Our team at MTI² is proud to reach an important milestone as we held our first invitation-only Innovation Leaders Roundtable on May 31st 2016. Several times, we had received the explicit request to bring innovation leaders in our network together to share their experiences. The atmosphere we wanted to set was a limited scale roundtable to create great potential in making connections and sharing experiences. As all good things, it ultimately became a bit bigger than we anticipated… We were delighted to host thought leaders from companies such as a.s.r, Ageas, Baloise, Bank of New York Mellon, Baxter, Bekaert, Bentley Motors, Caesar Groep, Callebaut&Co, Dell, Evonik, Fibersail, Ghent University, Heraeus, Hoge Raad Diamant, Johnson & Johnson, Kom op tegen Kanker, Komatsu, Michelin, Nokia, Proximus, Puratos, Renolit, UCB, Unilin and VRT. As a setting, we chose the Pastorale in Reet for a couple of reasons. First, it reminds us of the small Flemish town in the country side we are located ourselves to service clients globally. Second, the Pastorale is one of the most creative settings among Belgium’s many fine dining opportunities. Third, given our intense collaboration with Michelin and its presence as a presenter, it seemed befitting to pick a place the Michelin Red Guide writes raving reviews about. We saw inspiring presentations from Pedro Costa, sharing his experience as head of Michelin’s Incubator in Europe, Sabine Leclercq, R&D Site Director at Baxter R&D Europe and prof. Isabel van Driessche, sharing the experience of Ghent University with their Innoversity Challenge. Enthused by these stimulating talks, we then came together in roundtables, to discuss the most important innovation topics relevant to our participants. While many different topics where discussed, the most frequently mentioned ones that emerged from discussions included the people aspect of innovation, the balance between incremental versus transformational projects, and keeping momentum to establish sustainable innovation. As it is proven that writing down resolutions makes you more likely to succeed (and on top of that, increases your overall happiness), we asked participants to form actionable insights and write down resolutions they would act upon in the next couple of days, weeks or months. We also made resolutions ourselves of course. As a way of following up on one of our own resolutions, we will provide more information on the learnings in the upcoming weeks, so make sure to stay tuned.

1. Innovation Leaders Roundtable
Keeping the Momentum
www.mti2.eu

2. Our Inspiration Journey
15.30-16.00 Welcome Coffee
16.00-16.10 Welcome by MTI2 (prof.dr. Stefan Stremersch & dr. Isabel
Verniers)
16.10-16.40 From Seeding to Impactful Ideas in R&D
(dr. Sabine Leclercq, R&D Site Director, Baxter R&D Europe &
dr. Patricia Meijers, Sr. Research Scientist, Baxter R&D Europe)
16.40-17.10 Engaging the Crowd to Address Disruptive Business Models
(prof.dr. Isabel van Driessche, Ghent University)
17.10-17.40 Successfully Incubating New Venture Teams Outside the Core
Business
(Pedro Costa, Incubator Michelin)
17.40-18.00 Break
18.00-19.00 Roundtable Discussions
19.00-21.30 Dinner & Wrap-up
31 May 2016
de Pastorale, Reet
Innovation Leaders Roundtable
Seminar & Dinner
by MTI2

3. Innovation Leaders at the Roundtables

4. Top Three Learnings from Roundtable Discussions
INCREMENTAL VS.
TRANSFORMATIONAL
How to balance between
incremental versus transformational
projects?
SUSTAIN
How to keep momentum in order
to establish sustainable
innovation?
ENGAGE
How to make your employees the
biggest ally in your innovation efforts?

5. INCREMENTAL VS. TRANSFORMATIONAL
How to balance between
incremental versus transformational
projects
KEEPING MOMENTUM
How to keep momentum in order
to establish sustainable
innovation
This Presentation: Sustain
Sustain
How to keep momentum in
order to establish
sustainable innovation?

6. Sustain Innovation Efforts
Build to
Last
Communication
Innovation Process
start
end
gates
cycles
learn design
sustain
innovate the innovation process
Clear
Expectations
Innovation
Leader
sustainable
innovation process

7. Build to Last
 Build innovation processes that fit
the company strategy
 Build the foundations to last: set up
a dedicated organization and
allocate sufficient resources
 Build a process first, then run a
pilot and optimize over time

8. The Role of the Innovation Leader
 The face of innovation
 The task of an innovation leader
cannot be delegated
 Communication ensures
engagement

9. Set Clear Expectations
 Set clear goals and expectations in line
with strategy
 Clearly communicate innovation goals
 Run, get feedback, learn and improve
 Refuse/reject ideas that do not fit the
set goals

10. Design Sustainable Innovation Process
 Too little or too much innovation may
kill you
 Start with pilot, then expand, don’t
overburden your organization
 Don’t transfer grassroots innovation
too early nor too late to the business
units
 Find the best rhythm for your
company; think about how frequently
to organize a cycle

11. Change is the New Normal
 Turn your process into culture
 Innovate the innovation process:
expose yourself to fresh insights
from inside and outside your
industry
 Importance of governance at all
levels: know roles and
responsibilities of each

12. Innovation Leaders Roundtable
Keeping the Momentum
www.mti2.eu