generation of ideas, technologies, and new business”.
Hosted by the NOVA, the Italian MBA Association, this conference “aims to disentangle the drivers of innovation in the economy and the role of universities, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and corporation in promoting new ideas and technologies, engaging distinctive policy makers, businesspersons, and scholars in the debate on the enablers of innovation in both technology-intensive and traditional services”.
Quite a mouth-full indeed; so many ideas and factors in one short sentence, yet amazingly, the organisers managed to pull it off, successfully achieving their aim through a series of 5 different panels that covered topics as varied as government policies, venture capital funding, high tech firms, biotech, power grids and washing machines.
The keynote speaker of the event was Mr. Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google. He broadly touched on the emerging trend and potential of user-generated content, especially with regards to YouTube, Google’s 70-20-10 policy (70% focus on core business, 20% creative initiatives, 10% others) , and free mobile phones. However, what stood out the most to me was not the content, but the manner Eric presented; he didn’t stand behind the podium, was full of hand gestures, humorous, casual and sincere – definitely the kind of boss I want to work for, and hopefully can become one day. Oh, and did I mention that Vincent and I actually ran after him when he exited the hall to get a photo, cool ya! J
Roads to Innovation 11/11- 11/12 Sat-Sun at Arrillaga Alumni Center Stanford
Naturally as a conference organised by the NOVA, there was a strong Italian presence in the crowd and on the panels. The first panel begun with a strong Italian flavour with mentions of European market liberalism, importance of reform within universities and capital investment. Personally, things got a lot more interesting when Paul Romer, leading US economist, brought up 3 factors that speed up the rate and scale of innovation –
1) Infrastructure and communication, technology building on technology
2) Synergising with other people, the need for scale and critical human mass
3) Institution and government policies
He even mentioned Singapore as a positive example where the institutions have been put in place to encourage innovation (contrary to what some of us may feel), and put down Singapore’s inability to create the next Google to the fact that we just don’t have the necessary critical mass. What do you guys think?
As the conference progressed, things just got more interesting - below are couple of thoughts and personalities that stood out;
1) Greg Waldorf, founding investor in eHarmony and CEO – Luck and timing is everything! Seize the right opportunities and ride the waves. Be open to failure, as long as you know the right decision was made.
2) Jeff Clavier, angel investor in Web 2.0 companies, French – Started off by saying “it’s weird that a French man is here speaking to a bunch of Italians after what happened at the World Cup. See you at the Euros”, not the exact words, but soccer fans will appreciate it. Excellent moderator, open minded and candid investor who doesn’t mince his words and is completely open about his mistakes.
3) Marco Milani, Indesit Company’s CEO, Europe top 3 producer of household appliances – “The fish dies from the head” (translated from Italian); the top management must be open to failure and innovation, or else innovation can never take off within a company.
Pricing on innovation; allow people to spend what they want to spend by providing unbundled pricing, i.e. separate the basic features from the add-ons, e.g. budget airlines focus on transportation, SIA provides a service beside transportation.
4) Diego Rodriguez, Director, IDEO - Think like a designer, be optimistic about making changes and improving lives. Do thorough market research by hanging out with real people. Ultimately make your team happy - Measure less, understand more, innovation will start taking place. Talk is cheap; nothing beats showing a prototype, and forget about PowerPoint.
During the event, I also had the chance to speak to freelance writer, Marguerite Rigoglioso, who wrote a more informative and well-written article. Without a doubt, this has been one of the best conferences I have been to. Thumbs up to the organisers - Andrea, Giovanni and team! Thanks guys!
November 18th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
“He even mentioned Singapore as a positive example where the institutions have been put in place to encourage innovation (contrary to what some of us may feel), and put down Singapore’s inability to create the next Google to the fact that we just don’t have the necessary critical mass.”
Too many people have replied to this by saying “Learn from the Israeli people.” I remember talking to Anita, the Israeli woman at the conference and I said, “You know the joke? Singapore has 4 million people and 1 opinion. Israel has 6 million people and 6 million opinions.” She replied “Yes, you’re right and wrong. Israel has 6 million people and 12 million opinions.”
She mentioned that Israel has no critical mass, but their technologies are usually commercialized by Americans, into global markets. And many of the innovations come from the top scientists who did research in the military. I’d think this is just the surface. Going deeper will definitely benefit all.
Now, Vish mentioned in “The Argonauts’ Journey” about Ireland as well. 4 million people, but entrepreneurship is starting with years of formalizing of institutions to make innovation happen. http://www.internationalentrepreneurship.com/european+entrepreneurship/ireland_entrepreneur.asp?countryid=15&contid=4
Definitely worth some research in that region as well!
good job on the article!
san