Espaitec has once again organised face-to-face sessions on its premises with, on this occasion, a workshop about collaborative innovation, which it has been unable to do since March 2020
The Recicla’t Espaitec series held the workshop «Collaborative Innovation» with Alfons Cornella, an expert consultant of business innovation and the founder of Infonomia. This event was the first face-to-face session held on the Espaitec premises since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
When this workshop was opened, the Manager of the General Universitat Jaume I Foundation and the Director of Espaitec, Juan Antonio Bertolín, welcomed Alfons Cornella and stressed the excellent opportunity for those present to learn the possibilities that business collaboration offers in the innovation domain.
The speaker offered a detailed explanation of how collaborative innovation consists in innovating with other firms or customers, and to do this, both firms and customers need to get involved, which would be impossible if people did not wish to collaborate with one another. Another stressed aspect was the broker figure; that is, the professional who provides this involvement and energy in the project so that collaboration is effective and beneficial for all involved parties.
Cornella highlighted that «the complex future we move towards will make collaboration compulsory». He emphasised that «when you decide to innovate collaboratively, it is important to not think from products, but from brands’ assets». He also stressed the four steps that comprise the collaborative innovation process: identifying assets by analysing the business model; being able to inspire teams by successful examples; interacting with firms or organisations; managing to spark your business.
By way of conclusion, the speaker wished to point out that firms know how to compete, but not how to collaborate, and collaborative innovation needs willingness and the tools to do just this, while collaboration must have a trust and generosity basis.
ALFONS CORNELLA
Alfons Cornella is the founder of Infonomia and the Institute of Next, which are innovation services consultancy firms. He is an expert in the innovation of large multinationals. He has led more than 120 innovation projects in all kinds of organisations, especially in the private sector. He has published 38 books, and hundreds of brief reports about innovation, business and technology, from the perspective of transforming organisations. He graduated in Physics by the Universitat de Barcelona, has a Master of Science in Information Resources Management by Syracuse University in New York, and a postgraduate degree in High Business Management by the ESADE Business School.
The Recicla’t Espaitec series is an Espaitec initiative that aims to facilitate extending and improving the business skills of the firms linked with this Park, the Universitat Jaume I research groups interested in generating future spin-offs and the business fabric of the Castellón province. This initiative is supported by the Regional Valencian Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society of the Generalitat Valenciana.
