Unconference 2022

Professor O'Connor and her research colleagues have developed and described a set of roles that companies can use to build their Strategic Innovation group. Innov8rs community members are likely familiar with this framework. In this session we take the next step to discuss the ongoing development of this framework in terms of principles, tools and practices associated with selecting, developing and retaining Strategic Innovation talent, including several exercises to help our HR/Organizational Development colleagues become familiar with the roles.

Gina Colarelli O’Connor is Professor of Innovation Management and Fischer Family Chaired Professor at Babson College. She conducts research and teaches on the topic of Corporate Innovation. Prior to joining Babson in 2018, Professor O’Connor was a faculty member at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management, where she also served as the Director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship, Director of the MBA program, Director of the Radical Innovation Research program, and Associate Dean. Gina has published numerous scholarly papers and co-authored three books for organizational leaders on managing breakthrough innovation in large mature companies. Five of her papers have received best paper of the year awards. The second book, Grabbing Lightning was named one of the top books of the year by Strategy + Business Magazine in 2009 and the third, Beyond the Champion: Institutionalizing Innovation through People, was nominated for the Academy of Management’s Best Book of the Year in 2019. In 2018 Gina was honored to be named a Crawford Fellow by the Product Development & Management Association. She has worked with many mature organizations to help them build Strategic Innovation capabilities, and now is converting her research into Executive Education as the academic leader of Babson’s Corporate Innovation Practice area.