Innovation key to kick starting growth

Innovation is key to driving business development, kick-starting growth and boosting economic recovery. However the prospect of disrupting traditional markets and competing with multinational businesses can be challenging.

Enter the Open Innovation 2.0 Conference, a gathering of business people, academics, politicians and citizens held in Dublin Castle last week. The two-day programme included talks from leading thinkers who have embraced innovative techniques and business models, awards recognising leading innovators and a free technology showcase at Mansion House.

Participants in a variety of business sectors, from aerospace to solar energy, offered advice on how they have integrated new elements to drive their businesses forward.

Rolls-Royce chief scientific officer Paul Stein explained how the company transformed from a car-manufacturing business into a power systems company.

"The car-making division was sold off and is owned by BMW. Now Rolls-Royce is a fairly famous power systems company making jet engines, marine devices and nuclear components," Stein says. "For us innovation is about bringing to life practical ideas to make our product betters to creating a competitive advantage for our customers."

'A big deal'
Increasing use of data and information technology have become some of the biggest drivers of innovations for Rolls- Royce. "If you back-pedal in Rolls-Royce by 20 years, there was little use of information technology, other than in design and communicating, now it's a big deal.

“We have lots of data about our products so the innovative techniques that the IT industry is using to bring new products and services to market are more relevant to us. There’s a great merging taking place,” Stein adds.

The application of innovative techniques and technologies across different fields is also recognised as an important part of transforming how business is done.

Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner explained the importance of innovation across multiple sectors. "At Intel we think that the lessons learned from innovation are broadly applicable around the world. What we believe characterised 20th-century industry was a focus on invention and what we think will characterise 21st century research is innovation."

Innovation and the need for job creation in Europe are also leading the agenda, according to George Washington University professor Elias Carayannis. "In Europe there is a tremendous advantage of human, intellectual and social capital that is not being tapped.

“We talk about countries going bankrupt and we have a multitude of knowledge banks whose value added assets are not properly assessed let alone monetised. I think there’s a very important mission here and it’s beyond politics. We need to focus on universities and create spin-offs.”

However, if Ireland is going to take a leading role in business innovation, there may need to be a sustained shift in government policy and investment.

Intel vice-president Martin Curley says: "I think we've invested in research but maybe we've over-invested in deep science and we haven't had enough in applied research . . . Innovation is very non-linear, you have to create eco-systems which develop into complex products.

"I think the question is how open is our government and our society in general . . . you have to share a vision so people can get excited about it. We have a reasonable vision for the country, but what would be better is to be the best example of shared value creation, so through our innovations we're delivering wealth, welfare and wellbeing."

Recognising role models
The Luminary Awards 2013 also took place as part of the conference with a ceremony in Trinity College Dublin. The awards recognise innovative role models in their fields and prizes were awarded to Prof Stephen Hawking, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner and companies including McLaren Electronic Systems and Rovio.

Curley adds: “What we most need are innovation heroes. If you look at the US, 75 per cent of its total GDP growth comes from innovation so what we wanted to do was recognise innovators’ achievements.

“If we’re going to grow, it’s innovation that is going to help”.