Our Managing Director, Totti Könnölä attended the innovation panel of the the VI General Conference of the Spanish Foundations Association, which was held the 23rd of November of 2016 in the headquarters of the Barrie Foundation in A Coruña, in the framework of the 50th commemorative act of this Galician entity.
Totti made a bet on innovation during his intervention on the round table. “To innovate is, in the last instance, about betting on people”, he suggested. His discourse addressed the challenge of entrepreneurship, innovation, ambition and collaboration. He gave much importance to the last point, and he got to say that “at the end that its not just institutions which collaborate but rather individual persons, and sometimes bonds of complicity are created”, as occurred in a case from his native country, Finland, where the Government “obliged” first companies and the academic world to collaborate for obtaining public funds and, although at first the relationship was “artificial”, little by little links were created between persons which led to effective collaboration. In addition, he indicated that innovation is not just undertaken by the business field, but also science, politics and society. However, he added that “entrepreneurship requires an ecosystem” and that, it is necessary to cooperate and “work hand in hand to advance”. He reflected that in the path of innovation there are risks that have to be accepted and that sometimes also serious difficulties arise; “innovative entrepreneurship is a journey, it always comes with uncertainties, but it has its rewards”. So he encouraged everyone to “have ambition” in their projects.
image© @ClaraNavarroCol
David Cano holds MSc in Mechanical Engineering, post graduate studies in Management of Innovation and Technology Policy and Executive MBA program at IESE. He David has an extensive experience in management, development and operation of the innovation process primarily on industrial, ICT and healthcare sectors. Trained in general management and innovation in international centres of excellence, highlights his experience identifying business opportunities, feasibility analysis, fundraising both national and European level and its later product/service commercialization. Passionate about teaching, participates in various related innovation management and entrepreneurship program with a clear market orientation what motivates him to establish his own star-up company in the medical sector.
Orchidea Innovations is leading software company in the field on innovation. They help their customers to systemize and involve the whole organization in innovation. Orchidea SaaS platform enables employees, customers and partners to participate in innovation. Their software and expertise help the customers to accelerate innovation which leads to more profitable business.
Mr Jari Kaivo-oja is an expert in the field of foresight and innovation management. He is Research Director at Finland Futures Research Centre, at TSE of University of Turku. He is adjunct professor at the University of Helsinki (Faculty of Science) and at the University of Lapland (Faculty of Social Sciences). He has worked in various foresight research projects for the European Commission (FP 6, FP 7, and Horizon 2020), European Parliament, European Foundation, Nordic Innovation Centre, Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation and the Academy of Finland. He is respected research fellow in European science forums, being among other things, Skłodowska-Curie science program´s evaluator in 2016 and evaluator of various EU research programmes.
PhD on Innovation and Business Management
