Innovation pros develop recommendations for firms and authorities
Innovation is a major development lever for a company and for a country. This is especially true in Belgium, where companies' competitive advantages are based mainly on added value, and innovation is the major source of new revenue.
Interdisciplinary roundtable
In an effort to create innovative content by combining Roland Berger insights with fresh ideas from external experts, our Brussels office recently convened a roundtable of top Belgian professionals in innovation.
On April 11, the views of innovation practitioners were confronted with those from consulting and academia: Dr. Ludo Lauwers, Senior Vice-President of Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Herbert Vanhove, Senior Vice President Product Management at Telenet, represented companies where innovation is a top priority. Professor Walter Van Dyck from Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School provided the academic angle and Senior Partner Eric Baart from Roland Berger shared his consulting experience.
From left to right: Eric Baart, Herbert Vanhove, Walter Van Dyck, Ludo Lauwers
Going against the intellectual property dogma
The lively exchange resulted in eight recommendations for successful innovation. Of those eight recommendations, "Break with the dogma of intellectual property" was perhaps the most surprising one. Although Janssen Pharmaceutical operates in a context where intellectual property (IP) is critical, Lauwers claimed that "a new model must emerge, [and] we need to break away from the dogma of intellectual property", because it slows down development and growth. However, the panelists agreed that this was easier said than done, with investors still seeming to be tied to assets and formal guarantees.
Vision and incremental innovation
Two other recommendations of the group, "Innovate with a vision" and "Identify unmet needs", centered on the way in which companies arrive at innovations. Given the range of possibilities to innovate, it is critical to have a guiding vision, insisted Professor Van Dyck. Within this framework, it is critical to identify unmet needs: Breakthrough innovations are crucial for creating new sources of revenue, but incremental innovation must not be neglected, Vanhove said.
Innovation is a people business
The group also agreed that people at all tiers of a company's hierarchy are the backbone of innovation. The experts concurred that "Innovation is a question of culture and leadership" and that it is necessary to "Innovate with the entire organization".
Janssen Pharmaceuticals, for example, organizes three to four boot camps each year to investigate new ideas and develop business plans for each of them. Telenet also makes efforts "to open innovation and not to limit it to some happy few," said Vanhove. He went on to explain that at his company, innovation budgets can be granted by managers two levels below the executive committee.
Managing failure
Another important aspect of innovation is learning to manage failures. According to Roland Berger Partner Eric Baart, "It's okay to fail as long as it's still early in the process." Vanhove agreed: "The possibility of failure is part of the deal," he said, adding that taking precautions against failure was key; for example, by working on several projects at the same time.
Innovation, however, does not only come from within a company, but is bred from external sources as well. Lauwers said that Janssen Pharmaceutical has specialists in each of its priority therapy domains, for instance, who look for ideas developed in other sectors. Their task is to build bridges and to find and filter opportunities. Combining internal and external innovation requires "trust and mutual understanding, to overcome the differences between domains and sectors," Lauwers added.
Authorities need to be more active
All participants called upon the Belgian authorities to play a more prominent role in stimulating innovation. They should be particularly supportive in the early stages of a project, when access to capital is difficult. In Belgium, a major challenge is supporting SMEs, as these companies often lack the financial means and the structures to innovate. Supporting the development of ecosystems is a powerful tool, and larger corporations can also play a role by providing collaborative platforms.
