"I lost count of questions answered, insights shared and frameworks taught..."

We've made it to the end. In 100+ sessions, with 550+ innovators from 50+ countries, we've explored a wide variety of topics relevant at this moment, and addressed the many challenges -old and new- we're facing leading innovation in large organizations. Here's a glimpse of what's been covered in the final week of expert sessions.

Tracking and Measuring Innovation for Better Decision Making

If your internal innovation process is maturing, you will understand the need to start making decisions based on data rather than gut feeling or pretty pitches. Making innovation manageable, measurable and visible for everyone.

How do we set up a system for data-driven decision making, which is crucial for innovation accounting? Esther Gons, Managing Partner at NEXT.Amsterdam and co-author of The Corporate Startup shared some basic principles in this snippet.

LEAP: Thriving After a Crisis

IMD Professor Howard Yu shared how we're seeing now that some companies haven't done enough to prepare for disruption, versus others who have leaped ahead of time and moved to the next knowledge discipline, away from the traditional core competencies.

In fact, it is now possible to calcucate with public data how well companies prepare for the future, as Howard explains in this snippet.

Innovation Leadership Habits

I know how to lead, why is leading an innovation project so much harder? How can I get my team to deal with uncertainty better?

The difference between a good and a bad innovation leader is very nuanced, yet these nuances can have a big impact on whether or not their teams are able to deliver successfully on a project- argued Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor at Kromatic. He suggested greatness comes from clarity and capability, as explained in this snippet.

How Bayer Scaled up Lean Experimentation For New Innovations

Bayer created a 1B€ innovation portfolio in the last 4 years. Narjeet Soni, Product Strategist and CEO at Lean Apps, and Julia Hitzbleck, Social Innovation Venture Design at Bayer, discussed why Bayer started intrapreneur programw, what hurdles the innovation team faced on the way, how Bayer set up experimentation at scale within innovation, and finally how are they now building a culture of experimentation for the whole company.

In this snippet, Julia shared how they tackled the challenge of collaborating across silos.

How To Identify and Build the Right Capabilities for a 90-day Innovation System

Peter Glasheen and AJ Kennedy, Australia MD / Director, Innovation Management & Ideation Specialist at Innovation 360, shared their framework to identify and build the right capabilities for a minimal viable innovation system, and what is needed to build up your ability to deliver on an aligned aspiration for innovation.

Governance Best Practices for Effective Innovation Management – Re-balancing Powers

One cannot implement an innovation management process and system without clear, unambiguous governance. That is often a challenge.

Huub Rutten, VP Research & Application Development at Sopheon, presented new governance models that help to have streamlined and transparent decision making structures, so that companies can focus on getting great products to the market in time, in a streamlined connection of Strategy and Shop Floor Execution, with speed and adaptivity.

One of the main struggles for many corporate innovators at this moment, is balancing the need for short term solutions to immediate problems, with the importance for long term focus to stay competitive. Huub shared these practical decision-making frameworks.

Collaborative Innovation: Real, Efficient and Impactful

Working with startups - going alone or joining forces with other companies in a consortium?

In his session Manuel Tanger, Co-Founder & Head of Open Innovation at Beta-i, suggested a consortium might be best to start with. Once you've done a few consortium programs, you're ready to run a program on your own, focusing at your own challenges.

Overcoming the Execution Gap – A 3 Step Framework to Create an Intrapreneurship Movement Inside Your Organization

One of the greatest obstacles to innovation that organizations encounter regardless of their size or industry is in expanding their capacity to execute – whether it’s experimentation, piloting, or ultimately integrating successful pilots into operations. The most effective and scalable strategy to bridge this gap is creating an environment that supports front line intrapreneurship by enabling staff to test, validate, and prototype new concepts.

In this snippet, Coby Skonord, Co-Founder & CEO at IdeaWake, shared he still sees a huge gap between how innovation teams get to their innovation goals and how they communicate the steps to get there to leadership.

Platform Strategy: The Critical Enabler for Success in the Digital Economy

Platforms are the most powerful business models on the planet, operated by the world’s most valuable companies and 70% of all Unicorn startups. Highly suited to our hyperconnected world, platform-enabled businesses have continued to grow rapidly during the Covid crisis while other business models have come under increased pressure.

McKinsey forecasts that 30% of all global economic activity ($60 trillion) will be mediated by platforms within new digital ecosystems by 2025. Yet less than 2% of corporates have effective platform strategies today.

Simon Torrance, Senior advisor and Author of How to Win in the Digital Economy With Platforms, Ventures and Entrepreneurs, shared how can traditional companies create or improve platform strategies, in ways that positively impact the fundamental economics of their business as per this snippet.