Afternoon seminar:
Managing the new innovation game – From knowledge creation to knowledge flows
Tuesday 17 March 2009, 2pm - 5pm
The Royal Society, 7 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG - map
Speakers:
- Professor John Bessant, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group, Imperial College Business School (chair)
- Peter Davies CBE, former CEO of PERA
- David Coates, Technology Strategy Board
- Professor Roy Sandbach, Proctor and Gamble
Close to $1 trillion is being spent every year on R&D in public and private sector around the world, - and as a result the innovation challenge has moved from one in which knowledge creation is the key question to one in which knowledge flows become of increasing significance. The problem is exacerbated because the location of knowledge production has shifted – it is no longer a matter of a few major players creating knowledge but rather a globally distributed and diverse knowledge economy. This situation is mirrored on the demand side – markets are globalised, fragmented and increasingly virtual so conventional market research approaches may not be sufficient. As we begin to understand the implications of 'open innovation' we need to learn ways of managing knowledge trading - not all the smart guys work for us, so accessing what's out there and widely making our own knowledge more widely available becomes ever more important.
The meeting will take the form of a series of short presentations from the panellists followed by a panel discussion stimulated by questions from the audience.
Professor John Bessant, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group, Imperial College Business School (Chair)
John is co-Director of the EPSRC/AIM collaborative programme with Cambridge, Cranfield, Loughborough and Liverpool Universities: the Innovation and Productivity Grand Challenge. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering and obtained his PhD for work on innovation within the chemical industry. After a spell in industry he took up full-time research teaching in the field of technology and innovation management working at Aston’s Technology Policy Unit, the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University and at Brighton University where he directed the Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM).
He served on the Business and Management panel of the 2001 and 2008 Research Assessment Exercises and is also a Fellow of the British Academy of Management and of the Advanced Institute for Management Research. He has acted as advisor to a number of companies, various national governments and to international bodies including the United Nations, The World Bank and the OECD.
His areas of research interest include the management of discontinuous innovation, strategies for developing high involvement innovation and the use of learning networks to facilitate diffusion of innovation. He is the author of 15 books and many articles on the topic and has lectured and consulted widely around the world. His most recent books include ‘Managing innovation’ (2009, now in its 4th edition) and ‘High involvement innovation’ (both published by John Wiley and Sons).
Peter Davies CBE, former CEO of PERA
For over 30 years he has been stimulating and facilitating innovation in large and small companies, particularly working across international boundaries.
As the CEO of Pera since 1999 he transformed it into the fastest growing company of its type in Europe and the hub of an international network to support its clients. By 2007 Pera had 25 offices in 14 countries and had established more product development consortia across Europe than any other organisation, making world-class innovation affordable for over 2500 companies. On behalf of the government Pera also provides specialist global trade and inward investment services focussed on R&D intensive companies.
Previously Peter was for 10 years the founding director of the Advanced Technology Centre as a pioneering collaboration between the automotive industry led by Rover and its suppliers and Warwick University. He also founded a programme of strategic assistance for mid-sized companies which subsequently became the model for the innovation and competitiveness element of many regional business support programmes.
In the early 1980s he worked in the Cabinet Office as a member of the Central Policy Review Staff (the government “Think Tank”) and as the principle adviser to the Government Chief Scientist. He specialised in national issues of innovation policy.
Peter retired from Pera in 2008 and now advises companies and universities on innovation strategy and facilitation processes. He is also setting up the charitable Pera Foundation that is dedicated to giving life-changing opportunities to disaffected and disadvantaged young people through the power of entrepreneurship and enterprise.
David Coates, Technology Strategy Board
I am currently Head of Knowledge Exchange at the Technology Strategy Board where I am responsible for Knowledge Transfer Networks and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. Up until December 2008, I spent 18 months helping set up the InnovationXchange, a programme run out of Birmingham University based on the deployment of intermediaries in client companies to effect open innovation.
I have a PhD in materials science, I am a Fellow of the RSA and an independent management consultant. My expertise lies in combining process consultancy, innovation and relationship marketing, which gives me added depth and insight to strategic innovation and branding. Also, I have been involved in a number of programmes looking at the impact of innovation and technology on society over a twenty-five year timeframe.
During my consultancy career, I have worked with companies such as Swedish Match, Boots Healthcare International, Danone, Courtaulds, BASF, Cable & Wireless, Sarah Lee, Shell and Nestle.
Prior to becoming an independent consultant, and an associate of the innovation consultancies, Innovaro and Nu_Angle, I was a founder brand consultancy Indigo Partners. Also, I have held senior positions with organisations such as PA Consulting, Scientific Generics and Identica-Generics.
Professor Roy Sandbach, Proctor and Gamble
Professor Roy Sandbach, B.Sc., Ph.D. is Research Fellow with the Procter & Gamble Company. He has worked in R&D in P&G for 27 years, with nearly 20 years in Frankfurt, Rome and Brussels. His career has spanned not only the global range of P&G product categories but also the breadth of R&D work from upstream new product development & prototyping to in-market execution of major initiatives & competitive response.
His current interests are in the holistic development of new products, notably in the developing world, going beyond standard technology application to design & sensory consumer response, and in the application of P&G’s Open Innovation approach, termed Connect & Develop.
He has patents on several new-to-the-world products. One of these, introduced by P&G in the United States in 2005, is now approaching a 100MM$ business.
Roy is visiting Professor of Industrial Design at Central St. Martins College of Art & Design in London. He is the only working UK scientist with a professorship at a leading UK Art & Design College.
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