On September 19 and 20, 2016, 25 people met in Chicago to discuss, debate and share ideas on the state of corporate innovation and its future. By everyone’s account, it was a unique opportunity for corporate innovation leaders to meet with their peers to delve deeply into aspects of innovation beyond the soundbites and platitudes common in most innovation events. The Summit consisted of four main segments.
- Culture – the participants wrote down a few of the ‘hidden rules’ or heuristics of their companies that they felt inhibit innovation and then participated in a ‘feedforward’ activity where they paired off in a series of one-on-one encounters in which they asked for and gave advice to a peer.
- Structure and Process – the participants chose a question from among 5 categories – Problem Solved, To My Surprise, Make a Wish, Go Figure and Survey Says – to discuss and debate
- Futures – the participants divided into teams and each team chose two trends from which they created a future state of how innovation happens in a company 10 years from now. They then developed a story about the day-in-the-life of the Chief Innovaiton Officer and shared it with the entire group
- Portfolio – a series of round-table discussions on the topics of Innovation Portfolio, Strategic Intent, Metrics and Governance was held and the insights and issues were shared with the group
As you can see – not your normal innovation event.
In addition to these activities we also had the privilege of hearing from two invited participants:
Julie Steele – Chairperson of the World Future Society gave a dinner address where she talked about the role that futuring can play to enhance corporate knowledge and understanding.
Gina O’Connor – Professor of Marketing & Innovation Management and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management, gave a talk about her research into corporate innovation systems and the organization, roles, and responsibilities that companies will need to be successful in the future.
All this plus a great evening of fine food and lively discussion made for a truly memorable event. Stay tuned for information about next year’s summit. You won’t want to miss it.
For more information on the 2016 Strategic Innovation Summit, click on the button below to go to the Summit Website.