The herculean task of integrating the impossible; in rules, regulations, attempting to reduce centuries of proud independence, individual cultures to be boiled down into the Super-European one. For me, it just can’t work.

I had an incredible 15 years living in Asia and came back to Europe some years ago and noticed a real difference, in many ways it has simply gotten worse, not better. Europe has been intent on institution building, forging an EU out of all the different countries that make up the European Union. In this “obsession” it has become very inward focused, the different leaders of the individual countries are battling to save their turf, yet the world continues to turn on different axes, that Europe seems not to have grasped.

This institutional building has forgotten the people-related building where aspiration, identification, inclusion makes the transformation happen or not. The EU has forgotten to translate all its work into true meaning for the people, believing in a worthwhile future. In Asia, you feel vibrancy, energy, opportunism, dynamism, that chance to get “part of the action”, here in Europe you sense a drifting, a separation, and growing fragmentation.

I certainly feel Europe is backward-facing, it is busy protecting individuals and (self-serving) countries focusing on grabbing their piece of the pie. They have such tension within the very institutions themselves, hanging on to noble causes with 20th values of out-of-date concepts. They at the European level are blocking mergers to build European champions, fining those that challenge the European status because they have different models of operating.

I continue to feel Europe is isolating itself in much of what it does, failing to really grasp the imperatives of real change needed in a connected world, to effectively compete. Yet we see growing polarization as people can’t see the future as the European leadership itself, bickers and argues. It is not a pretty picture of the future when you look at Europe.

I have read recent reports from the WEF, McKinsey, and Deliottes all coming to the defense of Europe.

They are defending, perhaps in the hope, something will finally change. Of course, the Brits are to blame! They want to leave the EU party and go their own ways. Regretfully that has been Shambolic to witness, a further symptom of our present-day Europe. For a nation that has a lot to offer, the UK process of exit has been agony to watch what is happening.

Yet in that separation, as hard as it comes, it might offer them the independence and some re-emergence of reconnecting to the world in their own ways of seeing things. You can re-ignite that sense of freedom, independence, and spirit of adventure if it can be seized. The United Kingdom is most probably better equipped than all other European countries to accelerate a digital future. What are Europeans loss, is the UK’s gain, in being unshackled from others, not just lagging behind in digital technology and innovation but many seemingly blocking progress, dragging others down to their level, all for the “collective union”.

Europe offers incredible history, the same as Asia.

The history is there, waiting for you to learn lessons, to draw insights. The difference is it is easy to look back, with the benefit of hindsight but when you are caught up on something as transforming as we are presently experiencing, a digital transforming world, you are just that, caught up. How do the Europeans understand they need to change, to understand digitally embracing might give them a better chance than holding onto old ways?

We are in a globalization revolution, one where the world continues to connect, to increasingly rely on the internet, to seize opportunities to transform business, form different society values and where the balance of power will eventually reside in those that dominate in technology dominance. At the moment Europe is so out of the race it begins to get frightening for those situated here.

The failure to embrace change happens universally. Yet in Europe we fail to grab change in ways that can transform, we settle for status quo unless it is forced by crisis.

Let me take my area of focus – Innovation and Digital Technology.

Europe is no different to many, they are enthralled by technology, they are clearly fixated on implementing all technology. Rightly so as there is a massive amount of implementing to do. Yet technology enablement needs the right people to understand it and the right organizational structures to capitalize on it. Europe seems to lag, some still call it an innovation powerhouse but they lose me just on that point alone, they have stopped taking risk.

Eight of the top innovation countries of the world are within Europe surprisingly (source the Global Innovation Index) with Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom being in the top five globally. Now how that is measured might be stacked again on historic measurements (Universities, patents) but does not address the phenomena of Digital Technology weighting or digital communications that will transform innovation and the countries that make deep investments in this. Innovation and Digital Technology are in the future so intertwined.

To emerge out as winners in a connected world, centred on digital, seeking new business models, experimenting, exploring and taking risk is essential. It is a world full of speed and opportunitiy. The EU seems the oppositie, holding (desperately) on to stop others from the disrupting of (their) industries, not wanting to redefine business or society.

This approach means you might be hanging on to a notion of being very innovative, in those selected measures, yet set in a previous time but in reality, you will face a very different future as you hold onto mistaken, outdated approaches.

We are caught in the wrong measures in a connected world, connecting ideas, value points, supply chains that are global, that crosses borders and challenges the very notion of national states, to measure progress. Silo’s do not just exist in ortganizations they exist in measuring one nation against the other on “selected” criteria that can be measured. Today it is the intangibles that give the value not the tangibles.

Europe is trapped in legacy.

They suffer high costs, aging workforces, very high social costs in most of their current ecosystems, designed for the 20th century. The rapid shifts towards the new triggers of innovation based on the underlying technology of AI, Blockchain, cloud, and cognitive computing, data analytics and the prevalence of IoT, are all changing innovation dramatically.

Deloitte had a report or survey that came out on 29th January 2019 called “Innovation in Europe“. It offers some excellent insights on the state of innovation but I loved their Executive Summary opening:

In many ways this sums Europe up. The issue what can be done about it?

Deloitte asked the question “what triggers innovation in your company?”

This list is universal in its challenges and recognition. Europe today is trapped in not fully recognizing and embracing technology, they do lack the “innovation dynamism effect” but they do recognize the triggers they need to respond too.

My view is they have not really tackled these from an innovation solution perspective, they just know them. The World Economic Forum in a report called Innovate Europe: Competing for Global Innovation Leadership rightly point the point “that in Europe they still have not identified Europe’s innovation model to compete with other pioneering regions“.

The problem in Europe is we are not facing up to Six of the Nine shown above. This is why I’m in the bleak camp. We know them but we are not resolving them

The three “taken care of” are our focus on cost efficiency, the fixation in the change in regulations and government incentives. As those three are imposed at levels so disconnected from the competitive forces at work globally, they are focused on, drawing away the forces needed to really tackle the more important value creating ones on this list.

The other six are where our troubles begin in Europe.

We focus on internal markets in Europe and mostly fail to make a more global connection. We know where we need to go but here in Europe can’t seem to translate these into the winning business models that are needed.

There is plenty of counter-arguments with this Deloitte report, they claim many assessments of Europe’s present position are excessively bleak. I sadly am still in the “bleak” camp but will come out and fight for the possibilities, as I believe there is a real future, if only we really can leapfrog and see many of the connecting points needed for this future.

My view is Europe will not progress and really compete without something radically happening.

The World Economic Forum in a report called “Innovate Europe: Competing for Global Innovation Leadership“ rightly point the point “that in Europe they still have not identified Europe’s innovation model to compete with other pioneering regions”. They are not in Europe overcoming the challenges,  as we continue to see Europe remains highly fragmented, firstly to complete the single market but with so much uneven investment in Innovation and digital solutions, it will remain a real laggard unless something changes.

I, for one, do not think any completing of a single market as being pursued in Brussels will make Europe competitive. The task is far too complex and counter-intuitive to Europe’s history.

What Deloitte’s Executive summary points out that there is still hope for Europe:

They (Deloitte) did present some positive thinking from their survey of 760 European companies in 16 European countries,. across 20 major business fields. These were top line and mostly give some hope but these need a very different “collective” whole and a greater dedicated push. Unfortuneatlythe issues have been identified but are they being worked upon, with the energy and force they should be?

• Innovation is a strategic priority – 88 percent want to increase budgets over the next two years.
• Technology is the main trigger for innovation in Europe. Ninety-two percent of businesses across Europe see advances in new technologies as the primary trigger behind innovation with new consumer expectations (86 percent) as the second most important.
•  Advanced technologies are not expected to destroy jobs.  Most companies (41 percent) expect full-time headcount to increase, while 29 percent expect it to remain the same
• Investment in data analytics and cloud computing is already advanced. Investments in data analytics (69 percent) and cloud computing (62 percent) are already well advanced, with another 26 percent of firms expecting to invest in data analytics in the next two years, and 29 percent in cloud computing. Artificial intelligence (AI) (43 percent), augmented and virtual reality (38 percent) and robotic process automation (RPA) (36 percent) will also be areas of focus over the next two years.
• Ecosystem innovation is not fully embraced by European companies. European companies do not seem to embrace the role of clusters and networks in dynamic innovation. The potential for collaboration with external partners to share knowledge, stay abreast of developments, expand market reach and provide complementary expertise appears underutilized
•  The biggest hurdles to innovation are cultural – and resistance to change is high. Cultural resistance is identified as the main obstacle to fostering innovation by 32 percent of companies. In addition, data security is seen as inhibiting data-driven innovation (30 percent).

So Deloitte’s summaries their report with the following – Innovation is far from dead in Europe.

There is no denying that Europe is feeling competitive pressure. European companies face the need to undertake substantial investment in digital infrastructure. They conclude the continent is neither poorly positioned nor lacks confidence in its ability to compete.

Do I see it differently?

There are a lot of clues within the Deloitte report that makes me feel Europe is missing the future as they are stuck in the traditional ways to innovate. Take a look at this visual from the Deloitte report. What is wrong and missing?

So at first glance, you think well these types of innovation being pursued is not wrong……..but they are.

They are primarily islands of pursuit. The value in the model is not in their individual pursuit it is finding new business models of growth by investing in as many combinations as possible, to explore and build innovation around. Innovation today is about multiples of combinations, not one rigid innovation approaches. It is not one business model it is about “multiple pursuits”.

We need flexibility, agility, rapid reaction and (real-time) understanding to deliver back what is needed in quicker ways, at a pace and intensity and capable of scaling when the market reacts in positive ways I still feel we focus on discreet pockets of innovation and never seek out ways to combine them in radical ways.

Let’s take the “classic” Doblin ten types of innovation. It is not the pursuit of one, the combination of two or three, it is seeking out innovation across all ten simultaneously and in constant making multiple combinations to extend your business model and options.

We MUST leverage all our assets, not just within one company but across an ecosystem of partners. Europe is very reluctant to embrace more collaborative partnerships, use platforms to exchange upon and build ecosystems to capture and leverage all the knowledge out there.

We need to really push open innovation through the use of this digital technology we have at our disposal. We need to learn how platforms will work for each of us, we need to understand ecosystems principles and its management, we need to work through open and collaborate in imaginative ways.

Then there is the notion of cross-sector innovation, one that can be realized through digital collaborations. Where is the engagement with start-ups, with Universities, these are still grossly undervalued and utilized in Europe Venturing is a powerful catalyst, not just for the start-up but for the large organizations yet Europe struggles to be offering new capital, it is constantly supporting old capital, why? We continue to lag other parts of the world in funding innovation as we are locked into a model of compromise to satisfy the uneven state of innovation development. Europe is channeling its capital to support those who are lagging, as against accelerating those that can seize the opportunity.

In Europe, we are around 50% of the US on digital ICT. We are struggling to embrace Big Data, we are piloting Robotics mostly, we are exploring far more tentatively than other regions of the world advanced neuronal machine learning, the effective use of AI tools, exploring algorithms and pushing outsmart workflows, cognitive agents, language processing (In Europe please).

Lastly here, Europe is still caught up in responding, as it is in a lagging position. We mimic competition or crave for it but cannot find that necessary appetite to understand how to compete in new digital and business models. Europe holds much back due to its regulations, its propensity to interfere or impose for the good of the greater community. Something really has to change. Where are those innovation sandboxes for experimentation, for supporting their evolution? So much gets caught up in internal fights and squabbles, in regulation or oversight.

We lack a vision in Europe that gives belief yet “we” have it in us.

The Brits have said “enough” and even as they leave the party in the same way as they entered it, reluctant and full of questioning, they might actually seize this European void on Innovation and Digital as they are chasing and investing. Maybe not in the same levels as China or the United States. Why? Well, the share of digitization potential realized by all countries is all to play for. The digitalization share in the US is 18%, the UK 17%, and Europe as a block 12%. So as the Brits seem set to leave, the Europeans have lost one of the leading powerhouses of innovation and digitalization.

Out of the top four in Europe, two seem to be at logger’s heads with the powers in Brussels, Switzerland and the UK. Others will follow unless Europe can find there own distinctive innovation model, based on digital technology enablers and solve so many of the internal problems bedeviling Europe.

The biggest challenge is getting identification and belief back into the people of Europe. Innovation for one, stands no chance within belief. All I hope is it does but on many days I am not optimistic. let’s say just perhaps hopeful.

Europe has its strengths, we need to learn to accelerate not pull back. We need to grasp the very essence of innovation, to explore and exploit experiments and breaking opportunities and bring back that sense of vibrancy, embracing the global forces at work to shape them, not constantly be defensive, adapting to outside influences.

The post Defending Europe, including the Brits, on innovation first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

The post Living in a globally connected world of Innovation first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

Jean-Claude Junker has become the new president of the European Commission and along with his new Commission team has been setting out their priorities for regaining momentum for Europe.

I was re-reading Mr Junker’s policy agenda based on “Jobs, Growth, Fairness and Democratic Change” and you realise not just the complexity and challenge all this entails, bringing 28 countries along still, it seems, a pathway that still talks “a single union.”

It prompted this post.

My interest here relates clearly to innovation, it touches everything but for it to be achieved and delivered as a new promise, it needs the necessary conditions.

I’m been looking for critical aspects that will signal a healthy or difficult road ahead for Europe, sensing the specific change projects that do give us the new opportunities for growth and jobs, and either a vibrant or stagnated period ahead of us.

Three policy intents stand out as high in innovation possibilities.

Mr Junker sets out his ten policy areas and expects to be judged on the results from achieving progress towards these. Let’s quickly highlight these ten policy thrusts:

Firstly, and I think the overriding need for Europe is to remain competitive, does come from the correct identification of “a Connected Digital Single Market”, then constructing a “Resilient Energy Union” and thirdly “Strengthen the Industrial Base.”

These three policy directions offer real innovation promise. These are where there is a significant innovation, jobs and growth but still lacking, in my opinion, a set of cohesive social directives that we can gather around that make us see why. We are seemingly focusing on the edges and not striking at the ‘heart’ of social issues that Europe needs to address.

Other policy intents outlined

There are statements of “a deeper and fairer internal market”, the wish to “converge economic, fiscal and labour market policies”, the quest for a “balanced free trade agreement with the U.S” and a “Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy” but these have a more economic ring to them but lack substantive outcomes.

Mr Junker raises the political and socially political issues of “Justice and Fundamental Rights”, a wish to have a “New Policy on Migration” but they only play at the edges, important ones without doubt but skirt the social tensions that ‘simmer away’ within Europe.

Are we connecting into or still ignoring the underlying social tensions?
I think when you face the lack of growth; of getting millions of people back into jobs and having “trust in the European project is at a historical low” in Mr Junkers words, I’m not sure we have made the new start for Europe that Mr Junker wants.

He wants to “rebuild bridges” to restore European citizen’s confidence yet he provides in his words “an ambitious Jobs, Growth and Investment Package” of an extra Euro 300 billion into the real economy over the next three years, is that really enough to ‘kick start’ the economies across Europe? This sum might send a signal but it lacks real resolve and boldness.

Much of Mr Junker’s presidency will be determined by his ability to deliver on this. It is going to be a hard fight to find the money as it needs to be added to the existing budgets or he is forced to find this within the existing budgets. That will be determined by the 28 member states and then by the European parliament.

Is this enough, of course not if it stands alone to kick start the economies, but it is a serious amount of money to find at difficult times. As this request has been wrapped up as “additional” I would feel it is going to be tough to achieve, when it does seem to come from a part of Mr Junker’s opening statement in the European Parliament, of “we need smarter investment, more focus, less regulation and more flexibility when it comes to the use of these public funds”. He might find the answer back is “well find it then in what you have.”

Approval of any additional funds opens the door to considerable re-jockeying of hard-won positions already established. All of this will add further to the current ‘disillusionment’ within the EU system if this becomes a public wrangle between the 28 member states. I feel it will be ‘pinched’ from current budgets and that becomes a worry or is simply re-crafted away from general budgets into specifics.

The Horizon 2020 budget might be vulnerable

This is the innovation package of Euro 80 billion to push Industrial leadership (Euro 17 b), Excellence in Science (Euro 24.4 b) and Social Challenges (Euro 29.7b) as the big three pillars. Let’s hope this gets ring-fenced and the call for injecting Euro 300b into the economy over the next three years is on top, not shifting the lines of the budget, as it becomes a considerable infusion, much-needed in this current economic horizon.

The critical messages and debate we need to discuss in Europe lies here

Again in Mr Junker’s own words “Europe is finding it is often ill-prepared for the global challenges ahead, be it with regard to the digital age, the race for innovation and skills, the scarcity of natural resources, the safely of our food, the cost of energy, the impact of climate change, the ageing of our population, or the pain and poverty at Europe’s external borders”

In Mr Junker’s call he believes any additional investment should be directed towards “infrastructure, notably broadband and energy networks, as well as transport infrastructure in industrial centres; education, research and innovation; and in renewable energy”

The intent is to get the “younger generation back to work in decent jobs” with this investment providing for “new, sustainable and job-creating projects that help restore Europe’s competitiveness”

The problem with this is we are not equipping much of the younger generation with the skills for the future jobs, we are locking them into the past and denying them the chance to be exposed to these rapidly changing skills that the industry is arguing are needed.

Here is one real, difficult challenge that will continue to drain away future competitiveness unless it is adequately addressed.

So a new start in Europe or are we seeing just an extension of the existing?

I sense the extending of the existing, I’m not sure I see crafting of a new vision, a new direction, we are still locked into the “decades of European integration” on being the continued, ongoing focus on not to be undone at any price.

I certainly don’t want a radical ‘undoing’ but Mr Junkers “rebuild bridges” I feel is directed at the 28 country entities and not at, and for, the European citizenry. We are caught up in too much national politics and jostling in the European Union and that will eventually ‘come home to roost’

So I’m not sure I buy the new approach, the “New start for Europe.”  I think the incoming commission and Mr Junker might have missed a historical moment for Europe, setting their sights on billion-euro spending and not really making that leap into trillion-euro opportunities – articulating the bigger picture.

There is a real need for an overarching ‘European Ambition’, we  lack a bold new vision.

We still lack real economic enabling ‘ambition’. It is not wrapped up in pursuit of the Union of Countries, as this seems socially unacceptable, it is wrapped up in a “Union of Grand Challenges” that the 28 countries can unite behind for the good of their people.

“Delivering on unifying digital, energy, building infrastructure, moving back to our industrialisation base, built on deep research and development, delivered through innovation, knowledge and education at the core can bring us those trillion-euro opportunities for new jobs and growth“- now that provides the ambition intent I feel.

They are within the policy bases covered by Mr Junker but not in the bold, essential ways we really do need to regain the initiative and regain momentum. He lost the opportunity to create a clear, compelling reason to unite behind these in laying out what this actually does mean to fail on these or what they can give, and by not doing this it might have consigned us to a further period of stuttering, indecisive leadership at the very time it needs to be radically different.

Europe is in crisis, it might not be going away

Europe lacks a forward momentum; it suffers lowering productivity, a growing imbalance between the right jobs and places to focus growth to get the economic growth back.

We seem locked in internal ‘competitive politics’, external lack of competitiveness and regional and national disparities that drag down any commercial outcomes that might improve our performance.

Of course, I wish Mr Junker well and his commissioners, they are not in an enviable place but nor is Europe, we are in a very tough, demanding world where ‘innovation and being competitive’ requires a boldness, an increased sense of what is at stake by not looking in our rear-view mirror but in the future coming towards us.

I just hope we have the capabilities to steer towards this future and not keep pulling over to fix the engine while others continue to pass us, already on cruise control.

The post Lay out the path, get out of the way but give me ambition please. first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

Dubbed “Innovation Breakthroughs – Igniting Europe’s Growth” They were celebrating 10 years of the opening of the centre and as you arrived, you saw the cranes at work to double the facility as well as further deepen their commitments within the surrounding community even further.

One such community success story has been the co-location they have with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where both have evolved to share a real philosophy of creating new knowledge and making it available for the industrial innovation process through this partnership.

They combine in a number of “sweet spots” or research domains, that move the academic creative contributions of science into the industrial researchers alongside, working to advance products, bringing these concepts to commercial fruition.

The event also combine with the announcement of Euro €18.5 Million in New Research Program Funding announced as GE Marks the 10th Anniversary of its Global Research Centre in Europe with its university partners. A further community commitment.

Alongside side this announcement, a White Paper was issued on “The State of European Innovation”, drawing down from the GE Innovation Barometer  and other resources.

I have always liked to read with interest this set of Barometer insights,  and have enjoyed commenting upon (here for example) the results that are published each year. The GE Innovation Barometer I think really does offer valuable insights into innovation thinking by over 3,000 leaders in larger business organizations. It offers good insights into the inner thinking about innovation that has practical implications.

A quick tour of the R&D facilities reveals much about a company

While I was there, I was lucky enough to take a “quick” tour of the GE facility after my small contribution to a fascinating set of debates earlier in the day. I can honestly state the passion, commitment and sense of pride in all the researchers I meet were impressive. It goes way, way beyond putting on a positive spin to the visitor, it is a deep desire and I think a real motivation to push advancement.

Before I went to Munich I really got caught up in GE and its evolving story.
From the outside looking into GE I had felt it was evolving but I was not able to get ‘under the hood’ and see the ‘powerful forces’ that seem to be at work. This event helped trigger that growing awareness and brought it significantly to life for me.

GE often use an awful lot of ‘convening words’ that make you curious to connect to their technologies, and their industry areas and explain how and where these are evolving. I think this thinking has been ‘cranking up’ significantly in the past couple of years, and for good reasons. GE has a good evolving story to tell.

Included in their portfolio are some of the essential aspects of our lives, they connect us, connect enterprises and advance many things and reshape the future. When you hear about “mapped minds”, “brilliant factories”, “extreme machines”, “energy everywhere”, “super materials” and finally their take of the “industrial internet” it confronts you. That was how I felt when I walked through the doors into their lobby area.

For me it was going to be a promising day.
Irrespective of how or where I could contribute, I knew I was going to learn a lot from the event. As it turned out the panel I was invited upon became fairly lively.

I had the pleasure of being on a panel that included Mark Little, the Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Office for GE, Jean Botti, the Chief Technical and Innovation Officer for the Airbus Group and Christian Cahn von Seelen, the Head of Corporate Strategy, China and India Business at Skoda Auto.

The audience ranged from politicians, and senior representatives across industry, research institutions and health and the Q & A I felt could have gone on and on, debating Europe’s innovative future. We simply touched the ‘tip of the iceberg as there are equally dangers lurking not just under the surface as complex problems to tackle.

Yet equally, such a positive mass of deep knowledge, real tangible successes and high absorption of learning across Europe, all needs to be picked apart, mapped out and reconnected in new ways, does provide a promising future in innovative ways to get Europe moving again, in growth, jobs and unified commitments. I only wish it was less left in Politicians and Bureaucratic hands and our institutions and business leaders were more deeply involved in shaping the process, not just lobbying for their specific part.

Plenty of pride, some angst.

Sitting in Germany you can always ‘feel’ that real pride, a clear determination and belief in the achievements made and plenty yet to come-

Equally, you know what will be delivered in much of the approaches can be summarized as making connected sense. Sometimes the rest of Europe does seem to want to ‘pull’ in other ways and that is hard to understand from a German’s perspective. This is part of ‘our’ creative tensions in Europe to be bridged.

It is part of the challenges we face in Europe, connecting all the diversity and opinions of 28 countries to get growth and a real momentum within the European economy going again. Debating the required innovation fits across Europe is complex and challenging.

What I liked in my visit was a reminder that if you combine much that is good from one culture and fuse it in thoughtful ways that capitalise on the diversity of the other or across many, you can really see tangible results. Collaborating on big challenges would be one ‘unifier’.

I think the combination of the fusion of the mindsets of an American company that believes it is a scale-based entrepreneur organization, managing complicated technologies and ‘big things’ and a collection of bright researching minds, all drawn from not just across Europe but many parts of the world, sitting next to a university (TUM) that are plugging into the German way of doing things is a good example of this collaborating across big challenges.

Of course, managing complex situations across cultures can be frustrating but this host of ‘connected points’ strikes me to be a winning formula. Of course in GE’s case, you throw in the connected nine Global Research centres you certainly ‘sense’ this motion towards an accelerating future within GE. 2,000 scientists and engineers and 50,000 technologists. It can make you pause for breath, it’s simply impressive, and ‘living proof’ of connecting minds, knowledge, and cultures with machines on how it can generate results that are advancing what we know today in significant ways.

Then we have the wave of connecting minds and machines.

Mark Little the Chief Technology Officer for GE was heading out of the door early afternoon to catch the flight to get him back to GE’s next event, of connecting minds and machines being held the next day. Now this promises a different, potentially radical new future in industry and GE are placing a lot of resource and commitments into it.

GE is taking a real lead here. In the last three years, they have been ramping up their thinking, dubbed “the industrial internet” and moving into the power of connected industrial assets (the machines) through embedding sensor technology everywhere on the machine, bringing back its data from often hostile environments and through the analytics applied can turn this into ‘intelligent information.’

This offers the potential of real-time decision making, delivering required and necessary insights at the right time, to the operators and business decision-makers so as to manage that dreaded aspect all industries fear of “downtime” better. It also allows for managing more efficiently and effectively the assets.

Already I gather GE has put over £1 billion into this potential game-changing move to transform industry. CEO and Chairman Jeff Immelt’s opening to this event with his headline view: “if you went to bed last night as an Industrial company, you are going to wake up in the morning as a software and analytical company” where the separation between data and industry has vanished. Does this change the business model, I think so.

Of course, Jeff Immelt is saying this, he runs a “big bets company” and they are setting about transforming the industry for competitive advantage. Yet again though, it is the way they seem to be setting about it that makes you feel it is happening and shifting the dynamics of big asset business, in significant ways.

Platforms, Partnerships and the Ecosystem

I strongly believe the future of collaboration is going to be based around platforms and ecosystems, where you bring together the minds and the business interest, gathered around specific but complex issues to solve. GE are working on delivering this.

Through their platform of Predix, GE are providing “industrial-strength software and analytics” and spoke of having 40 apps ready for customer use today at this event. They are also throwing open the platform for others to use, build and develop their apps. GE will offer the backbone, architecture, resilience, and security for others to come onto this platform with growing confidence and work towards ‘apps’ that are even more tailor-specific to their needs beyond ‘just’ sensors.

The partners already working with delivering from this platform are Cisco, Intel and Accenture and GE’s investment in Pivotal will mean the amount of time GE executives will be spending in San Francisco building the resources behind this is a space worth following.

I gather they have 800 data scientists and GE is on a further massive recruit to ramp this up, well over doubling this in the region, to attract and blend the best in talent, software and analytics. I also gathered they have been but recruiting the ‘forty something’ person as well for their business experience, as they sit down and work through issue upon issue with their customers.

It is clearly evolving at some speed, GE are delivering the Medici Effect of breakthrough insights at the intersections of ideas, concepts and cultures. as our world becomes more intersectional when we merge one field into a new, unfamiliar territory for these radical changes in how we will manage in the future.

The combinations of smart machines, enabling technologies, big data modelling and analytics and determining the customer outcomes in increasing collaborations, will radically alter the Business Model of GE in future years, in ways that we yet can’t imagine.

As I left the R&D centre in Munich

As I look up at the crane as I left and saw the shell of the additional building going up in Munich, I can imagine that science, research and technology will fuse in ways that we are only beginning to grasp. I wonder what type of mix of skills that group of future employees will have, far more a blend, perhaps a more broad set, rather than one that is deep only.

We will be seeing software services, a changing portfolio strategy and GE’s scientists, researchers and engineers all managing not just in their deep domains of knowledge but broadening out into far greater engagements alongside customers. It alters and unleashes.

Combining in future ways with the chosen universities, institutions and partners, increasing working through and on these platforms. where collaboration and co-creation will move way beyond today’s open innovation concepts, focusing on bringing ‘synergies’ that deliver those vital winning outcomes.

The future era of innovation suddenly looks even brighter.

So those Asset-intensive industries that are looking to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and search to unlock new sources of customer value, are moving into a ‘connected realisation’ that will bring the industrial internet into increasing focus. It will sit alongside the social side, where the internet of things (IoT) has been making most of the running to date, encroaching far more of our business and personal lives.

The promise of deep, lasting connections and relationships all seem to be offering innovation in a new era of prosperity, were connected enterprise and the connected world come together with very different business models, built on this ‘promise’ of platforms and ecosystems, delivering in very tangible ways through a collaborative common cause.

A place where “Everything connects,” a book written recently by Faisel Hoque, is suggesting where people, insights, capital, infrastructure and ecosystems combine. One where the age of creativity, innovation and sustainability come together as the needed skills required to be continually adaptive.

I’m all for that era. We are at perhaps an inflexion point on the way we are thinking, managing, and collaborating in a connected universe for new growth possibilities. I’d like to believe so and from what I can see, GE is well on their way to working this out in its own, highly focused way.

The post Connected Enterprise, Connected World with GE first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

You find yourself slipping into a conference hall unexpectedly. You are confronted by 1,000 participants listening to the conclusions of six very wise-looking people at a table, explaining the outcomes of the summit.

They are talking about a summit declaration by providing 5 calls for action for a Wake-up. Sounds more than interesting, even important.

Now you quickly settle down into your seat, trying to ignore a few turned heads frowning at this sudden interruption after spending their three days working through this Wakeup Call and are quite rightly listening intently. This seems critical, you settle down to listen also.

So, without the drum roll or often accompanied with the appropriate dramatic music the 5 calls are announced:

• Deliver on the widely accepted and appreciated new instruments and policies (2014-2020) in support of innovation.
• Build a culture of ‘fail fast’, ‘risk tolerance’, and ‘fast capital’ to cross the valley of death.
• Create a predictable policy environment and embed innovation as a principle in all measures and decisions.
• Engage in joint thinking and acting across sectors and along the value chain.
• Change what you do: a deep mindset change is needed at all levels: companies, administrations, and citizens.

So you have guessed where you are yet?

No, well you are at the winding up of a three day innovation summit held by Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) as the 5^th European Innovation meeting that took place in the European Parliament from 30^th September until 2^nd October 2013.

Apart from 1,000 participants attending, there was in also in attendance three EU Commissioners, 30 members of the European Parliament and 150 speakers contributing their thoughts. According to the press release the conference summit was the largest ever, comprising of 25 events, including the opening and closing ceremonies, a series of conference sessions, workshops, breakfast, lunch and dinner debates organized by summit partners, as well as an exhibition and two press breakfasts.

Am you as overwhelmed by these 5 calls for action to Wake Up Europe?

Yes, these five calls are the suggested action calls to wake up Europe to go and innovate. Now I’ll be honest here, I’m struggling with these. Without the benefit of attending any of the 25 events, listened to the varies debates, taken a pulse of the mood within the conference all I’ve got to go on is these five actions to Wake Up Europe. Actually I didn’t even slip into the hall, I did not attend, I just got sent the press release from the event and from all my investigations and reading I’m a little lost here.

I’m sorry, no really sorry but is this really the best set of outcomes we can do in Europe?

Europe is facing unprecedented challenges; Europe’s very existence is being threatened. Competitiveness is eroding, standards of living are falling, economic forecasts still part offer some dark scenarios of economic decline, ageing populations, social capital and labour force shortage, increased food, energy and water constraints and a changing role of the EU on the global stage. Let alone the rosy picture of complete integration is caught up in a leadership impasse. We are simply failing to rise up to the challenges we have confronting us here in the EU. So we have ‘arrived’ at 5 calls to wake up Europe on the innovation front! These five?

So yes Europe does need to wake up to become really effective on innovation especially execution.  Yes, it must give innovation a primary role for its paramount importance within the growth requirements across each region within the EU.

It must drive innovation down  and across all its members countries in better collaborative ways, as each is competing increasingly within a tough global battleground and needs the ‘power’ of combining on finding both radical and innovation breakthroughs. It needs to innovate to get out of numerous sets of crisis.

Dr Burton Lee one of the speakers at this summit, a lecturer, European Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Stanford School of Engineering asserted: “Europe’s core crisis is a crisis of innovation and not a debt crisis. It is a crisis of chronic poor performance in creating disruptive products, new companies, new university models and new jobs”

The intent of this 5^th European Innovation Summit had as its original aims:

“to identify what needs to be done to bridge the innovation gaps, to overcome the Innovation barriers, which renders an innovation friendly climate impossible, or indeed, less possible than in the leading Innovation strong economies and focus on the key drivers”

So let me ask you, do you think the 5 calls for action will waken up innovation  in Europe?

In my opinion, I think Europe is utterly sleep walking even delusional. So yes, it does need seriously waking up for innovation, I totally agree but with these 5 calls to action? No, Really? Seriously? Am I missing something here?

I think we are suffering from all the symptoms of sleep disorder in Europe

Here is Europe we are dealing with all three types of sleep disorder, we are in a very disturbed sleep deprivation, we are or it seems exhausted, incapable of changing our position. It has all got simply to big, too complicated and far too difficult.

We lack much and can’t even a more powerful call to innovation action than these five…. actions.

So this must be actually innovation insomnia – sleeplessness as nothing we seem to do is refreshing us, facing us all it seems is a ‘prolonged sleep onset latency disorder’. We are trapped, and as Jürgen Habermas nicely puts it “Dozing on a volcano”

He also suggests in Europe: “there are extraordinary situations in which cognitive sensitivity, imagination; courage and willingness to take responsibility (by) those in charge have an impact on the progression of things“.

I don’t see this rising to the significant challenges confronting Europe by our present leadership. Surely in any ‘universal’ call for action we do really require from innovation, then we need to find statements that will resonate with all within Europe.

That is: EVERYONE  go out and make a significant impact on growth through innovation within the EU and we all will support you in every possible way – cutting down the obstacles, removing the barriers, solving the red tape, pushing in every way all the enablers to help you innovate successfully.

I simply don’t sense this from this 5 calls, they are just going through the motions of existing (entrenched) positions. There is no wake up call here.

We are actually suffering different levels of innovation insomnia

The three levels of innovation EU insomnia I suggest are:

Transient insomnia– this lasts for about a week or so after a conference like this one that I’ve been trying to figure out. You suffer conference deprivation but you soon forget about it as you quickly pass onto another disorder that keeps you in your depression and stressed environment. You do not have time to piece it all together.

Acute insomnia – You feel restlessness for some time after one of these conferences as you really can’t get any new momentum going. Even not as a direct result of the meeting you attended for three days, listening to some incredible, well qualified speakers.

You are suffering this acute disorder where nothing really changed to allow you to render any change in your own environment. You still face the same factors of innovation disorder when dealing within innovation inside the EU, can you wait for ever, even in times of crisis?

Finally, Chronic insomnia  and the most serious. This really does last for a long time. This is our primary disorder, the very reason for our insomnia.  Perhaps that is the 2020 real target. We not just suffer continued (innovation) fatigue, we really have got totally caught up in the hallucinations and mental issues that those deeply affected see things happening in slow motion, where moving objects just seem to blend together but really are deeper symptoms of impaired vision that causes double vision – we double our efforts but don’t solve the primary disorder.

We are all caught up in this chronic insomnia when it comes to innovation within Europe. We even begin to use the innovation mantra of “fail fast, risk tolerance and fast capital” to cross from this valley of death.

I’d like to believe we will become fully engaged but it has to be far more radical for innovation to really deliver.

It really does not matter if we agree or not that we have to Wake Up Europe, or we are all caught up in different levels of insomnia? I really can’t believe the 5 calls of action that concluded this meeting over three days of 1,000 participants deals with the fundamental crisis we face here in Europe for growth and igniting innovation.

We simply are not really addressing our deep underlying EU symptoms within innovation with these 5 calls for action. Do you agree?

If you would like to read more on this 5^th European Innovation Summit held through the organization Knowledge4Innovation then here are some links

Initial Release: http://www.knowledge4innovation.eu/5th-european-innovation-summit-2013

5^th EIS Guide Booklet: http://www.knowledge4innovation.eu/sites/default/files/5th_EIS_Guide_Booklet_1.pdf

Programme: www.knowledge4innovation.eu/5th-eis-programme-and-speakers

List of all speakers: www.knowledge4innovation.eu/5th-eis-speaker-bios

Final press release: http://www.knowledge4innovation.eu/press-release-5th-european-innovation-summit-europe-needs-wake-5-calls-action?

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