Innovation In the Age of COVID-19 Is Increasing — Here’s Why
As large enterprises rapidly transitioned their workforces to remote-only in March, we started hearing from innovation leaders that innovation projects were ramping up. Their plans were getting rolled out faster, barriers were falling away, and their teams were getting calls to find partners that could solve urgent problems. “Innovation is more vital than ever” became the focal point of our inaugural webinar April 2.
During this discussion, Gary Binstock of Colgate-Palmolive shared how startups and startup innovations were helping keep factories operational. Bobby Esnard of Capital Group said the company’s Fintech Wave program was experiencing high demand from the business, while Marie-Christine Razaire of Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures noted that financial security startups were of increasing importance for the company.
[Watch the KITE webinar and clips.]
Barely a month later — a lifetime in the age of COVID-19 — we’re seeing the trend not only hold but strengthen.
For the CDX Virtual Summit on April 29, we brought together three innovation leaders, also across industries, to discuss open innovation:
- Danielle Cohn, Head of Start-up Engagement & LIFT Labs, Comcast NBCUniversal
- Koley Corte, SVP & Head of Business Transformation, AllianceBernstein
- Navin Kunde, Head of Open Innovation, Clorox
All three shared how they’re accelerating the innovation initiatives most important to their businesses today.
Koley Corte of AllianceBernstein said their “team is in more demand” now than before the pandemic. Navin Kunde of Clorox noted that shorter-term projects were moving faster, “but we are not letting go of other programs.” Danielle Cohn of Comcast NBCUniversal shared that their four main focus areas, outlined months ago, turned out to be “very relevant” for this pandemic moment and that they’re adding to them, rather than shifting away.
These experiences are not unique. According to CDX’s audience survey, 68% expect their organization’s investment in open innovation to be slightly (36%) or much greater (32%) than it was before COVID-19, with another 20% expecting it to stay the same.
The Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center recently surveyed tech experts, and the vast majority believe innovation will accelerate significantly across areas like health technologies, data and AI, the future of work, and trust and supply chains.
Behdad Shahsavari, who heads up North America for BCG Digital Ventures, made it clear in his CDX Virtual Summit fireside chat that all companies must pursue innovation.
“The existential threat is fundamentally there. You don’t have a choice,” he said. “You need to pick which areas to innovate in: people model, operating model, go-to-market… your partnerships system.”
The rationale, beyond the existential threat: “The biggest gains made in times of adversity are the people who make bold bets,” noted Shahsavari.
However, only 14% actually place those bold bets, according to research. And Shahsavari expects about one in five larger companies will do so in 2020. In his experience, no industry is more fundamentally open to innovation than another.
If you’re ready to embrace this Black Swan moment or simply need a better way to manage increasing demands from your business, reach out: contact@kitesrm.com. The KITE platform provides a smarter way to discover startups and manage your innovation workflow.
