Educating the Missing Link
Helping businesses identify and harness innovation along the entire value chain
B2B | Development Processe
Situation
Four major Danish companies had one thing in common. They lacked the ability to identify and adopt true innovation. Such a handicap could prove disastrous in today’s business climate, making it an issue too critical to ignore.
Approach
To tackle this issue we conducted a corporate ethnography of the companies involved, studying employees across all levels and divisions. What we discovered was that while certainly not lacking ideas or technological innovation, the companies were struggling to effectively collect and target their ideas towards the core business. Instead of joining forces, departments were often times working in opposition to one another. Thus, they needed two things: 1) the kind of employee who could work across business areas and 2) an organizational setup and culture that would enable them to use qualitative input as a catalyst for radical innovation. These kinds of staff members and facilities simply did not exist within the companies, and thus had to be created. But how?
Outcome
Together we developed the concept for a new education program for translating qualitative insights to business impact. Rather than having individual employees attending alone, it was clear that every link of the value chain should attend the education. Impossible as it is, this has been addressed by each of the innovation project-management students having a mentor from elsewhere in their own company and through projects that include numerous internal stakeholders. The education is international, practical and the first of its kind. It is called 180 Academy.
Four major Danish companies had one thing in common. They lacked the ability to identify and adopt true innovation. Such a handicap could prove disastrous in today’s business climate, making it an issue too critical to ignore.
Approach
To tackle this issue we conducted a corporate ethnography of the companies involved, studying employees across all levels and divisions. What we discovered was that while certainly not lacking ideas or technological innovation, the companies were struggling to effectively collect and target their ideas towards the core business. Instead of joining forces, departments were often times working in opposition to one another. Thus, they needed two things: 1) the kind of employee who could work across business areas and 2) an organizational setup and culture that would enable them to use qualitative input as a catalyst for radical innovation. These kinds of staff members and facilities simply did not exist within the companies, and thus had to be created. But how?
Outcome
Together we developed the concept for a new education program for translating qualitative insights to business impact. Rather than having individual employees attending alone, it was clear that every link of the value chain should attend the education. Impossible as it is, this has been addressed by each of the innovation project-management students having a mentor from elsewhere in their own company and through projects that include numerous internal stakeholders. The education is international, practical and the first of its kind. It is called 180 Academy.
