Creating an Innovation ecosystem – the art of building, nurturing, growing and mentoring innovation teams

Innovation - the very word exudes optimism.?Implementable creativity - doing new things in a different way is fundamental to survival for Enterprises today. And the skills required to be successful?extend beyond traditional command-and-control tactics to things like influencing without formal authority. The need is to consider not only the success of their enterprise but also how they can help architect a healthy network in which innovation, and broader ecosystem, can thrive. The need for such an approach is attributable to dynamically changing business models, unpredictable consumer behavior and evolving technology maturity. A number of trends are giving rise to this

·????????Trends like B2C going immersively virtual (Metaverse), B2B evolving towards autonomous human free models, and dis-inter-mediation leading to direct to consumer reach at scale and finally the convergence of industry processes across biz models

·????????Globalization of societal issues & norms for the millennial, ‘as a service consumption’ models, Health conscious, Mental health aware, Community driven, Virtual workers and learners, Fuss-free online shoppers, Flexible first, Eco-friendly etc

·????????Technologies like AI, XR, Blockchain, Robotics, IOT, edge computing and standards like Web3.0 and OpenXR are disrupting the internet itself, which is core to the economic ecosystem for governance, operations, commerce, communication, and value creation. Shift from ‘Read only’ to ‘Read and write’ and today to ’Read, write and own’ assets dynamically take power away from the Enterprise and puts it directly into the hands of the consumer

This makes business innovation a fuzzy and volatile environment. The primary trait of innovation is being a creator mode with skills ranging from creativity, out of the box thinking, thriving in a constrained world, maximizing returns, futurist thinking, crystal ball grazers, quick learners, high collaborators, agile thinkers, and doers. The innovation Leader needs skills to thrive in this world, to adapt under stressful situations and dynamically move towards people, against people and away from people depending on the need of the hour.

Large companies are capable of and often do amazing things. But these firms just scratch the surface. The talent of their people, the technologies in their labs, and their global capabilities are constrained, held back by a mix of fear and misunderstanding. Too many would-be beautiful businesses that could reinvent markets and create substantial value live only in PoC’s and PowerPoints documents, never to be launched.

While all this is the team dynamics, Innovation itself can be a predictable outcome and managed art. Successful innovation ecosystems built leveraging strategic frameworks aligned with the needs of the system, external dynamics, synergies across stake holders continue to thrive. This needs an innovation leader who also stewards the ecosystem in which their business operates, including customers, suppliers, partners, competitors, governments, and their local community.

Building the Technovation ecosystem from scratch starting form Design conceptualization, infrastructure setup, building Teams, processes, Operations, partner ecosystem, vendor ecosystem, start-ups, academia, industry bodies and a team of dynamic creative leaders over 9 years, I have encountered some these challenges and demands of the system. Happy to share some of my leanings.

Today, I am truly blessed to have an opportunity to associate and learn from being Chapter President VRARA Bangalore, Chair for Environment -Rotary Bengaluru Harmony and Advisory board Global Health Care Journal in addition to mentoring Start-ups and Academia. Each role exemplifies the need to build ecosystems, think a bigger picture, focus beyond, and offers tremendous collaboration and learning opportunities.?