Atualizações sobre a iniciativa - Future of Innovation

Vou divulgar aqui no LabINOVE a última atualização sobre a iniciativa Future of Innovation. Está ficando bem interessante o "pacote" que será criado e a comunidade que se formará ao redor disso. Vamos ver se dá certo.
Abaixo o último e-mail enviado pela Anna.

Até a próxima!

Dear all,
We are here with the next update on the Future of Innovation: the book, the website, the community..
Firstly, we would like to thank you all for your interest, support, understanding, care, patience, courage, enthusiasm, believe, trust, collaboration, and the open heart. Are you aware that you are pretty tough, as well? We received nearly 350 contributions from 57 countries and it was quite a challenge to read, re-read, review, re-review, structure, re-structure, before the vision of the book finally emerged. You made us think with and about your thinking on the Future of Innovation!!!
This is a letter of congratulations to ALL of us, we did a great thing we started the global thinking on the Future of Innovation!!! All contributions are unique and full of vigour, sense, essence, novelty, and, of course, a bit of your heart you shared!
We remember our promise to stick to the general rules of editorial events of the call for papers, selection, notification of acceptance, etc. But now we realise we should choose a different way. Please read a passage from the Introduction to our Book to understand what we mean.
“When we started reading through the contributions we were awed. Awed about the thoughtfulness and honesty, and the level and depth of insights people shared, at the passion and desire to contribute, to this book, towards the future, towards change. Not just any change but change for a better world, change towards a better future. It was also the belief that it is in our hands to create that better future that warmed our hearts and gave us hope. Particularly in times where every news brings announcements of more redundancies, a well established reaction to crisis, and, in our view, not a particularly effective one as it demotivates even those left behind, and fundamentally disabilitates the ability to innovate.
There would have been many ways to structure the book and to organise a flow. When we received the more than 350 contributions, we were happy and… overwhelmed. Having had a first glance through the contributions we felt ourselves faced with a complicated and intriguing jigsaw puzzle, a picture that had been cut up into strangely shaped pieces. It was our challenge to find a way to put the pieces back together again into a whole. Depending on how we were going to put those pieces together the resulting picture would be different. Then, after re-reading, discussing, speculating, we came to realize that the future of innovation contributions were like three-dimensional scenes, like those pictures full of random dots, known as ‘autostereograms’. Autostereograms are 3D scenes at which you have to look for some considerable time and with concentrate before the hidden picture starts to emerge. What a challenging, thoroughly pleasurable task it has been to see the whole scene of the future of innovation in random statements! Once we had “decoded” it, we decided to tell a story, to take you on a journey, to surround you with contributions on its necessity, its power, and its beauty”.
This is a small part of the Introduction. We set our hearts that you have to read the whole book and decode the Future of Innovation together with us. We want to give you that pleasure of discovering. Read this book to find consolation, read this book to find inspiration, and read this book to find out how you can embrace innovation to help shape a wonderful, exciting and worthwhile future. And we don’t want to spoil the wonderful journey with the selected/not-selected rules of the present state-of-the-art in editorship.
You see, having read all your 350 contributions, we already touched the future and we think differently, apart from the pre-reading outlook. Your contributions, your global thinking on the Future of Innovation, have a miracle effect, wait for it till the book published and the website started.
Meanwhile, ALL contributions are accepted for the website. We are putting a lot of efforts for that, too. For now, we want you to feel and realize that the Book as it is, is only a start; the book is rather static, while the future is always dynamic. We consider this book to be a root, giving life to a growing tree. And this tree is the website, the community and the continuing journey to the Future of Innovation. Please feel yourself a part of community, first.
In order to continue our journey successfully we rely on your enthusiasm once more. As we pack our suitcase for the next step of the journey we need to ensure that we have from all of you the following:
A high quality picture for the book and / or website. It would really help us if you could take responsibility for that. Thank you.
A web-link where each innovation-relevant book that you have written or co-authored can be purchased. For our website (www.thefutureofinnovation.org) we are planning a page with innovation-relevant books written by our contributors – of course it is just an offer. It would be great if you could provide us with a link to amazon as our wonderful technical guys will aim to develop a form that then pulls all relevant information from the amazon website automatically.
Let us know if you do not want to be contacted via the website. On the website we are planning a ‘contact the author’ button for each contribution (rather than showing the email itself on the website which would probably lead to a lot of unwanted SPAM). The important thing is to let us know if you do NOT want such ‘contact the author’ facility for your contribution.

Some guidance for our journey

For interactions: We will have a function whereby people can leave comments/ feedback for individual contributions. If someone comments you will be notified. Please note that we will not monitor these contributions; instead we will have a function through which people can report inappropriate content.
For spreading the word: You are integral part of the Future of Innovation. It would be marvellous if you could promote the book and the website at any speaking engagements and other suitable occasions! Below some facts & figures that will help you with this.
For the community: Please keep on going passionate about the innovation and its future. For that let your colleagues join our wonderful journey via yahoo until the website is done (innovation.future@yahoo.co.uk).
For feedback to us: We also invite you and challenge to explicitly comment on what you think about the Future of the book, the website, the community! It will help us with promoting the book and the idea. Of course we would be happy to reference you by name. Are you pretty tough for this, too? We bet you are!

The Idea – investigating and creating the future of innovation
It is about leading thinkers and those with interesting views on the future of innovation to share their thoughts in 500 words – straight from the heart, as we continue to emphasize.

The book
For the book we received over 350 contributions from 57 countries, from industry, academia, non-profit and government sectors.

Gary Hamel has confirmed that he will write the foreword.

In addition to the official sponsorship the book is / has been already being mentioned in blogs, networks, and at the UN

The Launch
It is planned to launch the book at the ISPIM (International Society for Professional Innovation Management) Conference of the same title, The Future of Innovation, which will be help 21-24 June 2009 in Vienna (http://conference.ispim.org/); recently it has been decided that the R&D Management Conference (www.RnDManagement.info)will be held at the same time so around 500 participants are expected for the joint event. It is anticipated that the website will be up and running 4-6 weeks prior to the conference.

Reasons to buy
The times we are living in are posing more and more challenging and complex questions. Different ways, different approaches, and different ways of thinking are required if we want to tackle these challenges. As Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” in short: we need innovation.
People are looking for inspiration and understanding, for insight that provide them with starting points of how and where to look for solutions, for new insights on problems, and new points of departure for start addressing the challenges.
For academics the book will provide insights into where to concentrate future research agendas.
For consultancies is describes the field in which to develop expertise.
For industry it provides starting points for their innovation agenda.
For the public sector it raises awareness of leading edge developments and thinking that they might want to take into consideration for the development of policies, infrastructure and support.
Selective overview of contributions
Our journey into the Future of Innovation has attracted many of us. Who are they, and where exactly do they come from? Here we can name but a very-very few – in the alphabetic order – to give you a flavour:
Companies: Aerospace, Fujifilm, IBM, InnoCentive, Jaguar and Land Rover, Kodak, Kraft Foods, Nokia, Nortel, Pfizer, Philips, Siemens, Smith and Nephew, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Unilever;
Consultancy: I-Nova, IDEO, Innovaro, McKinsey, PricewaterhouseCoopers, WhatIf;
Best-selling authors: B. Joseph Pine II, Joe Tidd, John Bessant, JT Lawrence, Rob Atkinson, Praveen Gupta;
Journal editors from: Creativity and Innovation Management, Manufacturing Technology Management, Product Innovation Management, R&D Management;
Representatives of foundations: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; Grundfos Foundation, Technology Partners Foundation, The Arab Science and Technology Foundation, South African Creativity Foundation;
Public sector representatives: Danish Technological Institute, Government of India, Max Planck Institute of Economics, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, The R&D Society of Iranian Industries and Mines;
Technical universities: Delft University of Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Tshwane University of Technology;
Countries from around the world: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Barbados, Bahrein, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, India, Iran, Israel, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, USA, Ukraine, Venezuela.
We hope you are happy to be a part of our Future of Innovation network. We will keep in touch, meanwhile, looking forward for hearing from you,
With very best wishes for a really innovative collaboration,

Bettina and Anna

The Success of Persistent Entrepreneurs!

Saiu no Working Knowledge da Harvard Business School de hoje um artigo interessante que reproduzo abaixo. Trata-se de uma discussão de que um empreendedor que tenha tido sucesso na montagem de um negócios, tem mais chances de ser bem sucedido no desenvolvimento do segundo do que aqueles que nunca o fizeram. Parece meio obvio, mas uma pesquisa que dê um pouco mais de credibilidade ao que "intuitivamente" já sabíamos sempre ajuda a reforçar o argumento. A seguir a reprodução do post no blog. Para quem quiser ir direto ao artigo, é só clicar.

Até a próxima!

When it comes to entrepreneurship, nothing says success like a track record of previous wins.
Entrepreneurs with a history of success are much more likely to succeed in new ventures than first-timers or those who failed previously, new research from Harvard Business School demonstrates in the working paper, "Performance Persistence in Entrepreneurship".
The news that successful experience, or performance persistence, pays off may not be news at all. But HBS researchers were surprised at just how much it does help. Successful entrepreneurs in the study had a 34 percent chance of succeeding in their next venture-backed firm, compared with 23 percent for those who previously failed and 22 percent for first-timers.
"The size of the effect more than anything was surprising," note HBS professors Paul A. Gompers and Josh Lerner in an e-mail interview. "We know that there was likely to be some degree of performance persistence, but the magnitude was quite striking."
Their research, conducted with HBS professor David S. Scharfstein and former doctoral student Anna Kovner (MBA '00, PhDBE '08), raises issues that could use further study. For example, do successful serial entrepreneurs receive higher valuations and less restrictive covenants when they raise capital?

Sarah Jane Gilbert: Can you explain the concept of "performance persistence" and what it entails?

Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner: Essentially, entrepreneurs who start venture-backed companies that are successful are more likely to be successful in their next venture-backed firm.
"There is support for the view that some component of performance persistence stems from 'success breeding success.'"
These effects are large and dramatic: All else equal, venture-capital-backed entrepreneurs who succeed in a venture (by our definition, starts a company that goes public) have a 34 percent chance of succeeding in their next venture. By contrast, first-time entrepreneurs have only a 22 percent chance of succeeding, and entrepreneurs who previously failed have a 23 percent chance of succeeding.

Q: How do contributing factors such as skill versus perception affect performance persistence?

A: While clearly skill is an important element, there is also support for the view that some component of performance persistence stems from "success breeding success." For instance, entrepreneurs whose first venture succeeded at least in part due to good timing seem to also do well in subsequent ventures. (By good timing we mean those entrepreneurs who founded a company in a given industry at a time when most new ventures did well: for example, microcomputer-related firms begun in 1981 or Internet firms started in 1996.) Of course, starting a company at an opportune time and place also displays a certain kind of skill as well.

Q: What are some of the more actively pursued industries by entrepreneurs?

A: Venture capitalists typically invest in industries that have substantial growth opportunities and a defensible intellectual property position. Within the study, the computer and Internet, telecommunications, and life sciences industries are disproportionately represented because they have those characteristics. When we look at the more recent years in our data, industries like cleantech have risen in importance.
Because we are focusing on venture-backed firms in this study, the industries are those that are most common for venture capitalists to fund: Internet and software, biotechnology, and telecommunications.

Q: Was there anything in your findings that surprised you?

A: The size of the effect more than anything was surprising. We know that there was likely to be some degree of performance persistence, but the magnitude was quite striking.

Q: Given the current economic conditions, do you have any advice for entrepreneurs who are considering launching a new venture at this time?

A: Certainly one lesson that emerges from our analysis is to find an experienced (and successful) partner! Given the very difficult investment conditions, venture investors are paring back their portfolios and are hesitant to make new commitments. To get serious consideration, the more that you can do to seem like a "sure thing," the better off you are.
More generally, being as careful as you can be with resources, and flexible in terms of the types of arrangements that you are willing to enter into, are particularly important in an environment such as this one.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: We are focused on further disentangling the underlying factors that impact the success of venture-capital-backed start-ups. The data that lies at the heart of our performance persistence papers was gathered from multiple sources over a three- or four-year period. It includes information on the company founders, the venture- capital firms, the boards of directors, and the outcomes of these start-ups.
"One lesson that emerges from our analysis is to find an experienced (and successful) partner!"
One current project examines the value of boards of directors in start-up firms. We are also examining issues related to the expansion of venture-capital firms. How and when do venture-capital firms open up new offices? How do the strategic choices related to opening up those offices affect the success of investments? Finally, we are also beginning to explore how the experience and background of the individual venture capitalists influences their investment success.
We are trying to understand the drivers of success in new ventures and venture firms more generally. On the first front, we are exploring questions such as what makes up an effective board of directors for an entrepreneurial firm. On a second dimension, we are exploring issues such as how venture organizations grow: Does it make sense to open an office in a faraway city, and if so, should one staff it with a "local" or a veteran of the firm's home office.


About the author

Sarah Jane Gilbert is a Web product manager at Harvard Business School.