Some ideas are always valid.

1. Vassilis
Trapezanoglou
vtrapezanglou@eurobank.gr
t_vassilis@yahoo.gr
www.think-act.gr
LinkedIn
===========================
29/3/2011
Developing a culture for
innovation: Mission Impossible !

2. Innovation: the real meaning
Understanding the real meaning of innovation
At first the Definition (Aristotle)
Innovation: a substantially renewed approach of a product,
service, function, technique, procedure, practice which
is successfully applied and
is massively adopted by the customers (or citizens)  adds value
Both characteristics (original, applied / adopted) are needed
Innovation creativity , Innovation invention
Innovation = creativity applied to a purpose to realize value =
blending knowledge, experience, practice and improvisation
“The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but
in seeing with new eyes” (Marcel Proust)
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Innovation: an original or substantially renewed idea,
which is applied and brings value

3. The 3 dimensions of innovation
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A problem,
A need,
An expectation
Implementation /
Adoption
Original
approach
Innovation
The problem
The most difficult part …
The innovative
idea
The successful
implementation

4. Innovation: challenge and renew established perception
Every person, organization, company or economic sector is inspired by a
number of “beliefs”, which are related to general but also to specific
aspects and issues of the operation, working as a common business
perception, as a kind of «orthodoxy».
These beliefs have as origin previous experience, traditions, assumptions,
habits, dogmas and they infiltrate all aspects of the corporate business
model and operation.
Many of these beliefs have been incorporated in the business life under
completely different conditions, but they continue to function as a “filter of
thinking”, becoming barriers to change traditional operating models in
every social or economic activity.
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Τhe Key for innovation is
• to challenge established perceptions, assumptions and
dogmatic beliefs (established orthodoxy) and
• to review every single component of the operational
model in place (used to offer services or products).

5. Greece falls behind…
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6. Why innovation is an imperative for the country
“The red Queen effect” – a metaphor of American biologist Leigh Van
Valen, who was inspired by the Red Queen character from Lewis Carroll’s
"Through the Looking Glass."
evolutionary principle that regardless of how well a species adapts to its
current environment, it must keep evolving to keep up with its
competitors and enemies who are also evolving.
Thus, the “Red Queen” effect:
Greece belongs to a globalized, “flat” economic universe
Competes with a lot of stronger, faster countries / economies
Recent economic crisis revealed that it has fallen behind…
Adaptation is not enough. It has similar “species” going faster
Innovation facilitates to speed up evolution to catch “competitors” …
Innovation is both a vaccine against market slowdowns
(recession) and an elixir that rejuvenates growth
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Do nothing and fall behind, or run hard to stay where you are ….
If you want to go somewhere else,
you have to run at least twice as fast as that …

7. The innovators’ DNA: 5 “secrets“ of innovators
• Put together ideas and information from different
areas in unique combinations. “Creativity is
connecting things”.
Associating
• Ask provocative, challenging questions (the
important and difficult job is never to find the right
answers, it is to find the right question).
Questioning
• Scrutinizing common phenomena, particularly
the behavior of potential customers, to produce
uncommon business ideas.
Observing
• Try out new ideas by creating prototypes and
launching pilots. Construct interactive experiences
& try to provoke unorthodox answers.
Experimenting
• Devoting time/energy to finding and testing ideas
through a network of diverse individuals. Go out of
our way to meet people with different kind of ideas
Networking
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(HBR, 12/2009)
Skills of action are more important than skills of thinking

8. Innovation can’t be structured: similarity with Jazz …
Jazz
Music has a grammar
Jazz = improvisation
respecting musical rules and
based on experience and
practice ……
 rules of thumb
Innovation
Innovation has a grammar
 the mechanism that
allows innovative ideas to
be expressed and applied
Algorithmic but also
heuristic thinking
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Combine and balancing control and freedom

9. Innovation is a cooperative task
Innovative ideas come from individual, but implementing
innovation to create value demands collaboration/ collective work
“The 10 faces of innovation” (Tom Kelly)
The organizing roles (personas)
The Hurdler
The Collaborator
The Director
The building roles (personas)
The Experience Architect
The Set Designer
The Storyteller
The Caregiver
The learning roles (personas)
The Anthropologist
The Experimenter
The Cross-Pollinator  the T-shaped person
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10. Innovation must be organic: similarity with motivation
Innovation is like motivation
You don’t motivate people 
you create the appropriate environment in order to facilitate
people to motivate them-selves
You can’t “enforce” or “push” people to innovate 
you create the appropriate environment in order to facilitate
people to be more creative and to implement effectively
innovative ideas
Innovation must be “organic”
Cultivate innovation spirit and behavior
Accelerate the natural process of innovation
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11. Nurturing the innovation reef (Mario Marino)
Metaphor: Innovation is like a coral reef.
Marine biologists don’t fully understand what causes reefs to
form, but we do know that human actions can nurture or harm
the process.
The same is true for innovation— a natural,
chaotic, unpredictable process that is hard,
perhaps even impossible, for well-meaning
outsiders to foster.
If we try to control or micromanage innovation, we risk
squeezing out the very life forces that give rise to successful
new ideas.
Instead, we must focus on finding ways to nurture and
accelerate the natural processes of innovation once they’ve
begun grow organically.
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http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com

12. Innovation is not easy
Innovation is not easy. Not a function. A way of leading people
Gary Hamel
Companies don’t have innovation DNA
It is like to ask a Dog to stand and walk on two feet !
When you turn your head, it turns to its normal position
It is made to be a quadruped animal, not a biped…
Changing a mechanical watch to a digital one ..
Innovation needs
Open mind
Fantasy and dare
Initiatives
Result orientation
Passion
Is innovation a matter of luck ? In some cases yes, but
Luck = Preparation X Opportunity
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13. The pillars of innovation
Adopt the right incentives
Remove barriers
Commitment & courage
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14. Right incentives for innovation
Facilitate organic growth of innovation giving “right” incentives
Establish creative environment
Leaders give the example
Innovators need time and basic resources (tools, access to knowledge bases
etc) in order to have the chance to be creative
Ensure adequate financial support
Cultivate and develop skills (the 5 “secret skills”) and roles
Facilitate open communication and networking
Form teams with mix of diverse profiles
Allow observing close to customers
Facilitate experimentation
Train to improve creativity (alternative methods, means of training)
Encourage in difficult times and especially after a failure
Recognize
Publicity for positive results
Reward success stories (communicate, celebrate, promote…)
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15. Managing corporate innovation
Top management commitment (the culture of entrepreneurship and risk
taking can only be driven top down)
Leaders promote innovation much more than managers
Leaders are willing to open new directions
Managers are more focused on specific goals
Large organizations are populated by managers
Clear direction and organization (innovation czar / R&D / coordination unit,
clear procedures to process innovative ideas and initiatives)
Decentralized ideas conception, but centralized management of ideas
implementation (it is a collaborative task)
Don’t focus only on products. Innovative ideas can come from every function
or process (networks, marketing, support  customer experience)
Open and sincere communication
Coherent policy for recognition, rewards and compensation
Risk and failure tolerance
«Creative abandonment” (Peter Drucker) of projects, processes and practices
that have failed
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16. Barriers to be removed
Tight or dysfunctional processes, procedures and inflexible
polices (the “veto” of various management layers for the
adoption and implementation of new ideas strangle innovation)
Established beliefs (“Orthodoxy”)
Intolerance against failure and risk aversion
Rewarding conservative behavior
Silos autonomy – High walls
Lack of self-reliance / fatalism
Stubborn
Prefer to fail than to change
Considering that every disadvantage/problem is a sign of failure
“Command and Control” attitude: everything must
be controlled and everything must be counted
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17. “Externalize” innovation
Adopt customer-centric or citizen-centric operational models
Easier access to products and services  better customer experience
Interaction allows to record customers’ problems, barriers to overcome,
needs and expectations
Transparency and flexibility to adapt services (segmentation,
personalization)
Exploit the facilities offered by Web 2.0 technologies, Social
Media and “Consumerization of IT” to implement innovative
service combinations (public, corporate). Customers / citizens
can
have access to information and services and
participate to collaborative initiatives (mix knowledge and experience)
This operational externalization is extremely
important to expand target market 
exports of goods and services
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18. Public innovation is more difficult
To implement an innovative idea you need the agreement of 3
teams of interest
The team which exercise power (authority to change things)
The team which owns / manages the necessary financial resources
The team which will be invited to implement the idea
In Public Sector these 3 teams are separate and dispersed.
They have their own agenda and they are under different
pressure and influence (economic interests, ideologies,
political intentions and goals, personal agendas etc)
 difficult to reach decision, frictions during execution
In Private Sector all these 3 teams are expressed by the top
management (in many cases completely decentralized)
 easier to decide and to implement
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19. Some social prerequisites
Politicians’ behavior
Adopt medium to long-term planning horizon pro-innovation
governance
Introduce processes facilitating innovation
Avoid misperception of innovation (i.e. simple introduction of ICT)
Avoid innovation as “decoration”
Radical changes, where needed, and continuous improvement
Important: adopt Human Resources flexible policies
Acceptance of diversity / differentiation is crucial
In public dialogue
Inside the political parties
In mass media
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20. Some social prerequisites (2)
Institutionalizing / Socializing Innovation
Promote collaboration and networking, national competition / prices
for innovation
Support third sector’s initiatives
Financial or administrative support to independent, reliable
organizations working as catalysts (incubators, accelerators) in the
process of organic development of innovation
NESTA (UK) is a great example
Tolerance to failure (not to negligence…)
Bankruptcy legislation (a project law is ready ?)
Greek reality: one failure  failure for ever
“Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”,
Winston Churchill
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21. Some policy directions for innovation
Infuse innovation in all investments in priority sectors
Tourism
Web services mash-up, content for thematic tourism, location-based mobile
services, augmented reality applications, smart tags
Energy - Environment
Smart grid networks for energy consumption (real-time monitoring)
Wireless sensing applications
“New” agriculture (entrepreneurship, added-valued products, remote
sensing, etc)
Food (smart tags, traceability of goods etc)
Health (digital monitoring services, digital communities etc)
Culture (virtual reality, mobile services, rich content etc)
Embed all new highways, roads and bridges with fiber-optic
cabling and micro-sensors to create an interconnected “nervous
system” (control traffic congestion & maintenance)
Promote cooperation between public and private sector to
establish e-government infrastructure
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22. Can public organizations innovate?
Yeeeees !
Universities, Research Centers, Schools
KEP
Electronic services
OpenGov
Manage the risk of high expectations
Many innovations coming from private sector are funded by
public sector
Public innovation must be well organized because
There is no mechanism to evaluate and implement innovative ideas
No resources are dedicated to innovation inside public organizations,
except Research and Universities
Public innovation isn’t always a good thing. It must be treated seriously
Public sector fails to innovate fast enough to cope with so many
challenges (economic, social, technological)
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23. How innovative changes could be implemented
Implement the new technology / operating practice in a new
space, isolated from the old workforce and old physical
surroundings
Get the system work quite well in this new location
Propagate it to other locations
Standardize and decentralize services and policies
Reuse infrastructures and service platforms
Use service integrators/ aggregators (easier with service-
oriented IT infrastructures)
New “scripts” of service
Copy successful innovations from private sector (contact
centers, relationships management, web interaction etc)
KEP (Centers for Citizens’ Service) is a good example
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24. Areas of innovation using ICT
Technologies
Combine cloud assets and service mash-up
Exploit smart-phones and tablets functionalities
Smart-boards
3-D Printing
Quick Response Code – QR Code (Augmented reality)
Human augmentation (portable or implanted devices
which improve human physical or mental functions)
RFID / contactless applications
Internet TV
Exploitation
Multichannel service
Viral marketing
E-books
Health self-monitoring applications
Consumerization of IT. IT applications are incorporated
inside consumer’s devices (smart-phones, GPS, video/
audio devices etc)  easy access to personalized
services
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25. 3-D Printing  Production on Cloud !
Someone designs an object (a perfume bottle, gear or airplane
wing)on a computer and then sends that design to a 3-D printer.
The printer does not draw a picture of the item on a piece of
paper, as an ordinary printer would do. Instead, it physically
builds the object, by squirting melted plastic,
glass or liquid metal out of nozzles. The material
follows the computer design, and layer by layer,
the printer constructs the object.
3-D printing enables the full realization of mass customization,
which feeds our insatiable desire to own one-of-a-kind things.
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26. Open innovation: customers’ or citizens’ participation
Innovation: from light improvement to radical, disruptive change
Customers can’t offer radically new innovative solutions
but customers can trigger innovations:
Can express comments on products and services
Can describe their problems, needs, barriers, expectations
Can evaluate innovative solutions
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Henry Ford is quoted as once saying:
“If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said,
faster horses
Level of innovation
Improve
efficiency
Improve
effectiveness
Change
business
model
Henry Ford is quoted as once saying:
“If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said,
faster horses”

27. Customers’ participation
Data analysis  behavioral patterns / clusters
Service simplification / alternative ways of …
Personalization
And much more….
but it is like Janus ….
You create high expectations
Cost and effort to manage expressed ideas (“the $ 12.50 idea)
Pressure to change many things and quickly
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Powerful tool to listen
and influence customers
Effective tool in
customers’ “fingers”
to exercise pressure
The double face of Janus

28. Fail ! The road to succeed !
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http://ow.ly/4mRrV

29. Fail ! Fail ! Fail !
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30. Some Greek initiatives supporting innovation (indicative)
ELTRUΝ Lab of Athens University of Economy and Business
(AUEB)
Microsoft Innovation Center
Companies Effect Communications SA και AvantBrand SA, with
Knowhow.gr
Initiatives: ennovation by ELTRUN, SmartBusiness, Open Coffee,
Open Fund, greekstartups.gr
“H Ellada kainotomei”(“Greece Innovates”, by Eurobank EFG
and SEB
Cluster of Cooperative Schemes “Corallia”
“Zeyxis” network (Ministry of Education)
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