{"id":497,"date":"2020-01-07T12:13:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T10:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/?p=497"},"modified":"2020-01-07T12:15:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T10:15:57","slug":"to-the-moon-and-back-how-collaboration-drives-breakthrough-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/2020\/01\/07\/to-the-moon-and-back-how-collaboration-drives-breakthrough-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"To the moon and back \u2013 how collaboration drives breakthrough innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and\nworking together is success.” This quote supposedly coined by Henry\nFord<\/strong> has never been truer than what it is today. The greater the challenge,\nthe bigger the need for multi-disciplinary collaboration. President Kennedy<\/strong>\nfamously initiated Project Apollo<\/a> not only because of the American\nideological and geopolitical race against the Soviets but also because he\nwanted to create a national project so big, that it could only be solved\nthrough seamless cooperation of a vast amount of organizations and brilliant\nminds from across society. Some years later, 1969, man landed on the Moon (and\ngot back safely) and in the process of this human spaceflight program emerged a\nnumber of life-changing unintended innovations, such as water purification,\nbreathing masks, polymer fabric, and cordless devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today, ecosystems, platforms, collaboration, and network effects are some\nof the key words on the lips of researchers and practitioners alike globally.\nWhile the forms and stakeholders involved in business ecosystems are likely to\nbe different, it is generally recognized that networking across disciplines and\nsectors is needed for innovation and future business\nresilience. Although they all have their own specific roles to play, the\nlines between businesses, public sector institutions, and third-sector\norganizations are blurring and all stakeholders including higher education are\nincreasingly positioning themselves as part of society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations are no longer only comparing themselves in relation to\ntheir respective competitive environments. Many argue that we are\nwitnessing the dawn of a new era in the interaction between businesses and\ntheir stakeholders and societies. The list of examples is long and growing: the\nFinancial Times <\/em>initiative to redefine capitalism; the Business\nRoundtable stance on the roles of companies in relation to their stakeholders;\nthe European Commission initiated University Business Cooperation programs to\nfoster societal innovation and entrepreneurship; the Science Based Targets\nInitiative developed by the UN and citizen organisations to support companies\nin their emission reduction pledges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is generally recognized that networking across disciplines and sectors is needed for\u00a0innovation and\u00a0future business resilience.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

New markets and business platforms emerge as a reaction to this new\nera and are powered by opportunities provided by digitalization and scalable\ntechnologies. This development is driving all organizations to\nrethink their strategies and visions through strategic partnerships. As a\nconsequence, we are witnessing closer collaboration between business and\nacademic stakeholders. Companies are turning to universities for crowdsourcing\nand innovation ventures together with multidisciplinary research teams. Similarly,\nresearchers and scientists are looking for relevance in their research and\naccess to in-depth market data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent EU-funded project<\/a> indicated that university-business collaboration initiatives foster the strategic mission of universities; provide a closer connection between education, research and innovation; respond to the evolving needs of the labour market; improve the quality of human resources, and facilitate the flow of knowledge transfer from universities to companies, regions and society at large. My own collaboration with large companies and research centres in Finland such as the KONE Corporate, Fiskars Group and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland support these findings. As Senator Fulbright<\/strong> \u2013 the initiator of the Fulbright program for international exchange<\/a> \u2013 put it: \u201cOf all the joint ventures in which we might engage, the most productive, in my view, is educational exchange\u201d. Being a Fulbright alumnus myself from the University of Massachusetts, I can certainly concur with the importance of educational exchange between different, sometimes unplanned connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

50 years after Apollo we are again confronted with a daunting task \u2013\ncombat the effects of climate change, and rethink and redesign the ways in\nwhich we go about our daily lives. This can only be done by mimicking the\ncollaborative and concentrated efforts five decades ago. Successful innovators\nask new kinds of questions, seek actively for new types of collaboration forms,\nand look broadly for new forms of impact. Curious and\ncollaboration-seeking researchers and business leaders will play a pivotal role\nin the change ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My best collaboration wishes for the New Year and many inspiring new\nventures!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristina Heinonen<\/a>
Professor, Director of CERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” This quote supposedly coined by Henry Ford has never been truer than what it is today. The greater the challenge, the bigger the need for multi-disciplinary collaboration. President Kennedy famously initiated Project Apollo not only because of the American ideological and …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28,27,25,26,29],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cers-blog","tag-business-collaboration","tag-business-platform","tag-collaboration","tag-innovation","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}