Innovation in Disruptive Environments - Robert F. Bruner, Dean, Darden School of Business

Click here for the full post, 4/17/200.

I spent the past two days in Seattle, meeting with the chief innovation officers (CIOs) of a dozen major companies.  The purpose of the meeting was to share and compare best practices about innovation.  The activities and achievements of these companies were dazzling.  The whole event reinforced a nagging reflection in my own mind regarding a challenge facing management education.

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Collaboration builds the network of innovation.  Much has been written about collaborative innovation within firms.  What emerged in this conference was inventive collaboration of a higher order: collaboration among firms.  Collaborative corporate innovation (producer with customer; producer with supplier; even producer with competitor) was the consistent theme among these CIOs.  And I was also impressed that the CIOs were using this kind of collaboration to assist them in responding to the heightened uncertainty in the current environment.  Much of the share-and-compare dealt with creating promoting, and accelerating collaboration.  I heard enough success stories to persuade me that mastery of collaborative skills can put people and companies at the cutting edge of their fields.