“Creativity at the heart of businesses, a key to success?”
ifa laboratory presented a session at the European Business Summit in Brussels on 23 May A panel discussing creativity in business was created. The question was “Can creativity, if placed at the heart of projects and companies result in innovation with the potential for longer term disruption?”.
These days’ creativity, disruption and innovation are frequently used buzzwords. But what does innovation really mean? And how does this translate into the corporate environment?
This session was not about presenting a final definition of innovation, and certainly not about product or business model innovation. This session aimed to dissect innovation and its various aspects by a case-by-case and company-by-company interpretation of innovation from a people-driven view because what drives innovation are people, process and philosophy.
The panelists, with different backgrounds in so-called “creative” and “non creative” sectors presented the big picture on how their organizations work with, and arrived at innovation, and what was critical to do so. They also dived into the intersectionality with company culture and the best ways to work with creativity and what its place is in achieving innovation.
ifa laboratory contributed with human driven and cross sector perspectives through the artist as the natural expert of creativity.
A couple of key agreements about the innovation process:
- Risk taking (can of course be measured) has to be implemented in the DNA of the company culture.
- People. You work with and for people. People’s relations. People are the basics for all innovation.
- Education. Informal or formal…Knowledge…You have to know your field, team, company, product…in order to innovate.
- Why do you want to innovate? What is driving you? Is it for your image (whose image?) or are there real needs and thought through reasons behind?
Discussants:
Thomas Van Halewyck, CEO and founder BUNDL
Javier Echarri, CEO, EBN Innovation network
Frederique Paccagnella, Director at Excel Careers and Excel Interim
Zeldah Schrama, innovation consultant, Connect Africa
Bartholomeus Henri Van de Velde, change management expert and orchestra director ifa laboratory
