Innovating Innovation with Game Changers, Presented by SAP

The buzz: Red badge! What is “courage” in our innovation culture? Courage is one of the most essential factors in the innovation process.

The buzz: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” (Steve Jobs). If you think Design Thinking (DT) innovation method demands many days or weeks of intense work beyond your high-level managers’ availability, here’s a news flash.

The buzz: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” (Steve Jobs). If you think Design Thinking (DT) innovation method demands many days or weeks of intense work beyond your high-level managers’ availability, here’s a news flash. Short-cycle DT, developed in a PhD study by SAP and Aalborg University, is a logical, time-efficient DT derivation suited to leaders who can devote just one or two days. This new problem-solving method can benefit your business beyond just R&D and innovation programs. The experts speak. Prof. Charles Møller: “…it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” (Lewis Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass). Arkin Efeoglu, SAP: “Everyone has a plan ‘til they get punched in the mouth” (Mike Tyson). Alejandro Pifarré, SAP Consulting: “Show me the money!” (Jerry Maguire, 1996 film). Join us for Short-Cycle Design Thinking: Perfect for Top Managers.

The buzz: “Change before you have to” -Jack Welch. A disruptive innovation model creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products and alliances -C.

The buzz: “Change before you have to” -Jack Welch. A disruptive innovation model creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products and alliances -C. Christensen. The model tends to be produced by outsiders and entrepreneurs, because enterprises need resources for profitable, competitive sustaining innovations. But they still need to change. The experts speak. Prof. Rajeev Srinivasan: “The reason why it is so difficult for existing firms to capitalize on disruptive innovations…their processes and their business model that make them good at the existing business actually make them bad at competing for the disruption.” -Clayton Christensen Suraj Sudhi, SAP: “Only the paranoid survives” -Andy Grov. Lakshman Pachineela Seshadri, SAP Consulting: “When the game gets tough, change the game” -Zhenya Lindgardt. Join us for New Disruptive Business Models: Changing the Enterprise Role.

The buzz: 'Surround yourself with partners who are better than you are' -D. Ogilvy.

The buzz: 'Surround yourself with partners who are better than you are' -D. Ogilvy. Is your company treating your ecosystem as vendors to squeeze and channels to push, not as agile partners to co-innovate with you? Reality check: Small and medium organizations in your ecosystem can bring a different kind of value to innovation than you get from start-ups and big companies. What are the challenges and opportunities of expanding your innovation capabilities to your partner network? The experts speak. Professor Wim Vanhaverbeke, Hasselt University: 'The success of electric cars hinges on the successful alignment of the entire electric-car ecosystem. Uncoordinated investment in the individual pieces is…failure' -Ron Adner. Charles Bennett, SAP: 'I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter' -Blaise Pascal. Alejandro Pifarré, SAP:'All of us are smarter than any of us' -Tim Brown. Join us for Partnering-Up: Innovating through Your Ecosystem.

The buzz: “Change before you have to.” -J. Welch B2B sales experts, managers and pundits typically credit their organization's success to individual sellers' skill sets.

The buzz: “Change before you have to.” -J. Welch B2B sales experts, managers and pundits typically credit their organization's success to individual sellers' skill sets. Not anymore! According to RAIN Group’s 2012 study of top-performing sellers, an innovation-based sales strategy is what helps increase win rates, drive long-term customer loyalty, build collaborative buyer-seller relationships. Does your company know this? The experts speak.Ago Cluytens, RAIN Group: “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor” -Thoreau. Tony Hughes, Author: “Information causes people to think but emotion causes them to act” -Z. Ziglar. Cian Mcloughlin, Trinity Perspectives: “70 percent of buying decisions are based on how customers feel they are being treated” -S. Sinek. Shawn Robertson, SAP: “You can't win in the NCAA without great athletes, but you can lose with them” -L. Holtz. Join us for B2B Sales Winners: Role of Innovation.

The buzz: You say to-ma-to, I say to-mah-to. Confused about intrapreneurship vs entrepreneurship? We’ll set the record straight. The first behaves like the second while employed in a large organization. Is this a good thing? Yes.

The buzz: You say to-ma-to, I say to-mah-to. Confused about intrapreneurship vs entrepreneurship? We’ll set the record straight. The first behaves like the second while employed in a large organization. Is this a good thing? Yes. Smart enterprises are implementing people-centric Intrapreneurship approaches that integrate entrepreneur-style risk-taking, motivational techniques and rewards to develop radical innovations in-house. How can your organization adopt their best practices? The experts speak. Prof. Rajeev Srinivasan: “…when we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles happen” -Ralph Waldo Emerson. Suraj Sudhi, SAP: “Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory” -Fortune cookie. Lakshman 'Lucky' Pachineela Seshadri, SAP Consulting: “Never before has there been such a push for employees to take ownership of their own corner of a company” -Alyson Krueger, Fast Company-. Join us for The Intrapreneurship Journey: Highs and Lows.

The buzz: Paradox? Despite studies showing a positive correlation between diversity and innovation, the Silicon Valley 'cradle of tech innovation' is dominated by a 'brogrammer' culture where 20-something 'white guys work in a testosterone-fueled environment to create the next tech revolution,' says SAP's Janaki Kumar. This sends a contradictory message to leaders that diversity, while good in theory, is not worth investing in. Learn why diversity by design is worth building and nurturing in your organization – and how to achieve it. The experts speak. Janaki Kumar, SAP: 'Diversity is the art of thinking independently, together' Malcolm Forbes. Emi Kolawole, Stanford d.school: '…We suffer more often in imagination than in reality' Seneca. Brandon Schauer, Adaptive Path: 'When people say that diversity is important, I like to say instead, ‘No, it isn’t important. It’s essential to increase the quality of discourse' John Maeda. Join us for Smart Innovation Diversity by Design.

The buzz: En garde! The most successful companies anticipate—and often invent—the future before their established competitors do.

The buzz: En garde! The most successful companies anticipate—and often invent—the future before their established competitors do. The secret weapon of Fortune 500s? They conduct competitive “war gaming” exercises to generate defensive strategies as well as innovative offensive growth strategies that proactively anticipate new services, products, business models. How can you harness this creative tool for your competitive advantage? The experts speak. Bryan W. Mattimore, Growth Engine Company: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete” (R. Buckminster Fuller). Christopher Bishop, improvising careers: “The future has already arrived. It’s just not widely distributed yet” (William Gibson). Michel Sérié, InnoLifters: “There are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns” (Donald Rumsfeld). Join us for Disruptive War Gaming: A Critical Tool for Today’s Innovators.

The buzz: Getting fresh. Corporations are increasingly seeking to engage entrepreneurs, both from within and outside the organization, by launching initiatives for intrapreneurship, innovation accelerators, incubators and start-up focus programs.

The buzz: Getting fresh. Corporations are increasingly seeking to engage entrepreneurs, both from within and outside the organization, by launching initiatives for intrapreneurship, innovation accelerators, incubators and start-up focus programs. While the common purpose of these efforts is to create viable, sustainable new business opportunities, the models of engagement, the challenges and the opportunities vary greatly. What will work best for your company? The experts speak. Hans Balmaekers, Intrapreneurship Conference: “An organization's ability to learn, and translate insights into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage” (Brant Cooper). Manju Bansal, SAP Startup Focus Program: “When all is said and done, there is more said than done” (Aesop). Tonja Erismann, SAP: “Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual” (Natalie Clifford Barney). Join us for Power to the People: Corporates Engaging Entrepreneurs Inside and Outside.

The buzz: Fun! Design Thinking is based on the concept of deriving the needs of your users, then designing a solution to meet those needs.

The buzz: Fun! Design Thinking is based on the concept of deriving the needs of your users, then designing a solution to meet those needs. But how will you engage your Design Thinking participants to boost their creativity, and then engage your target audience to actually use your new solution? Gamification! It teaches us different user engagement styles, while Design Thinking tells us which styles will fit a particular user. How to team-up Gamification and Design Thinking to generate successful innovative solutions? The experts speak. Mario Herger, Enterprise Garage Consultancy: “People are stupid. In school they learn plutimication, but coming up with something funny, that's not what they learn” (Pippi Longstocking). Joerg Niesenhaus, Centigrade: “Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view” (Obi-Wan Kenobi). Gilles Atlan, SAP: “If an expert says it can’t be done, get another expert.” (David Ben-Gurion) Join us for Design Thinking Engagement: Gamify!

The buzz: Who’s driving your bus? Be it Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0, innovation in general, or simply ensuring your company’s sustainable growth, your networking approach outside your organization must become your company’s inside DNA.