We all have more and more ambitious business goals to work towards. But how do we make sure that we reach these ever higher goals? Most of the time, the answer lies in the mindset, in a mind open to new perspectives and in having access to applied knowledge.

But how do you make sure that your people are mentally prepared and in terms of know-how?
One way is to participate in conferences that will give you new perspectives to see things.

That’s why today we want to present you some take-aways that we extracted from the last 2 conferences organized by us this spring, the Innovation Summit and the Brand Managers Summit.
One of the preferred definitions of innovation in the view of Domenico Ventura, Ex – Global Head Consumer Sensory Innovation – Tobacco Vaporisers BAT and speaker at Innovation Summit 2015 is “Innovation = from idea to profit”. It seems natural in this case that one of the hottest questions in the current business environment is how to become more innovative as an organization, especially in this VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) environment. The answer seems to lie primarily in a strong culture in this direction, and hence the very important role played by HR professionals in this equation.

Therefore, a healthy culture that encourages divergent opinions, diversity of experience and knowledge within teams is an important ingredient in the fusion of productive innovation processes.

Markus Nordberg, Head of Resources Development CERN, told us how stimulating collaboration and competition in a sustainable way and absorbing risks by working in mixed parallel teams are recipes preferred by CERN scientists, given the high degree of uncertainty and investments allocated to research.
All this, together with a great diversity among the researchers involved, allows them to deliver radically innovative technologies and scientific theories.

A culture of innovation is also supported by stimulating creativity.

I learned at the event how many different perspectives you can visualize if you use a thinking method, such as the “6 thinking hats” or “lateral thinking”, methods presented by Nigel Newman, Global Lifetime Master Trainer at the Edward de Bono foundation. Creative thinking doesn’t have to be hard, on the contrary, it just needs to be directed correctly, Nigel told us.

To these is added an agile implementation of the resulting ideas to capitalize and obtain quick feedback, as Rogier van der Heide, Senior Vice President & Chief Design and Marketing Officer Zumtobel Group.

We can also see an increased interest in innovation in Romania, through the ever-increasing investments that companies make in a culture of innovation and dedicated people.

Regarding a culture of innovation, some key questions are:

• What is the degree of heterogenization of the teams in terms of knowledge, ideas, background, etc.?
• How do you encourage collaboration and healthy competition at the team level?
• How do you encourage creative thinking and the generation of new ideas?
• Is there a system to encourage employees to agilely implement new ideas?
• Are there people responsible for innovation within the company?
• Is innovation a priority for the company? What kind of innovation are you pursuing: incremental or “disruptive”?

Another very important aspect discussed at the Brand Managers Summit is the importance of the human side in building a successful brand and business.

Peter Knapp, Global Creative Officer at Landor and speaker of the event declares:

“Very often business decisions are taken in a rational way based on economic and operational factors, but often those small details that influence consumer decisions are impacted. Exactly these decisions can have a very high cost.
A brand is a decision of loyalty and preference.”

How we reach the next level depends on each individual business, but it is our duty to constantly reinvent ourselves in order to deliver even more value to even more customers.