Many organisations are facing the challenge of new tech- nologies, disruptive business models and the need for new propositions to satisfy new markets to compete with new entrants. A hotbed of innovation and technology driving this change is Silicon Valley, California. It is not the only place in the world driving these changes, but it is gener- ally the benchmark for other locations. In recent Corporate Venturing Network programmes in Europe and Asia the comparison to Silicon Valley was always there – with cor- porates, start-ups and venture capital organisations.
The challenges
Common strategic challenges that organisations face include big data, internet of things, special materials, diagnostics, water treatment and many more. These are challenging organisations in electronics, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, financial services, automotive, business services and natural resources. How you address these challenges and where you can collaborate is seen as an opportunity for many organisations to drive open innova- tion. Trying to solve these issues and determine a route through a closed approach is often no longer effective, it is too costly and too slow. The Corporate Venturing Network has put together a programme for 2014 to help address these challenges.
Connections: Developing an innovation and venturing strategy is key to success. Each organisation needs to determine its purpose and you can often develop your indi- vidual route map by thinking in other people’s boxes. Great insights and results can be achieved when peers from dif- ferent industries come together as they are facing similar challenges and opportunities. Organisations involved in previous programmes in Asia and the US have included BAE Systems, BP, E.on, Ordnance Survey, Philips, Rolls- Royce, Syngenta, Unilever and many more.
Community: From our 13 years’ experience, a valuable approach is to bring together a community of senior exec- utives from leading organisations to collaborate on some of the common strategic challenges and shared themes. Benefits are achieved from new insights into new strategic innovation areas, improved processes to manage disruptive innovation as well as better dynamics among people. All of these can be experienced in this communal environment together with a wealth of stories from successes and, more interestingly, failures as well.
Sharing perspectives with a group of peers and then seeing leading innovators is a great approach to acceler- ate the results you are seeking to achieve.
Collaboration: Corven Networks is delivering a series of visits and meetings in Silicon Valley with organisations from a range of sector, innovation and venturing perspec- tives. These include the Palo Alto Research Center, Honda, Hyundai, American Express Ventures, Wells Fargo Venture Services, Takeda Ventures in pharma, Schlumberger in oil, and incubator Highway1.
We will also be hosting a dinner with Global Corporate Venturing on February 13 to bring together the leaders in Silicon Valley innovation for an informal networking dinner.
The programme includes participation in the IBF Corporate Venturing and Innovation Partnering Conference with facilitation and additional quality contacts provided by our years of attending and running discussions at the event. To find out more about the 2014 programme running from February 10-14 and the Global Corporate Venturing dinner go to www.corvennetworks.com or email andrew.gaule@corvennetworks.com