Innovation Ecosystems and Networks

Wheel for Sustainable Business Innovation 🌎 The sustainability landscape is evolving rapidly, and businesses are increasingly expected to integrate environmental and social considerations into their innovation processes. However, traditional innovation frameworks often fall short by focusing solely on customer needs, financial returns, and technical feasibility, leaving critical planetary challenges unaddressed. A more comprehensive approach is needed—one that embeds sustainability at the core of value creation. The 130+ Value Proposition Types Wheel is a practical tool that helps organizations frame innovation efforts across four key dimensions: People, Planet, Profit, and Progress. It provides over 130 value types that businesses can leverage to ensure their projects contribute meaningful solutions to global challenges such as climate action, resource efficiency, social inclusion, and technological advancement. This approach shifts the focus beyond immediate customer needs to include long-term sustainability impacts across entire ecosystems. By using structured frameworks like this, companies can link their innovation projects directly to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), addressing critical issues such as climate resilience, biodiversity, and social equity. The tool also encourages the use of metrics to track progress, making sustainability-driven innovation more actionable and measurable across industries. It helps businesses unlock new forms of value while addressing both environmental risks and opportunities. The tool is adaptable to different phases of the innovation process, from identifying unmet needs to scaling solutions in the market. It guides organizations in understanding how their innovations create value in areas such as climate action, circularity, supply chain management, and stakeholder engagement. This makes it relevant for both B2B and B2C companies aiming to enhance their impact while future-proofing their operations. Originally developed by Explorer Labs, this tool has been referenced in the past and continues to remain highly useful as businesses advance their sustainability journeys. As 2025 begins, leveraging tools like this can help organizations move from incremental improvements to transformative solutions, embedding sustainability into innovation processes that deliver lasting value. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange #innovation #SDGs

Earlier today the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves outlined her growth strategy for the UK, presenting a vision for turning the country into "Europe's Silicon Valley." But to create genuine innovation ecosystems, we need to understand what made Silicon Valley successful in the first place. It wasn't just about reducing barriers - it was about decades of strategic (entrepreneurial) public investments actively shaping and creating markets. The UK has historically underinvested compared to its peers. Public investment has averaged just 2.6% of GDP over the last 25 years versus the G7 average of 3.5% and OECD average of 3.7%. While the UK has now reached the OECD average of 2.7% for gross domestic expenditure on R&D, the UK can and must do better to emulate Silicon Valley’s success. Tax breaks alone aren't enough - currently, the UK provides about twice as much tax relief as direct funding for business R&D. Recent lessons from the US demonstrate that public funding can be made conditional on business investment in areas like R&D, helping to de-financialize businesses that attempt to reap profits without real investment. But without the right institutions, it will be hard for the UK to compete with the US and China. We have relatively weak public financial institutions - nowhere near the scale of Brazil's BNDES or Germany's KfW (see my paper with Laurie Macfarlane below). Compare Germany's Fraunhofer system (€3.4bn/year, 32,000 staff, 76 centers) with the UK Catapult network (£1.6bn over 5 years). Real innovation ecosystems need sustained funding and institutional networks that connect research to markets. An entrepreneurial state isn't about top-down direction - it's about dynamic networks catalyzing innovation across entire value chains. ---- 🔗 The Entrepreneurial State: https://lnkd.in/eR_8pxiH 🔗 Industrial Policy with Conditionalities: https://lnkd.in/e-PrNF47 🔗 Mission-oriented development banks: https://lnkd.in/eEKrNcSC 🔗 Mission-oriented Industrial Strategy: https://lnkd.in/eHDNeiNu 🔗 Mission-oriented Policy Hub: https://lnkd.in/ePZtUTKg

Mpesa just got an insurance license, and it's about to shake up the insurance industry like never before! Imagine a world where you can buy insurance as easily as you buy airtime. Here’s what’s coming: "Press 1 for Life Insurance" – Soon, insurance will be just a few clicks away on Mpesa. Car insurance, life insurance... Insurtech is here to make insurance purchasing as casual as sending Ksh 50 to your favorite cousin. Underwriting with AI – Thanks to algorithms, Mpesa might soon know more about your risk profile than you do. Instead of high-premium mystery quotes, expect insurance plans that understand your needs – from the cautious commuter to the "I swear I'll be safe" adrenaline junkie. The Rise of Flexible Plans – Get ready for insurance that can match your life’s rhythm. Mpesa could start offering policies that adjust based on whether you’re bungee jumping on weekends or just trying to navigate Nairobi traffic on a Monday. Embedded Insurance Everywhere – In the not-so-distant future, you might get life coverage when you buy a smartphone or health insurance with your gym membership. Your “Welcome to Mpesa” starter pack might just come with insurance, too. So buckle up; insurance in Kenya is about to become as easy as buying groceries. Just don’t be surprised if you start seeing push notifications from Mpesa reminding you to update your “adventure insurance” before your next weekend getaway! With M-Pesa obtaining an insurance license, banks and insurance companies in Kenya face a shift in the competitive landscape. Here are the implications: Increased Competition: M-Pesa can undercut traditional insurers with lower premiums and faster onboarding, particularly targeting low- to middle-income individuals and small businesses who are typically underserved by traditional insurers. Enhanced Customer Reach: M-Pesa's reach gives it a significant advantage, especially in remote and underserved areas where insurance penetration is low. Banks and traditional insurers may need to expand their digital outreach to stay competitive. New Product Innovations: With M-Pesa's tech capabilities, it could drive more innovative, user-friendly, and flexible insurance products—such as microinsurance, which may be bundled with other mobile-based financial services. This pushes traditional providers to innovate as well. Increased Financial Inclusion: For the financial sector, especially banks, M-Pesa’s entry could be beneficial in terms of financial inclusion, as more individuals who may not have previously accessed financial products like insurance are now introduced to it. This could create cross-selling opportunities if banks can partner effectively with M-Pesa. Pressure on Cost and Efficiency: M-Pesa’s digital platform allows for efficient, low-cost operations, which may put pressure on traditional providers to reduce their overheads and improve efficiency. Traditional banks and insurers to stay competitive?🤔

Part 2: 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗙𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀: 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (Part 1: see https://lnkd.in/eNP8ih5Y) (Part 3: see https://lnkd.in/eYAnkeVS) Michael Porter’s Five Forces framework has shaped how managers and academics analyze industries. It remains an elegant way to map the external environment at the industry level. Porter’s view of strategy, however, was forged in an era when industries were stable, boundaries were clear, and competitive advantage was largely internal. The external environment was portrayed as hostile: every force around the firm—suppliers, buyers, new entrants, rivals, and substitutes—was a potential threat to profitability. Strategy was about defending margins, erecting barriers, and capturing value. But today’s reality is far more fluid. Industries blend into one another, technologies converge, and value is co-created across networks. The same actors that once appeared only as adversaries have become indispensable partners for innovation, agility, and growth. Competitors may share platforms; suppliers co-develop technologies; customers co-create solutions; and substitutes may reveal entirely new markets. If we look at the business world through this new lens, Porter’s five “forces” can also be five “sources” of advantage. Collaboration doesn’t replace competition—it complements it. The real challenge for managers is to find the balance point along a continuum that runs from pure competition to deep collaboration. * Competitors remain rivals, but also potential partners in standard-setting, data sharing, or open-source development. * New entrants are disruptors, but also agile innovators with whom incumbents can partner, invest, or co-develop. * Suppliers can squeeze margins—but when engaged early in design, they become co-innovators. Toyota’s keiretsu model and Unilever’s annual innovation summits with strategic suppliers both show how collaboration can yield efficiency and renewal. * Customers may demand more, but their insights and data now drive innovation. Co-creation platforms—from LEGO Ideas to Tesla’s user forums—turn buyers into creative partners. * Substitutes, once seen only as threats, can signal new opportunities. Netflix, for instance, transformed from a DVD substitute to a platform that redefined how entertainment is consumed. The comparative table below contrasts Porter’s competitive interpretation of each force with a collaborative perspective—a framework better suited when success depends as much on connection as on protection. #Strategy #Innovation #Ecosystems #Collaboration #OpenInnovation #DigitalTransformation #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #MichaelPorter #BlueOceanStrategy #Coopetition #Agility #ValueCreation #Management

Investing in women is not a statement of values. It is a measure of economic intelligence. For decades, women have been systematically underinvested in as entrepreneurs, farmers, scientists, and decision-makers. The cost of that mistake is still being paid. When women gain access to capital, land, and leadership, economies grow faster, communities become more resilient, and businesses outperform. That is not a claim. It is a pattern visible across every sector and region where serious investment has been made. We have recently marked International Women's Day. It is a useful marker, but the real test is what happens on the other 364. Across the world, there are leaders who understand this. Carolina Müller-Möhl's taskforce4women is pushing structural reforms that remove the barriers quietly penalising women's participation in the workforce. Project Dandelion, championed by Pat Mitchell, Mary Robinson, Hafsat Abiola, and Ronda Carnegie, is connecting leaders across climate, food, health, and finance, making visible the strategic role women play in systems change. Through Daughters for Earth, founded by Zainab Salbi, women-led initiatives are receiving the funding and visibility they have long deserved. And at IMAGINE, led by Valerie Keller, gender parity across our leadership networks is not aspirational, it is foundational. At Unilever, investing in women was never a side programme. It was core strategy. We built the first gender-balanced board in the UK, trained women smallholder farmers, backed women entrepreneurs, and ensured women accounted for at least half of all participants in our community programmes. The results were unambiguous: stronger supply chains, more resilient communities, better business performance. The companies that understand this will outperform. Those retreating in the face of political pressure will simply fall behind. That is not a prediction. It is already happening.

What most people don’t know about Philips — and why Europe should not give up on innovation When people talk about global tech champions, Europe is often framed as “lagging behind.” But look more closely at Philips. Few realize that some of the most influential companies shaping today’s technology landscape emerged from the Philips ecosystem: • TSMC – founded in 1987 as a joint venture between Taiwan’s local government and private investors, with Philips as the main corporate shareholder and technology partner, whose process know-how and patents helped it get started as the world’s first pure-play foundry. • ASML – today the world leader in photolithography equipment, created in 1984 as ASM Lithography, a joint venture between Philips and ASM International to commercialize lithography technology developed in Philips’ research labs. • NXP Semiconductors – carved out of Philips’ semiconductor division in 2006, and now a global leader in automotive, secure connectivity, and industrial chips. These companies now far exceed the original parent in strategic impact on the global digital economy. This is not a story of decline. It is a story of ecosystem seeding. Another under-appreciated dimension: For decades, Philips has been a bridge builder in global innovation — deeply connected to the US technology frontier while transferring manufacturing and process capabilities into Asia, including China. Long before “decoupling” became a headline, Philips helped shape the global value chains that still underpin the semiconductor industry today. That ability to connect ecosystems across geographies is more important than ever. Three lessons I take from this: 1. Great companies can be great ancestors. Impact is not only what you keep, but what you enable. 2. Ecosystems outperform organizations. Long-term value comes from networks, not silos. 3. Europe’s strength is deep tech + global integration. If we connect it better, it can still win. Bottom line: Let’s stop writing Europe off. And start strengthening the ecosystems that turn industrial depth into global leadership — and keep Europe a bridge, not an island, in a fragmenting world. What other European “hidden ancestors” of today’s champions should we be paying attention to?

After spending three decades in the aerospace industry, I’ve seen firsthand how crucial it is for different sectors to learn from each other. We no longer can afford to stay stuck in our own bubbles. Take the aerospace industry, for example. They’ve been looking at how car manufacturers automate their factories to improve their own processes. And those racing teams? Their ability to prototype quickly and develop at a breakneck pace is something we can all learn from to speed up our product development. It’s all about breaking down those silos and embracing new ideas from wherever we can find them. When I was leading the Scorpion Jet program, our rapid development – less than two years to develop a new aircraft – caught the attention of a company known for razors and electric shavers. They reached out to us, intrigued by our ability to iterate so quickly, telling me "you developed a new jet faster than we can develop new razors..." They wanted to learn how we managed to streamline our processes. It was quite an unexpected and fascinating experience that underscored the value of looking beyond one’s own industry can lead to significant improvements and efficiencies, even in fields as seemingly unrelated as aerospace and consumer electronics. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s more important than ever for industries to break out of their silos and look to other sectors for fresh ideas and processes. This kind of cross-industry learning not only fosters innovation but also helps stay competitive in a rapidly changing market. For instance, the aerospace industry has been taking cues from car manufacturers to improve factory automation. And the automotive companies are adopting aerospace processes for systems engineering. Meanwhile, both sectors are picking up tips from tech giants like Apple and Google to boost their electronics and software development. And at Siemens, we partner with racing teams. Why? Because their knack for rapid prototyping and fast-paced development is something we can all learn from to speed up our product development cycles. This cross-pollination of ideas is crucial as industries evolve and integrate more advanced technologies. By exploring best practices from other industries, companies can find innovative new ways to improve their processes and products. After all, how can someone think outside the box, if they are only looking in the box? If you are interested in learning more, I suggest checking out this article by my colleagues Todd Tuthill and Nand Kochhar where they take a closer look at how cross-industry learning are key to developing advanced air mobility solutions. https://lnkd.in/dK3U6pJf

🌿🌍 Sustainable innovation is coming at the forefront of business discussions lately, and I'd like to share some thoughts. I propose defining sustainable innovation as “a type of innovation process that deliberately integrates environmental and social considerations into the development of new products, services, or business models, with the explicit goal of creating long-term positive impact at both organizational and systemic levels.” Importantly, it should help companies and entire systems function within our planet's boundaries. However, the path to sustainable innovation is fraught with challenges. In my experience, there are four significant hurdles: 1. 🧠 Lack of relevant human capital: Many organizations simply don't have the specialized expertise needed to address complex sustainability challenges. This knowledge gap can severely hamper innovation efforts. 2. 🏗️ Underdeveloped organizational capabilities: Even with the right people, companies often lack the structures, processes, incentives, and cultures necessary to foster sustainable innovation. Developing these capabilities requires significant time and investment. 3. 🔍 Insufficient absorptive capacity: Many firms struggle to identify, assimilate, and apply existing sustainable technologies. This is about having the internal capacity to understand and implement these innovations effectively. 4. 🤝 Dearth of stakeholder-oriented mindsets: For decades, business education has focused on shareholder primacy. Shifting to a more holistic, stakeholder-centric approach is not just a matter of policy change; it requires a fundamental rewiring of how business leaders think and operate. When it comes to measuring sustainable innovation, we're in a period of profound experimentation. 🧪 Companies are actively testing various initiatives, products, and business models in pursuit of sustainability. We're in the early stages of this journey, and failure is an inherent part of the process. This state of flux makes measurement challenging, as there's no established playbook or universal metrics. Given this complexity, we should embrace diverse measurement approaches as we learn from both successes and failures. 📊 Ultimately, we must remember that sustainable innovation isn't just about individual companies or technologies – it's about systemic change. 🔄 This change occurs at multiple levels: individual, organizational, regulatory, governmental, and institutional. The challenge lies in the fact that our systems can only evolve as quickly as their slowest components. As we continue to innovate for sustainability, we must keep this broader context in mind, striving for solutions that can accelerate change across all levels of our global systems. I'm curious to hear your thoughts. What examples have you seen of sustainable innovation that you believe have had positive systemic impacts? Please share your experiences and insights below! 💬 #ESG #Innovation #SustainableInnovation #Climate

Underwriting is about to experience the same disruption payments saw with UPI silent, intelligent, and hyper-personalized. Traditional actuarial models, largely built on age, gender, and medical history, are no longer enough to accurately price risk. The future of underwriting is about 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐀𝐈-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. A McKinsey study estimates that 𝐀𝐈-𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝟐𝟎% through more accurate segmentation and predictive modeling. Insurers are already leveraging geolocation, wearable data, and transaction behavior to assess actual lifestyle risk, not just what’s declared on a form. Instead of pricing a policy once at issuance, underwriting will become continuous. Transactional data from IoT, telematics, and payments will enable dynamic risk tiers such as auto premiums recalibrating monthly based on real driving behavior. With explainability frameworks (like XAI), underwriters can ensure AI doesn’t become a black box. This is critical as 𝟖𝟐% 𝐨𝐟 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 over the next 3 years The top insurers are building ecosystems. Partnerships with mobility, fintech, and health platforms will give them richer, more reliable signals, transforming underwriting from risk prediction to risk prevention. The underwriting engine will sense, learn, and adapt in real time, turning insurance from reactive protection to proactive resilience. #DigitalIndia #Fintech #AI #technology #Fintech #technology

When corporate–startup partnerships fail, it’s rarely because the tech/product/strategy didn’t work. It’s because the trust didn’t. So, how can corporates and startups build trust so the value goes beyond capital? This was one of the key questions we discussed at the NeXTT Awards panel recently. If you want partnerships to deliver value beyond capital, the foundation has to be built before the deal on shared intent, aligned ways of working, and human connection. I’ve seen the most successful collaborations follow a simple rhythm: Build trust before the deal - be transparent about why you’re partnering, not just what you’ll get. Design for mutual wins - share KPIs, not just invoices. Reduce operational friction - fast-track decisions and simplify processes. Keep relationships human - senior sponsors and everyday champions matter more than quarterly reviews. Invest in the ecosystem together - co-create, share knowledge, and celebrate wins publicly. Because trust isn’t built in contracts. It’s built in conversations, in small acts of reliability, and in the sense that both sides are equally invested in the success of the other. When both sides feel heard, supported, and respected, that’s when value truly goes beyond capital. #Startups #CorporateInnovation #Trust #Leadership #Collaboration #BeyondCapital