Today I had the pleasure of attending an exclusive luncheon forum hosted by the Canada-India Business Council. The event featured Vijay Vaitheeswaran the
award-winning author, broadcaster and correspondent for The Economist who currently covers the newspaper’s global health, biotechnology and innovation issues and is a world renowned expert on the future of energy and the automotive industry. Mr. Vaitheeswaran discussed the Economist’s global Innovation Survey (Economist, April 24, 2009) that he authored after conducting research across four continents engaging established and emerging world experts and leaders in the innovation space from Bill Gates and Sergey Brin to “bottom-billion” Indian health care startups.

The two most important lessons I took for Mr. Vaitheeswaran talk were (1) the real definition of innovation and (2) what makes an innovative company.

(1) Mr. Vaitheeswaran’s defines innovation as new thinking that creates value (for people, societies, etc). People often confuse invention with innovation. For example, invention is producing evermore complex health care technologies that provide only a marginal benefit. Innovation is the ability to produce a product or process that is not only new but provides value and often innovations have the power to improve societies. Mr. Vaitheeswaran used a few examples of small companies in rural India producing portable health care technology that helps to meet the needs of India’s poor. It is clear that invention is part of the process of innovation but inventions is not its essence, creating value for people and societies is the key.

(2) Mr. Vaitheeswaran describe three components of innovative companies:
Agility – the ability to respond quickly to changes in the marketplace
Open – value is created by working in networks, but one must beware of outsourcing your core business
Manage risk – be willing to fail and fail fast! A great example is Gore Tex where a party is held when a project is killed

An incredible day. These are just some of my notes, I encouraged you to read some of his work in The Economist.