Most Recent articles & case studies
-
PodcastPodcast: What Makes Apple a Persistent Innovator?
Apple has set the pace for the tech sector for decades, from the original Apple I personal computer to the modern-day iPhone. In the first episode of our “Persistent Innovators” podcast miniseries, Wade Roush takes a deep dive into Apple, the first company in the world to attain a $3 trillion market capitalization, to find out what has kept it on the cutting edge — despite occasional setbacks and leadership changes.
-
Article
Inside MetLife’s Relationships with VCs and the Startup Ecosystem
Since 2014, the $68 billion insurer MetLife has run more 160 experiments with startups — 70 of which later developed into contractual relationships. Vice President of Innovation Terrence Luciani has created a structured process for collecting requirements from around the company, and then working with venture capital firms, accelerators, and other parties to identify relevant startups. Inside, he talks about how that process works.
-
Article
How Dell’s CTO Assesses New Technologies to Drive Future Growth
Once a company is approaching $100 billion in revenue, creating substantial growth gets a lot harder. “You need to find some new areas to play in,” says Global CTO John Roese. Here’s how he does that…W
-
Article
Perkins School for the Blind CEO on Why the S-Curve Matters for Nonprofits
The CEO of the Boston-based nonprofit Power talks about customer-centricity; how it seeks to connect tech companies with visually-impaired users; and the importance of understanding the S-curve as you make the case for continued innovation.
-
Article
Fidelity Labs SVP: ‘The Only Success Metrics That Really Matter are Financial Metrics’
How do you avoid winding up in the “danger zone” as an innovator inside a big company? Mona Vernon, the head of Fidelity Labs at Boston-based Fidelity Investments, says it’s all about making sure your metrics are aligned with your CEO and CFO.
-
Article
Member Spotlight: Pascale Wautelet, Avery Dennison
Pascale Wautelet is Vice President of Global R&D for Label and Graphic Materials at Avery Dennison Corporation. We spoke with Pascale as part of our IL Member Spotlight series.
-
Article
What’s a Wizard of Oz Prototype? iRobot’s CTO Explains
iRobot Chief Technology Officer Chris Jones discusses how the company keeps tabs on important technologies emerging from academia and the startup world — and the role that “minimum viable products” play, even if they’re controlled by a Wizard of Oz in the next room.
-
Article
How Pharma Distributor AmerisourceBergen Prioritizes and Pilots Emerging Tech
One key is to success with emerging tech is working closely with customers, says SVP of Strategy and Innovation Jason Dinger: “Sometimes, we identify hidden value where a customer sees a way to deploy a technology that we didn’t see.”
-
Podcast
Sneak Preview of Our Next Podcast Season: The Persistent Innovators
How innovative companies stay that way is the focus of a special series coming soon from Innovation Answered. We’ll be looking at companies like LEGO, Apple, and Disney and asking what makes them so successful, decade after decade, and how they bounce back from challenges.
-
Article
Is Augmented Reality the Next Disruptive Technology?
Entrepreneur and author David Rose shares his vision of the future of augmented reality. “What the web was in the 90s and what mobile was in the aughts, this is what AR will be in the next decade,” Rose says.
-
Article
How One Retail VP Scores Emerging Technologies
“There will always be new, cool, shiny things that we could bring to life in our stores,” says Heather Paquette of Retail Business Services, a subsidiary of the grocery giant Ahold Delhaize. “But we’re really here to help our brands achieve their goals by implementing new solutions that create measurable value.” Here’s how Paquette scores emerging technologies…
-
Article
How Suffolk Construction is Boosting ‘Built Environment’ Startups
We talk to Suffolk’s Chief Data and Innovation Officer about how the Boston construction is investing in startups focused on AI, robotics, and green building technologies.
-
Article
Member Spotlight: Swapnil Deshpande, Thoughtworks
IL member Swapnil Desphande, Chief Digital Officer at the tech consultancy Thoughtworks, talks about the importance of selling ideas — and not taking failure personally.
-
Article
Three Ingredients for Building a High-Functioning Corporate-Startup Partnership Engine
Amanda Cashin of Illumina and Diana Joseph of the Corporate Accelerator Forum provide three key pieces of advice about how large corporations can better interact with startups.
-
On Demand Webcast
Insights from Winners of the 2021 Impact Awards
In this webcast, several winners of our 2021 Impact Awards share tips on how they’ve been making change happen inside their organizations.
-
Article
Disney CEO Bob Chapek Shares His Vision for the ‘Metaverse’
Disney CEO Bob Chapek is looking beyond theme parks and video streaming services toward building an immersive digital “metaverse” — a kind of virtual reality environment that might enable Disney fans to take part in games and theme park-like experiences without hopping on a plane to Orlando, Anaheim, or Tokyo.
-
Article
Book Excerpt: How to Overcome the Barriers to Creativity
In the new book Creativity in Talent Development, authors Donna Porter and Nancy Tennant contend that “creativity is a natural and renewable resource that exists in every person.” But how do you get people to bring their creative side to work — and knock down some of the creativity blockers that exist in most organizations? Here’s some advice from the book.
-
Article
The Revolution in Consumer Products: 5 Lessons from New Brands
Paul Earle, Contributing Columnist As a lifelong student, teacher and practitioner of innovation, I have always been fascinated by the quest to understand how. To find signal through the noise. What does John Lennon have in common with Bach and Banksy? What behaviors do Thomas Edison, Ben ...
-
Article
Creating Strong Support for Innovation
How do you create strong support for innovation, from the C-suite to the front lines? We collected the best advice from our strategic partner firms for this 35-page e-book.
-
Article
Member Spotlight: Uma Meyyappan, LPL Financial
Uma Meyyappan is the Senior Vice President of Digital Innovation and New Venture Platform at LPL Financial. We spoke with Meyyappan as part of our member spotlight series.
