Four innovation experts from Iberia, Ribera Salud, Cabify and Elewit participated in the EAE Open Innovation Day.
Last Thursday, December 1, the EAE Open Innovation was held in the Joaquín Costa auditorium of EAE Business School Madrid, with the aim of allowing students to learn about the day to day and the challenges of the innovation units of different companies..
The event was led by Daniel Medina, co-founder of Area 101, who explained what innovation is, the current situation of innovation within companies and how companies that have been able to adapt and be innovative have moved forward and positioned themselves as leaders, compared to many others that have died because they have not been able to adapt.
Innovation, which comes from the Latin "innovare", means to alter something by introducing something new, therefore, it is how companies adapt and bring out innovative products quickly.
Daniel explained that "innovation is a great mother that has had many children among which are data, alliances, customer centricity, pure innovation, agile etc".
He also talked about how to build an innovation strategy, the main objective of an innovation department, as well as some methodologies that help in innovation processes such as Design Thinking.
Finally, he explained the five characteristics of an innovative leader, which are: to bring direct value to the organization, to be decisive, not to see a problem around him, but to see challenges to solve, to know how to transform and build, to be agile, and above all not to give up, but to insist and persist.
In the second part there was a round table composed by Martin Beitia, Innovation Design & Research Manager at Iberia, Tania Menéndez Digital Transformation Officer at Ribera Salud, Alberto González VP Data at Cabify and Diana Ortega, strategic Alliance Manager at Elewit. The panel was led by Daniel Medina, co-founder of Área 101.
When asked how they ended up working in innovation, the four speakers explained their professional trajectory. In the case of Martín, he was trained in innovation and after many years working in various companies he was presented with the opportunity to work in Iberia in innovation.
When asked how they ended up working in innovation, the four speakers explained their professional trajectory. In the case of Martín, he was trained in innovation and after many years working in various companies he was presented with the opportunity to work in Iberia in innovation.
Diana started working in risk at BBVA, but at that time an opportunity arose in an innovation company. She went to Colombia for two years, looking for Colombian companies with a technological base that could be invested in. Years later she started working at Red Eléctrica in Elewit
In the case of Alberto González VP Data at Cabify, he is a telecommunications engineer and said that one thing that helped him to work on innovation issues was the fact that he had been a volunteer at SAMUR coordinating ambulances for 10 years. For this reason, Alberto recommended to those present that "nothing you have done before is indifferent, since everything adds value".
The next question Daniel Media asked was: "What do you do on a day-to-day basis in terms of innovation? Alberto from Cabify said that the mission of his team is to develop decision-making tools for all the companies in the group, "you need data to make decisions".
In Diana's case, she explained that every day is different and they often launch innovation challenges to establish collaborations, as well as internally. "We continuously listen to our employees, we try to take them out of their routine work so they can see other channels that help them innovate."
Tania said that the day-to-day dynamism engages them and that every day is different for her department. She has to see what needs each patient has, as well as looking at the needs of the physicians and the business to bring it all together and look for solutions that are transformative.
The last question asked by the moderator was to give some advice to enter the world of innovation within companies. Diana explained that it is very important to be a brave person, with concerns and not to say no to ourselves.
Tania said that "there was no straight line to work in innovation, that it is not always a direct path". "To end up working in innovation sometimes you have to do many things before, but if you are a hardworking person, who likes projects, you show that you are worth, you have capabilities and you move for events, the opportunity will come to you."