Innovating differently: building impactful ecosystems | Erik Grab | TEDxEDHECBusinessSchool

Summary of YouTube Video:

Key Concepts:

• Innovation in Ecosystem: Innovating together, involving multiple players across different industries to solve complex, systemic challenges.
• Strategic Anticipation: Predicting and anticipating future trends and disruptions by looking beyond one's own industry.
• Shared Vision: Developing a common understanding of the future innovation space among stakeholders.
• Trust Building: Establishing trust through collaborative work, shared vision, and co-innovation.
• Disruption: Introducing startups and sustainable solutions to challenge established corporations.
• Public-Private Partnerships: Reinventing collaborations with public authorities to facilitate innovation.

1. The Challenge of Systemic Problems:

• The world faces major challenges like climate change, social instability, and economic disruption.
• These challenges are systemic, meaning they are complex and cannot be solved by single entities (governments, corporations, or ideas).
• A new approach is needed: Innovation in Ecosystem.

2. Innovation in Ecosystem Explained:

• It's not innovating alone, but innovating together.
• Examples include circular economy, sharing big data for AI, deploying clean energy, and scaling autonomous vehicles.
• These challenges require multiple players, making innovation in ecosystem complex.
• It's crucial to innovate on the way to innovate, as current methods yield insufficient positive impact and slow changes.
• Training people to connect the dots between different industries, ideas, and people is essential.

3. The Autonomous Vehicle Prediction Failure (2010):

• The speaker, working at Michelin, was tasked with analyzing the future of autonomous vehicles.
• Based on interviews with car makers and tier-one suppliers, the speaker predicted fully autonomous vehicles (Level 5) by 2025.
• This prediction was wrong.
• The reason: the speaker only consulted the usual suspects within the automotive value chain.

4. The 5G Revelation and Shift in Strategy:

• A visit to Orange (telecom operator) revealed that 5G connectivity couldn't guarantee uninterrupted connection for autonomous cars.
• This led to a revised recommendation: autonomy only for specific shuttles in controlled environments (airports, factories).
• Key learnings:
  • The existing value chain is resistant to disruption.
  • Anticipating the future requires looking beyond one's own industry.
  • Connecting people, industries, managers, and technology is crucial.

5. Building an Open Innovation Lab (2012):

• The speaker created a strategic anticipation department and an open lab.
• Companies from diverse industries (Microsoft, Orange, BNP Paribas, NG, GM, Arian, DHL) were invited to collaborate on the future of mobility.
• Shared vision and scenarios of evolution create trust, which is essential for innovation in ecosystem.
• Trust is built through collaborative work, not just casual interactions.
• The open lab fostered co-innovation and the development of new mobility solutions.
• "Moving On" (Mo) was born as the name of the ecosystem.

6. The Innovation in Ecosystem Process:

• Step 1: Creating Trust Through Shared Vision:
  • Defining the future innovation space together.
  • Addressing stakes, trends, and breakthrough events (technological, legal, social) within a specific time horizon (5-15 years).
  • Developing specific tools to structure the future innovation space.
• Step 2: Choosing a Shared Scenario:
  • Determining how to reach the desired innovation space from the present.
  • Selecting a scenario collectively.
  • Alignment on a scenario increases its likelihood of occurring.
• Step 3: Detecting Opportunities:
  • Identifying quick wins, mid-term, and long-term opportunities.
  • Testing prototypes, minimum viable products, and new business models.
  • Piloting experiments in real-world settings.

7. Examples of Successful Ecosystem Innovation:

• Testing autonomous "navettes" (shuttles) under the leadership of an insurance company (Massive).
• Transforming an old car factory into a circular economy plant for electric vehicles (led by Renault).
• Facilitating the launch of Symbio (a joint venture between Michelin, Faurecia, and Stellantis), a unicorn specializing in hydrogen fuel cells.

8. Addressing Weaknesses and Expanding the Approach:

• Big corporations struggle with disruption.
• Solution: Introducing startups and sustainable solutions (from the Solar Impulse Foundation).
• Moderating communities of interest is challenging.
• Solution: Developing a training program for managers on ecosystem thinking, creativity, generative AI, and strategic participation (with North American and European academics).
• Public-private partnerships need to be reinvented.
• Solution: Testing new approaches with new financing, support plans, and regulations derived from work with public authorities.

9. Conclusion:

• Innovation in ecosystem is no longer an option but a necessity for transforming societies economically, ecologically, and socially.
• The approach is being expanded to other sectors like textile circularity, luxury goods, water management, and building material reuse.
• Innovation in ecosystem changes the culture of innovation and teaches how to influence without hierarchical authority.
• The planet needs innovation and cooperation urgently.
• It's time to innovate on the way to innovate and work together.

10. Notable Quotes:

• "Innovation in ecosystem is just that but it's complex nevertheless."
• "Without trust there is no innovation in ecosystem. Without trust between us there is no cooperation. Trust is key."
• "The planet our planet is not asking for innovation or cooperation. It's begging for it."