Innovating to what's next...

The year 2024 was a challenging year for sustainability, from climate issues to inequality. Three top concerns include elections and political turmoil that threaten progress, companies retreating or staying silent on DEI and ESG goals, and the rise of sustainability reporting that’s (temporarily) taking up companies’ time. Other issues from the past year include the clean economy hitting tipping points, AI’s growth threatening decarbonization, heavy industry making some progress, and the beginning of a crackdown on “greenwashing.”

As businesses increasingly focus on innovation and customer-centric strategies, customer co-creation has emerged as a powerful way to involve customers in the product development process. By actively engaging customers in idea generation, design, and decision-making, companies can better understand market needs and create products or services that directly meet customer expectations. In this article, we’ll explore different customer co-creation models and how they help drive innovation.

We all like to think our best ideas are the product of our own brilliance. But if we’re being honest, some of the most innovative solutions don’t come from a single person—they come from a collective. The truth is, your best ideas might not even be yours, and that’s actually a good thing. Whether you’re working in a federal agency, a local government, or any other public institution, leveraging the ideas of others—especially through collaboration and crowdsourcing—can take innovation to a whole new level.

From idea competitions and startup incubators to virtual whiteboards and design thinking workshops, there is no shortage of mechanisms for brainstorming what’s possible in an organization. It’s exciting to have so many ideas to work with.
But what happens next? Eventually, you need to identify which solutions best fit your business needs. Ideation on its own isn’t enough to drive innovation outcomes—and could even be a waste of resources if not governed properly. To drive outcomes, you need disciplined portfolio management.

Venture building is a tried and tested method for organizations to discover, validate, and incubate new business models. Originating in the US in the 1950s with the first Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) activities, organizations initially used this approach as a way of diversifying their portfolios and investing in areas outside of their core business.

To help corporate entrepreneurs leverage the critical actions that will ultimately become the foundation of a corporate venture’s scaling effort. Based on the insights from over 200 innovation tracks, this practical guide provides a deeper understanding of what you need to do early on, to ensure long-term venture growth.

How many times have you proposed a new idea and been told, “We can’t do that?” Probably quite a few. My favorite memory of being told, “We can’t do that,” happened many years ago while working with a client in the publishing industry:

It’s time to revisit the idea of avoiding the word “no,” but this time, I want to approach it from a different angle. First, let me tell you about my friend Dr. Nido Qubein, a devoted husband and father, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, president of High Point University, and mentor to many, who came to this country when he was 17 with little more than $50 to his name. Almost 50 years ago, he attended High Point University, never dreaming that one day he would be president of the institution, a position he accepted in 2005.

Wherever ambiguity is paramount, wherever judgment is required, or wherever moral values are at stake, one must not expect ChatGPT to be the final arbiter. That is simply not what it is designed to do. It can be an input, but it cannot be trusted to be the final output.

Do you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of bad news? You’re not alone. We’re standing in the eye of a storm of war, political division, and endless layoffs. In times like these, why bother with innovation when we’re using all our energy to survive and make sense of things?

It’s often said by teams that “diversity is our strength.” We take for granted the idea that diverse teams bring more lived experiences, ideas, and solutions to the table. When asked, “How does diversity affect teamwork?” most leaders assume that teams composed of individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives are more likely to approach problems from various angles and come up with innovative solutions. And hence most leaders assume that diversity is a source of greater performance.
And while that’s true—it’s not as clear cut as we assume.

There are three primary approaches to innovation. In our work with large brands focused on digital transformation, we have observed that the most effective of the three is also the least common. Which approach do you use?

In some of my customer service speeches, I joke that some customers aren’t worth doing business with. The way I position it in the speech is funny, but in reality, it’s pretty serious. Sometimes, a customer isn’t worth doing business with because they are truly a bad customer. The result could be choosing to say, “Goodbye,” and sending them to the competition.

With tighter budgets, the rise of AI and other transformative technologies, the pressing need for organizations to reinvent themselves, and you can see why innovation is increasingly owned by individual business units.

Quoi de commun entre l’agriculture biodynamique, une école à la pédagogie atypique, une grande entreprise de cosmétiques, un investissement dans une ferme éolienne ? Tous sont liés à l’anthroposophie, un courant spirituel fondé au début du XXe siècle par Rudolf Steiner. Discret mais influent, ce mouvement international dispose de relais économiques et politiques… jusqu’au sein du gouvernement français.

De nombreux sites et influenceurs sur Instagram et YouTube déclarent sur les réseaux sociaux faire le boycott des marques Weleda et Dr Hauschka. La raison ? L'anthroposophie. On vous explique.

The Coca-Cola Company has lowered the ambition of its voluntary environmental goals. Having extended its timeframe to 2035, it now aspires to achieve 40% recyclate in its primary packaging and collect 75% of the bottles and cans it markets, among other targets.

Le groupe à la pomme souhaite s’émanciper des puces réseau de Qualcomm. Il espère combler l'écart de performance d'ici à 2026, puis passer devant l'année suivante.

Nanoscribe has officially become part of the LAB14 Group after being sold by BICO for €26 million. This sale was part of BICO’s strategic plan to focus on life sciences, leaving Nanoscribe to find a better fit under LAB14’s expertise in micro- and nanotechnology. As part of LAB14, Nanoscribe is getting ready to expand its industrial and academic market presence.

The semiconductor industry and its supply chain increasingly rival oil and gas in terms of their importance to international relations, the attention they receive from senior leaders in government and business, and their use as a tool of foreign policy. Across a diverse range of global opportunities and geopolitical challenges, the semiconductor industry supply chain is increasingly at the center of the story. While the semiconductor industry is truly global, the Indo-Pacific is its critical region. Taiwan, Japan, China, and South Korea all play pivotal roles in the Indo-Pacific and particularly the global semiconductor landscape.

La Chine dévoile le premier tokamak supraconducteur à haute température, marquant une avancée majeure vers l’énergie propre. La fusion nucléaire offre une énergie quatre fois plus puissante que la fission, avec des déchets réduits. Le tokamak HH70 utilise des supraconducteurs à haute température, rendant les réacteurs de fusion plus efficaces et abordables. Energy Singularity vise un facteur Q de 10 pour rendre l’énergie de fusion commercialement viable d’ici 2030.

The clean energy breakthrough everyone has been wishing for finally is here! It may not be quite ready for prime time, but a quiet nuclear-fusion energy race is underway and cannot come soon enough. The problem is that China seems to be winning it, not the United States or the West.

In 2022, the ST40 became the first privately owned fusion reactor to reach 100 million °C — six times as hot as the core of our closest star. The machine is under constant development as Tokamak Energy races to build something commercially viable.  This latest upgrade includes coating the inside of the ST40 with lithium. Research suggests the element can help the walls of fusion reactors better withstand extreme temperatures. But the new project is not just a fusion reactor makeover. “It represents a huge leverage opportunity for advancing fusion science and technology as a whole,” said the DOE’s Dr Geraldine Richmond.  Under the agreement, researchers at universities and national laboratories in both countries will also be able to benefit from the research carried out at the ST40 tokamak. The project is slated to commence next year. The $52mn in funding will be divided equally among all three partners.