Category: Innovations

BCG – 50 Most Innovative Companies 2015

The Boston Consulting Group released its 10th annual listing of the world’s 50 Most Innovative Companies this morning. The list is based on a survey of 1,500 C-suite executives, who were asked to rank companies across industries and within their own industry. It also gives weight to total returns to shareholders over five years. The… Continue reading BCG – 50 Most Innovative Companies 2015

Concrete Innovation

Today when we say that something is “concrete”, we mean that it exists in reality, something capable of being perceived by the senses, as opposed to abstractions. I had a first hand impression of something concrete last Sunday, when I visited an ancient Roman quarry together with my son. I was struck by how immense… Continue reading Concrete Innovation

Uppsala Place Brand Analysis

A team from Bearing has over the past two months worked on analysis and recommendations for an updated place brand for the city of Uppsala in Sweden, and today we delivered our report. The assignment has been a follow-on from a strategy  analysis project which we are working on for Uppsala county and Uppsala city… Continue reading Uppsala Place Brand Analysis

Is China Leading Global Innovation?

China is investing heavily in research and development and rapidly increasing high-technology output. This is happening as the country is passing through a challenging transition, as the labour-force expansion and surging investment that propelled three decades of growth is now weakening. This is a natural stage in the country’s economic development. Yet it raises questions… Continue reading Is China Leading Global Innovation?

Debate on the Fourth Industrial Revolution

In The World Economic Forum Abu Dhabi session on October 27, there was an interesting debate about the fourth industrial revolution.  Humankind is at the threshold of a new industrial revolution driven by the confluence of a staggering range of emerging technologies. How will politics, economies and societies be transformed? The participants were: Justine Cassell,… Continue reading Debate on the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Debate on Future Innovation

At the World Economic Forum in Abu Dhabi this month, there was a panel discussion on the state of innovation, not surprisingly highlighting the role of big data. Innovation is happening at light speed but what does the progress in areas like robotics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, nanotechnology and genome editing mean? The speakers were: Victoria… Continue reading Debate on Future Innovation

Smart Specialisation in a City Context

Smart specialisation is a new innovation policy concept[1] which has been has been developed in Europe to indicate flexible and dynamic innovation strategies, which adopted by a single region but assessed at the national and EU level, with the aim to avoiding fragmentation efforts in the field of innovation support. All EU member states Regions… Continue reading Smart Specialisation in a City Context

The New Approach for How to Make a Place Innovative

To drive the development of an innovation ecosystem, four different sectors must be linked together: government, business, civil society and academia. This is what we call the Quad Helix and they need to be engaged in collaboration forums and projects and together drive development. Also within and between the academic and business sectors, the innovation… Continue reading The New Approach for How to Make a Place Innovative

Historic Background to Policy Driven Innovation System Development

In our work, we often talk about integrated projects and integrated development, but what does this really mean, and in what context can it be relevant? To explain this, below is an historic background. Pro-active work with regional policy driven innovation system development started in most OECD countries in the 1950s and 1960s. This was… Continue reading Historic Background to Policy Driven Innovation System Development