Why is innovation so difficult?

This is one of the questions we will explore during this year’s edition of Audiovisual Days, ?organized by Lindholmen Science Park, one of our more successful R&D clusters in Sweden.

The last edition, in 2021, was an all online story. Although eminently moderated by @emanuelkarlsten, nothing can compare meeting in person if you ask me, so I am truly looking forward to tomorrow's conversations.

So what is the answer to that million dollar question? On the train to Gothenburg, I had ample time lingering on it and it triggered a throwback. When I started out in the news media, further back than I care to remember, it was a thriving industry. ?To the employees it offered status (how about reporters enjoying helicopter rides to assignments or foreign correspondents lodged in grand apartments on prestigious addresses in the world's metropoles?).? To the owners: handsome profit margins.

With the Internet, the old business model - bundling content, locking it into print and selling it to subscribers - was broken. ?As the users moved to digital channels, the news media did not only lose the subscription revenue stream, it also lost the ads. At the time approximately half of the total turnover. First the classifieds and - with time - then display.

??Since I was part of different managements during this era, I can assure you: innovation was not something nice-to-have. It was a must.??

In my last operative role in the news, as editor-in-chief of regional media house Norran in Skellefte? kommun, we managed to create something at the time truly innovative: an open news-desk, co-creating the content with the users. Our eEditor preceded Open Guardian with years, and was an early version of todays' chats with the web/mobile editors at Aftonbladet.

After returning to Stockholm, I was offered the position as CEO of ICT and design research institute RISE Research Institutes of Sweden Interactive, focused on interaction design and groundbreaking user experiences. Leading 60+ researchers, engineers and developers dedicated to innovation. And successful at it too. Those +5 years gave me fascinating insights into design thinking and the practice of innovation. Thank you, Ambra Trotto, Peter Ljungstrand, Cecilia Katzeff and all other amazing colleagues at Interactive Institute.

So what is the answer to the question why innovation is so difficult, then?

??Tomorrow, I am participating in two panels: one focused on innovative initiatives within Swedish film & tv, together with Film & TV Lindholmen’s Gunnar Eriksson, Bjarke Pedersen, BoostHBG and Paul Blomgren, Gothenburg Film Studios - the other about future challenges, with Karin B?ckmark, head of podcasts Nordics, Spotify, Ebba Bonde, head of visual, Svenska Dagbladet and Klaus Lyngeled, founder of award-winning computer games creators MoonHood.??

Together with these brilliant minds, we will explore questions on why and how, but I can say this much already? (spoiler alert!):??The film industry, both in Sweden and internationally, have many similar traits with the news media industry of the 00’s.? And I would argue that some of these below listed reasons can explain the challenge.

1. Fear. Fear of losing something valuable. Fear of doing something new that won't work out. Fear of peer reactions. And/or fear of bankruptcy.?

2. Fat cat syndrome. When you are doing really well - or merely ok - in the old business model, there are few incentives to change.?

3. Inexistent or weak innovation management competence. If you have never led sustained innovation efforts, you might lack the basic tools, leadership, organizational structure or even have counter-productive incentives.

4. Lack of indepth user understanding. Leading to a non-attractive value-proposition. Or at least not attractive enough to beat the competition.

?Media in general, and audiovisual media in particular, are fast-moving businesses, supposed to cater for the needs of wider target audiences. In the shift from one-size-fit-all to data-driven, individually adapted content, enhancing the innovative capacity of your organization can mean the difference between winning or waning.

I am happy to be part of the European innovation eco-system as member of the Supervisory Board of EIT - European Institute of Innovation and Technology and its' Culture & Creativity KIC. The knowledge and innovation communities strive to support and stimulate innovation - and the audiovisual industry is one of the focus areas in the plans for the years to come. So keep an eye on the web page for relevant calls.

More on this tomorrow. If you are not already in the Visual Arena, zoom in here!

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