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Systems of Innovation
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Uffe Elbaek led a discussion with David Muhia, Skoll Scholar, Nina Smith of Rugmark, and Piera Morlacchi of the University of Sussex on social innovations and the environments that foster them.
How are social innovations created? How are they implemented? What are the ecologies of innovation in the areas we inhabit?
Pierra Morlacchi discussed the increasingly complex systems of innovation that are moving from a study of people to systems of people. She discussed how innovation can be considered in a broader concept of the ecology or ecosystem of the world they inhabit. Following her presentation we had a chance to spend 10 minutes with our neighbours to discuss our own systems. I was fortunate enough to participate in a very lively conversation regarding the networking of social entrepreneurs and the inclusivity or exclusivity of these networks. Unanswered questions included whether the Skoll Forum itself was excluding true innovators from nations who cannot afford, or at least justify the expense of, flying to Britain.
Nina Smith presented next on her work with Rugmark in their attempts to eliminate child labour from the rug making industry in Nepal, India and Pakistan. Following her was my classmate David Muhia who talked about attempts to create not-for-profit pharma companies to innovate on and hopefully distribute ultimately unprofitable drugs for diseases afflicting developing nations.
We ended in another thinking session and talk focusing on how to innovate in our organisations. Points were made on the need for renewal and the dangerous reinforcement of obsolete systems. Furthermore the importance of outside views and fresh insights was raised and Uffe raised the notion that sometimes the most important things fly below our radar because we aren't looking hard enough. I had discussed with my group the value in not only expertise but ignorance as well as half way between the current way of thinking and a really stupid idea is often genius.
Pierra Morlacchi discussed the increasingly complex systems of innovation that are moving from a study of people to systems of people. She discussed how innovation can be considered in a broader concept of the ecology or ecosystem of the world they inhabit. Following her presentation we had a chance to spend 10 minutes with our neighbours to discuss our own systems. I was fortunate enough to participate in a very lively conversation regarding the networking of social entrepreneurs and the inclusivity or exclusivity of these networks. Unanswered questions included whether the Skoll Forum itself was excluding true innovators from nations who cannot afford, or at least justify the expense of, flying to Britain.
Nina Smith presented next on her work with Rugmark in their attempts to eliminate child labour from the rug making industry in Nepal, India and Pakistan. Following her was my classmate David Muhia who talked about attempts to create not-for-profit pharma companies to innovate on and hopefully distribute ultimately unprofitable drugs for diseases afflicting developing nations.
We ended in another thinking session and talk focusing on how to innovate in our organisations. Points were made on the need for renewal and the dangerous reinforcement of obsolete systems. Furthermore the importance of outside views and fresh insights was raised and Uffe raised the notion that sometimes the most important things fly below our radar because we aren't looking hard enough. I had discussed with my group the value in not only expertise but ignorance as well as half way between the current way of thinking and a really stupid idea is often genius.
