Innovation Should Play a Key Role in the Future of the Irish Midlands
Published by Karen Cunningham in Tuesday 13th April 2010
Atlantic Corridor hosted a business breakfast with Langdon Morris of Innovation Labs in the Tullamore Court Hotel on Tuesday 13th April. Innovation Labs, who are collaborating in the Irish market with O’KellySutton, strategic planning consultants , are recognized as one of the world’s leading innovation consultants and collaborative design facilitators.
Langdon Morris is known worldwide for his work in innovation, strategy, and collaboration methodologies. Recent clients that Langon has worked with include Novotel, NASA, Total Oil, SAP, Gemalto, the Federal Reserve Bank, Tata Group, France Telecom, Stanford University, the University of Minnesota Medical School, Cap Gemini, DuPont, Wipro, L’Oréal, Accor Hotels, and many others.
He is Senior Practice Scholar of the Ackoff Center at the University of Pennsylvania; a Senior Fellow of the Economic Opportunities Program of the Aspen Institute; a member of the Scientific Committee of Business Digest, Paris, and a member of the Editorial Committee of The International Journal of Innovation Science. He has taught MBA courses in strategy at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris and Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires. He is the author, co-author, or editor of six highly acclaimed books, with editions in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and French, as well as of numerous white papers and articles. His book “Permanent Innovation” has been described as “the perfect primer” and “the best book out there covering the core concepts of innovation.”
The opportunity to learn about innovation from Langdon Morris was welcomed by Paul O’Kelly, Partner, O’Kelly Sutton. He commented ; “In Ireland, and internationally we are working with companies that are thriving today; companies that are bouncing back after major setbacks in the last couple of years. These business have three things in common. They have inspired, resilient leadership. They are flexible, yet rigorous in the execution of their plans; and they have the true culture and disciplines of innovation in their business. Although in Offaly and the Midlands we have many outstanding innovators and innovative companies, we need to dramatically increase innovation capability and investment for this region to prosper and grow. Langdon has given the people here today powerful insights into how to innovate, what people need to measure so that they are on track, how to build an innovation culture and the practical process required to deliver.”
In his presentation, Langdon spoke on the business model of innovation and how to create an innovation culture in your organization and the role of innovation and how it is driven by economic change. In a fascinating insight into the process of innovation, he discussed in detail work he had done with Apple Computers, an icon of innovation culture.
Speaking about the event, Jackie Gorman, CEO of Atlantic Corridor commented : “Langdon Morris is one of the four founding partners of Innovation Labs, one of the world’s leading innovation consulting firms. Headquartered in Florida, Innovation Labs work on every continent with all kinds of companies and organizations, on a tremendous range of projects. This event is a unique opportunity to learn how business, organisations, education, even regions and countries who are in “Permanent Innovation” continue to prosper and grow around the world. We were delighted to host this event in Tullamore and provide the business community of the Irish Midland,s and beyond, with access to international expertise such as Langdon’s.”
Chairperson of Atlantic Corridor John Flanagan also commented :”The recently published report of the Innovation Taskforce has stated quite clearly that we cannot continue to do business as we have done before. In order to remain competitive we must continue to be innovative and do business in ways that are smarter and faster. An Innovation Culture is the key to this and I would urge members of the local business community to learn from this event and learn from one of the world’s top thinkers in the field of innovation.”
This event was organized by Atlantic Corridor, a development agency, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs Promoting Ireland Abroad Division to develop links for business and education between the Irish Midlands, the USA, Canada and North America.Further information is available on www.atlanticcorridor.ie
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