Innovation at NTT: hear from two of our leaders

Technology is constantly improving, innovating and evolving, and at NTT we’re always looking for ways to use it to improve our clients’ projects, enhance their operations and streamline their business processes.

Quite simply, innovation is the beating heart of everything we do. We’re driven by the constant pursuit of giving customers exactly what they’re searching for, and lots of the time, it’s before they even know it’s what they need!

Here are NTT leaders Rika and Tim’s takes on innovation to inspire you.

Rika Nakazawa, Group Vice President, Connected Industries

Driving and maintaining innovation takes a tremendous amount of energy and patience. Almost by definition, innovating means chartering and pioneering new territory – for people, process and technologies – which takes time, patience and collaboration. Also, innovation can have the allure of 'constant reinvention', so it's important to make sure to stay focused on key pockets of opportunity and pursue how to scale, before pivoting or pursuing new tracks.

Innovation is not a personality trait. It is a combination of a mindset and a process – and it absolutely can be taught. An innovative mindset can be learned through thinking differently about how to address challenges and applying principles of Lean Startup and Agile Development to iterate towards creating solutions.

Tim Wade, Vice President, Advanced Technology Group

There’s a quote from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off that goes "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it." To me, this is the core challenge of innovation, how to keep pace with an ever-moving landscape and constant progression of technology whilst understanding solutions need to move into ‘business as usual’ mode simultaneously as you’re working on the next innovative idea.

I’m part of the New Ventures team at NTT, working on lighthouse projects like the Tour de France, Red Bull Basement and ROBOCEAN to name a few. My role fundamentally revolves around supporting these projects and coming up with innovative ideas and solutions that help them and their clients, so it’s all about attending conferences, monitoring startup news and announcements and keeping my skills up to date.

I think innovation becomes easier the more you do it, as long as you’ve got the tools to do it with of course. It’s kind of like a child with Lego pieces. The more you play with the building blocks, the more creative you become!?