Recent stats show that up to 86% of the workforce in Europe is not engaged or actively disengaged from their work. This has serious implications for the bottom line of companies and the economy. Disengaged employees are disconnected from their companies and may be working against employers’ interests. This misalignment can lead to less productive employees who are more likely to steal from their companies, negatively influence their coworkers, miss workdays and drive customers away. Workforce engagement is not only key in the corporate world. People also have great impact in performance within the startup world. Data from CB Insights show that among the top 3 reasons for startup failure is not having the right team. A diverse team with different skill sets is often cited as being critical to the success of a venture. Unsuccessful founders often lament that they did not have the right people from the start or wish that the venture had a founder with different characteristics and interests.

Europe is lagging behind in the digital transformation

Innovation ecosystems have been faster than ever and forward-looking steps to shape the future of innovation have been taken. However, Europe is lagging in the digital transformation and may fall behind in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Europe is also behind in investment in new technologies. European start-ups find it difficult to achieve scale, while talent remains a scarce resource. It is clear that HR is a true catalyst for fundamental shifts in mindset and culture. In this context, it’s clear that most challenges for HR stem from a lack of alignment with the organization’s wider strategic vision and objectives.

The power of HR in promoting innovation

HR plays a crucial role in promoting innovation, building innovative companies and entrepreneurship. HR must be an intrinsic part of the innovation strategy. Initially, it’s best to focus on simple and pragmatic approaches and involve smaller and fewer teams. With time, and if successful, these pilot projects will provide insights for the fine tuning of the overall innovation positioning. This alignment and the involvement of other functions of the organization will allow for innovation to scale a company to an appropriate level.

Besides helping organizations create leadership funnels toward C-suite positions, a culture of innovation and respect allows for great ideas and entrepreneurial spirit to surface. Financial incentives and status may have some impact, but innovators tend to be driven by something more. Pragmatic and practical opportunities for harnessing the power of HR in promoting innovation are:

– Ideation initiatives: HR should be a source of input for the definition of the innovation communication and positioning strategy internally;

– Identifying early adopters: HR professionals have the unique opportunity to identify, qualify and quantify the alignment of people with the innovation strategy and objectives;

– Mitigating fear: creating a clear framework around innovation allows people with a potentially disruptive idea to understand that there is a structured program that encourages proactivity and learning by doing through informative failure.

Can Corporates learn from Startups?

Hiring the right people can make or break a venture. For example, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky personally interviewed the company’s first 500 employees. As one can easily perceive, it was incredibly time-consuming, but it paid dividends.

Some might argue that this is something completely crazy to do. All startups have a short financial runway. As such, they must be quick. But history has shown that it is best to be patient and focus on finding culture fit if you want to truly be innovative and game changing. In a startup, the first hires will then hire their own teams, so this is particularly relevant.

Nevertheless, common sense tells us that once a startup starts being successful and growing the hiring process must scale. This does not mean doing it hastily or unprofessionally. A company can hire quickly whilst maintaining high standards. Look at how Google quadrupled in size every year between 2001 and 2011 whilst focusing on quality over quantity. Quite counter-intuitive but feasible. According to Eric Schmidt (CEO for Google during this period) it’s all about hiring interesting people.

Most companies can’t afford hiring these types of profiles. But Eric Schmidt’s message is basically about hiring people who are persistent and curious. Persistence is the single biggest predictor of future success. The combination of persistence and curiosity is a very good predictor of employee success in a knowledge economy.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has a slightly different, though not necessarily opposing, view. He argues that it’s all about surrounding yourself with the best people possible.

Mark argues that this does not mean you would give them your job. Only that, if tables were turned around, you would be comfortable working for this person.

A true catalyst for innovation

HR is much more than hiring people. This does not mean hiring people is not important, in fact it means exactly the opposite. When HR is done right, hiring is part of an overall strategy that must be aligned with other function of a business. In a Europe that is lagging behind in terms of digital transformation, HR is a true catalyst in promoting innovation, through fundamental shifts in mindset and corporate culture. Both the corporate and the startup world have shown us how HR and hiring can provide a sustainable competitive advantage in disrupting the landscape.

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The course is organised by the Centrum Leo Apostel (CLEA), an interdisciplinary and transfaculatory research centre created under the initiative of the Belgian philosopher Leo Apostel.

“We often talk about thinking ‘outside the box’, but the boxes remain very present in our minds and slow down free thinking without us being really aware of it. We want to provide methods that allow us to put aside preconceived ideas. To find creative solutions to complex problems, we must dare to cross the boundaries of frameworks and disciplines, while remaining critical enough to distinguish good ideas from bad,” explains Professor Francis Heylighe.

The new curriculum is expected to attract prospective entrepreneurs, business leaders, politicians, and consultants.

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Effective and innovative

The BluePoint, the eighth Belgian solar car, is also the most aerodynamic car ever designed in Belgium. To achieve as little air resistance as possible, the shape of the car has continued to improve for six months. « We are proud of the result. To travel the 3,000 kilometers of the race across Australia, the BluePoint should consume the equivalent of 7 liters of diesel according to calculations, » says Emmerick Vandervelpen, aerodynamic engineer of the Agoria Solar Team.

In addition to improvements in aerodynamics, BluePoint also introduces some innovations. This is the first time that students have developed the solar panel themselves. So far, the Belgian Solar Team had always bought this panel. Making it itself has allowed the team to better control the production process. This year, they selected the appropriate photovoltaic cells, connected them together and covered them with a protective layer. Photovoltaic cells are extremely fragile, which makes the process particularly delicate. Nelis Geurts, head of the solar panel within the team: « Photovoltaic cells are much more efficient than those you see on rooftops in your street. These cells are also those used on satellites and their total cost is the price of a Lamborghini.  »

Continuous improvement

With a surface area of ​​2.6 m², the solar panel of the BluePoint is as large as that of the previous car, the Punch 2.  The new car is narrower, which implies a lower resistance to air but also less space for mechanical components. Thus, the space between the wheels and the body of the car is only a few millimeters in some places. The pilot has less room to move. « To avoid unnecessary wasted space, the car was literally made to fit me. My hips and shoulders fit perfectly in the cabin, « says Inge Habets, Solar Team pilot.

World Championship in Australia

On October 13, the Belgian solar car will be at the start of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. This is the solar car world championship, in which the BluePoint will travel 3,021 kilometers through the Australian desert. No less than 53 student teams from around the world have registered for this edition, a record!

After winning the third place in 2017 and the first place after an extreme race last year in Chile, the Belgian team is more determined than ever to cross the finish line in first position this year. « The whole team gave the maximum for a year. Today, we are ready for the world championship and we are aiming for first place in Australia, « concludes Willem-Jan Claes, team leader of the Agoria Solar Team.

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The business environment we currently live in is extremely fast-paced and innovation is key for business survival and creation. Typically, entrepreneurs are deploying (or trying to) most innovations. However, corporates are increasingly getting some skin in the game.

However, most of the time innovation fails. It’s just part of the game. According to Robert Cooper (father of the stage gate model), for every seven innovation projects only one succeeds. In his research, Andrew Kusiak actually refers to a 90% chance of failure. No matter what the true value is, the conclusion is that innovation is hard to master. Looking at the most innovative companies out there, a trend arises. All of them have had many more failures than successes.

Thomas Edison’s quote is a perfect example of the value of failure. Failing as a learning experience can add tremendous value in the long run and even though it is generally accepted, encouraging failure is easier said than done. It is impossible to know in advance what will and will not work. Companies need to expose themselves to new ideas and solutions. The most innovative companies have a culture where they learn from failure, not only celebrate it. However, making the same mistake over and over again has no value.

It is impossible to pinpoint a single root cause for innovation failure. Often, there is a compound effect of several factors. Innovation is uncertain and risky. Identifying the most common factors and developing innovation practices sheds light on how corporations can gradually build innovation capabilities and legacy. Not necessarily to prevent failure, but to create value with failure and learn.

Have an innovation strategy

Industries are changing quickly and even established market leaders are being disrupted by digitalisation. Companies must devise an innovation strategy. An incomplete, poorly defined or misaligned strategy is often the reason why innovation fails to prevail. It is essential that the innovation strategy goes hand in hand with the overall corporate strategy and, hopefully, creates and leverages synergies.

A well defined and aligned innovation strategy allows for companies to further develop balanced innovation portfolios. Often, innovation initiatives are scattered. Individuals within the organisation become enthusiastic about the hype around innovation, entrepreneurship and startups and start proposing ad hoc activities. The innovation strategy will help focusing on those activities that have the most impact on the business.

A well thought out innovation strategy helps create momentum for projects and prioritising them, as well as designing a clear and concrete assignment for each. Additionally, only by having innovation well embedded into the corporate strategy can it justify significant resource allocation to its deployment. Only if failing is accepted to be part of the innovation strategy, will disruptive opportunities arise.

Promote a growth and innovation culture

The institutional value of failure is closely tied to the corporate culture. Historically, organisations are terrible at supporting people who have failed. Often, the reaction towards failure is to appoint a different set of individuals to the next innovation assignment. Or worse, killing innovation initiatives altogether.

Learning opportunities can only arise if failures are treated with respect and a neutral and non-judgmental environment is nurtured. Evaluating why initiatives fail and disseminating this information allows for the knowledge to become institutional. In this context, the individuals responsible for failure are respected, since they are now wiser and better prepared to explore future opportunities.

A culture supporting growth and innovation helps prepare the workforce to go outside the box and motivates managers to explore the fast-changing business environment. In a nutshell, a culture focusing on innovation empowers people (from different hierarchical levels) to source for opportunities and work together towards significant innovation.

Ensure adequate leadership throughout the company

Leadership is about inspiring people. Good leaders are capable of leveraging problems as opportunities. Having the leaders committed to innovation promotes learning from failure, rather than punishing individuals who have failed, and can create the urgency for innovation.

Having employees, leaders and top managers participating in the innovation team can add significant value. Effective innovation deployment requires creativity, knowledge and experience. The top management can help the team to be concrete, from the start, to focus on the target market and define criteria for the new concepts.

Simply put, innovation leadership inspires employees to create and implement new products, services and technologies. Innovation generated by leadership is applicable for several purposes and can be translated across sectors. Some great examples are 3M, Google or Zappos.

Get the right people to deploy innovation

Innovation is mostly about execution. If not, it is only a creativity exercise, with little practical relevance. Making a corporation innovative requires a team of people who can influence and tap into various areas of the company. All departments will be impacted and having members of these departments in the innovation team provides an excellent advantage. A team approach can get you better innovation results and internal supporters.

In order to foster collaboration, it is important to identify people across the organisation that share some traits; such as being able to think outside the box and challenge the status quo. It is also key to involve individuals for whom innovation is personally relevant. Diversity (gender, age, professional competences, etc.) also plays an important role in fostering innovation.

Create partnerships between internal and external innovation sources

Co-creating value with both internal and external stakeholders solves customer needs and problems faster. Bringing together different teams and clients can create real results with business impact.

Discussing challenges with people from different teams, backgrounds and industries gives a fresh perspective. This can be particularly valuable when the internal innovation team is not able to build the product as desired. Often, breakthroughs are a result of co-creating and merging together ideas and concepts. Sometimes, it is also useful to put development on hold and let different people take the initiative. History has shown that ideas that did not work at a particular time were later deployed with a different set of people.

A great example the digital camera. Kodak invented it in 1975. The timing was not right. There was no infrastructure to support digital cameras nor were there personal computers. The photos from these new cameras could not be stored anywhere. It was a huge fail. Fast forward a few years, and in 1990 the first Dycam Model 1 is the first digital camera going on sale to the market. As I said, history is full of great ideas that were simply at the wrong time.

Building a strong network of innovation partners is an effective strategy in co-creating solutions and exploring new opportunities. Sometimes, relying on external service providers, who are often, specialised in a specific tools or process can be of value.

Assimilate innovation into the core business

Innovation is sometimes perceived as an independent function of the business. Even though this is often the easiest way to start innovation endeavours, it can also hinder any business impact.

To strengthen the buy-in by top management, incorporating innovation projects into the core business can bring further commitment to the innovation strategy. This relates closely to the innovation portfolio referred above.

Innovation cannot focus solely on long-term or short-term outcomes. A balanced portfolio brings together short-, mid- and long-term initiatives, tackling problems and opportunities at different levels of proximity to the companies business (i.e. core, adjacent, disruptive).

In essence venturing on innovation strategy is an endeavour demanding a real strategic commitment, time, appropriate conditions, a dedicated and capable team possible as well as a dynamic and flexible learning environment.

Embrace failure. Failure is an important part of the innovation process, so let it happen. But be smart about it. Learn from failure as much and as quick as possible. I have shared some key areas to help you reduce the failure rate of innovation. But at the end of the day it comes down to how nimble you are as an organization and if you are capable of adapting constantly to the learning failure can bring. Remember, be brave. It will pay off.

The post Can you reduce innovation failure? appeared first on Brussels Express.

It seems filling the tank of your car is no exception in this regard. Since last week, one is able to pay for fuel with a smartphone app. What’s the point of such a plan?

Belfius, together with the Lukoil fuel stations, have cooperated with Carpay Diem, a Luxembourgish start-up which has developed a smart software to activate a fuel pump and pay from the vehicle. When you arrive at the service station, you should open the app, which will localise you. Then, you should select the pump you aim to use, before you fill up your tank. Then, a proof of payment appears on your smartphone. In other words, no need to use any credit card, as the app will record everything.

This is the first step and you at this point you can’t use any app in any service station. Belfius, as of today, is the only bank app you can use for such a purpose, and only at the Lukoil stations. It seems that competitors are flocking in, however. Colruyt has launched a similar software last week, which is focused on its own fuel stations.

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Certified by the National Cooperation Council (CNC), urbike has partnered with a number of stakeholders (Smart cooperative, ULB’s mobility lab, delivery partners…) to generate new models and ways of working to make last mile delivery a viable option for Brussels-based businesses. While this phase is well underway (project BCklet), urbike has now partnered with Financité, a membership organisation which promotes finance as a tool to achieve social change. The objective is to raise 150,000 Euros to fund the purchase of equipment, the launch of delivery activities and the preparation for scale-up in 2020.

You can, until the end of February 2019, invest in urbike and by doing so become a cooperative member. This means that you will have a right to vote on the cooperative issues (1 person = 1 vote), the opportunity to participate to events and workgroups, as well as receiving up to 6% of the dividends on the annual profits made by the cooperative. There is also a bonus: because urbike is certified by the CNC and is a social economy cooperative, you can benefit from a tax reduction of 45% of the capital invested thanks to the Tax Shelter.

To invest you must buy a minimum of 5 shares priced at 100 Euros each (500 Euros), with a maximum of 50 shares for a single member. To buy share, simply fill in the form on urbike.be and a urbike representative will get in touch with you shortly. If you wish to invest more than 5,000 Euros, get in touch with them at info@urbike.be

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Plastic Odyssey is a boat that uses plastic as fuel. The goal is to raise awareness of plastic waste and recycling. The principle is quite simple: plastic is processed to obtain diesel and gasoline. A kilogram of plastic can produce about a liter of fuel.

Simon Bernard, who is the engineer and developer of the project, explained that he sees the catamaran as an ambassador of recycling.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Ulysse #sailing in #marseille @villemarseille

A post shared by Plastic Odyssey (@plasticodyssey) on Sep 18, 2018 at 6:11am PDT

The aim is not to clean the oceans of plastic.

« Once at sea, it is too late, » stated Bernard. « Only 1% of plastic waste floats on the surface, the remaining 99% breaks down into micro-particles.  The problem must be tackled at its source by collecting and recovering plastic waste before it reaches the ocean. The idea is to offer the countries which are most affected by pollution, the developing countries, recycling technologies that could be reproduced and improved, to create a network of small recycling companies ».

The departure of the 3-year expedition is set for 2020. This would be the first round-the-world expedition on a boat powered solely by plastic waste.

 

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Ce soir sur le plateau de de 28 minutes d’ @artefr, Yakana nous a offert un petit cadeau 😍

A post shared by Plastic Odyssey (@plasticodyssey) on May 25, 2018 at 11:52am PDT

If you want to support their project, check out their website.

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One of them is urbike. This Brussels based cooperative is promoting zero carbon city deliveries on an innovative platform. Existing cargo bikes tend to have limited capacity or a storage space that is not easily managed. To revolutionize urban deliveries, urbike partner Fleximodal has developed BicyLift, which in short aims to do for short distance deliveries what the container has done from international shipping.

Applied to urban distribution, intelligent containerization of goods results in the use of light containers from 1 to 2 m³ in the supply chain and the optimization of their filling using dedicated modules to ensure maximum efficiency of delivery routes. Consequently, the principle of intelligent containerization would make it possible to significantly optimize all delivery operations: reduction in the handling of goods (productivity gains, reduction of stress and risk of damage), acceleration of trans-shipment operations, preparation of delivery routes in masked time (i.e simultaneous to other tasks – so does not take extra time), and the improvement in the density of bicycle deliveries. In addition, the use of secure and standardized containers promotes the pooling of flows, and thus the rationalization of logistics operations.

This trailer can be attached virtually any bicycle in a few seconds, can carry up to 180 kgs in weight and up to 2m³ in volume, and most importantly, it can be attached to wooden pallets that are already widely used for transporting goods. It is also possible to use it with its own container, which also has wheels to facilitate delivery in the last meters.

Urbike has received private and public financing to pilot how these solutions fare in real life circumstances in 4 sectors (parcel, pharma, retail, services and home care), and has chosen a cooperative model to allow their drivers to make decent wages and profit from the companies’ success.

This is particularly insightful at a time when employment is increasingly precarious. By 2020 urbike aims to make 115,000 deliveries avoiding the emissions of 550 tons of CO2 per year (equivalent to removing 30 vans and small trucks from the roads), and to create 17 sustainable and quality jobs.

In addition to this project, they also distribute BicyLift solutions (specifically the trailer and container). If you are interested just get in touch here: info@urbike.be.

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The EUPVSEC is a fixed appointment in the calendar of Photo-Voltaic (PV) experts and has been for decades. It gathers the global PV community to conduct business, to network and to present and discuss the latest developments and innovations in Photovoltaics. It is the world renowned science-to-science, business to-business and science-to-industry platform with a full and only focus on the global PV Solar sector.

The five-day Conference is complemented by the four-day Exhibition, held from Monday, 24 noon to Thursday, 27 September, that gives the opportunity to meet different target groups: the global PV community, from science and PV industry will gather at the EU PVSEC. Technologies, innovations and new concepts in the upstream PV sector are the main characteristics. From total participants about 50% is represented by PV researchers and 40% by PV industry.

This year conference programme, with more than 1,000 presentations, cover the entire range of PV research, technologies and applications, focusing on the latest scientific, technological and market related trends and provides an overview on the latest R&D in photovoltaic technology from the leading global researchers of institutes, universities and solar companies. Now that Photovoltaic Solar Energy is becoming a major electricity source, the EU PVSEC extended its focus to applied and policy-oriented topics. The EU PVSEC thus strengthens its established leading role in science and technology among the players of the global PV sector.

The Conference Programme is complemented with 9 Parallel Events that present around 110 additional contributions. They are jointly organized with major international organisations and offer a deep insight into specific topics along the most recent technology, market and business trends. The EU PVSEC Industry Exhibition provides first hand opportunities to meet with the global innovators in these challenging times full of new opportunities.

This year the event will be held in the heart of Europe, Brussels.

“I’m excited that this year’s EU-PVSEC takes place in Brussels, Europe’s capital. It provides the perfect forum to showcase the excellence of the Belgian R&D players in the domain of photovoltaic technology and system development. This is also an encouragement for our respective governments to foresee a prominent position of photovoltaic electricity generation in our future sustainable energy system. I welcome all the participants coming from all parts of the globe to get the latest on PV innovations as well as to enjoy the best of what Belgium has to offer on gastronomy and culture said Prof. Jef Poortmans, Scientific Director of the PV and Energy activities of Imec, part-time Professor at the K.U.Leuven and University Hasselt , R&D Strategy Coordinator of EnergyVille, imec Fellow for his contribution and impact, Coordinator R&D-strategy of EnergyVille, member of the Steering Committee of the ETIP PV (European Technology & Innovation Platform PV).

Background EU PVSEC

The EU PVSEC is supported by European and international organisations such as the European Commission, UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Natural Sciences Sector, WCRE – World Council for Renewable Energy, SolarPower Europe, Solar United, ESA – European Space Agency, EREF – European Renewable Energies Federation, EUFORES – European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources, EU PV TP – European Photovoltaic Technology Platform, ARE – Alliance for Rural Electrification, AIE – European Association of Electrical Contractor, CABA – Continental Automated Buildings Association, EPIC – European Photonics Industry Consortium, SASIA – Saudi Arabia Solar Industries Association.

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The GII several enduring strengths of Belgium, including its logistics performance (ranked 6th), expenditure on R&D (11th), school life expectancy (2nd) and university/industry research collaboration (9th).

In terms of innovation linkages and collaboration, Belgium is the overall leader in the European Union.

Its combination of world-class R&D centers such as imec and VIB, the innovative qualities of its SMEs and collaborations between the public and private sector make the country a strong innovator.

The Netherlands and Luxembourg, however, managed to outperform their neighbor in the Innovation category.

The Scoreboard noted that the EU’s innovation performance as a whole continues to improve and that the general outlook is positive.

Good to know:

The European Innovation Scoreboard provides a comparative analysis of innovation performance in EU countries, other European countries and regional neighbors. It assesses relative strengths and weaknesses of national innovation systems and helps countries identify areas they need to address.

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