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10th R&D-Product Development Innovation Summit

This Summit has already been held. Please visit our current Innovation Summit.

Driving Forces For Better Corporate Innovation Capabilities

In the early 1990s, when time-to-market pressures swept across the globe, it created a backlash on the subject of innovation. Development professionals alike asked and continue to ask, "How can I/we be more innovative when we are regularly given less time and all the requirements of our process are execution-oriented? Fast and accurate convergence to turn requirements and specifications into products is our priority. Many overlapping projects further exacerbates my ability to think out of the box."

This "execution backlash" spawned a giant industry demand for innovation, and a resultant revolution in the management and sciences of innovation. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, top thinkers began developing intellectually-driven management frameworks to spur innovation and invention. Start-up companies began developing techniques, enabling technologies, and software tools. Adjacent companies that were focused on intellectual property began seeing increased business opportunities to get more concurrently involved with advanced development and product development. Historical requirements and values that typically erred on the side of distrust changed and opened the door for relationships, not simply transactions, between competitors and between countries. The beginnings of an industry to deliver on the new corporate thirst for innovation was at hand.

R&D-Product Development Innovation vs. Execution Strategy & Practices

In the 1980s, only a few innovation techniques existed and there was little management science on the subject. It was an ad hoc body of knowledge.

As the quest for innovation grew, research shows that a significant percentage of corporations simply relabeled their "product development process nomenclature" and other visible icons to "portray innovation" in the hope that an "innovation message" would systematically facilitate innovation. Today, almost a decade since the innovation body of knowledge began to codify, over 95% of corporate product creation values, tools and techniques that are embedded in development processes are execution-oriented.

Do you know that today there are dozens of techniques and software packages that facilitate innovation and innovative thinking at a tactical and operational level? GGI has counted 250 and the number is growing. The management science underlying the body of knowledge has refined. The certain softer techniques that make CXOs and leaders of groups of people more effective in eliciting organic innovation from their employees are becoming clear. Changes in geo-political relationships and emerging markets are creating a forcing-function on alliances and partnerships between countries, and new business models are developing. The internet is providing a low-cost forum for the increased exchange of ideas across customers, providers, and suppliers changing the domain knowledge of gathering requirements and ownership of intellectual property. What percentage of corporate product creation values, techniques, and development processes should be innovation-oriented?

Innovation Is The Next Big Industry Revolution

Professionals thought they knew how to distribute, until the JIT and Kanban revolution of the 1970s. Professionals thought they knew how to manufacture, until the automation revolution of the 1980s. Professionals thought they were efficient product developers until the time-to-market and six-sigma revolutions of the 1990s and early 2000s. Now, professionals and corporate leaders have an opportunity to get out in front of organic and open innovation, advanced technology and application development, and the intellectual property revolution of the early 21st century.

The Summit Is An Executive MBA On Innovation

More than one of our Summit Participants has said that "GGI's Innovation Summit is an Executive MBA on the Subject of Innovation." In three days, senior executives and managers will learn the best strategic, tactical, and operational drivers and enablers of corporate innovation that exist in industry today; and will develop an intuition as to how the drivers will likely emerge, evolve, and change in the next decade.

Innovation Summit Abstracts Of Each Module

The Innovation Summit is highly quantative. Research findings and studies of industry practices underpin just about every one of the 8 Innovation Summit Modules. Exercises and demonstrations will be interspersed throughout the 8 Modules.

For further information on the content, exercises, and demonstrations of the Summit, a complete abstract is provided for each Module.

Module 1 Best Practice Innovation Processes
Module 2 CXO Innovation Drivers
Module 3 Innovation Enablers & Tools
Module 4 Three Key Innovation Techniques
Module 5 Semantic Technologies & Knowledge-Enabled Innovation
Module 6 Best Practice IP Management
Module 7 Open & Outsourced Innovation
Module 8 Innovation Metrics & Rewards
R&D Product Development Innovation Metrics Seminar Summit

Summit Dates

  Tuesday March 6, 2012 9:00AM - 5PM
  Wednesday March 7, 2012 8:30AM - 5PM    [Reception 5-7PM]
  Thursday March 8, 2012 8:30AM - 3PM

Testimonials By Prior Innovation Summit Attendees

  Additional testimonials may be found here.

"Excellent overview of new techniques applied in R&D/innovation."

-Ketan Muni, Director, R&D, Acclarent Inc.


"This has been an excellent eye opening experience about current trends across various industries. Very helpful to define future decisions in setting future corporate engineering organization direction and strategies."

-Jean Woloszko, CTO & VP R&D, ArthroCare Corp.

"Coming from a purely technical background the breadth of material was very instructive. Opened my eyes to a new level of driving a project."

-Michael Fitzell, Senior Software Engineer,
eZenia! Inc.

"Seminar was very thorough in a variety of innovation subject matters, also a nice presentation of the tools."

-Mr. Scott Filion, Director, R&D,
Velcro USA Inc.

"Thought provoking and content rich. Plenty of take-aways. The content will be a good start to determining best practices for our organization."

-Michael Colman, Ph.D., R&D Manager, Virology, Millipore Corporation

"Very professional, well structured, well thought out. Excellent linkage to the study of management science for R&D/innovation."

-John Geraghty, Project Leader, MITRE Corporation

"Thought provoking. You have to check your current thinking at the door."

-Greg Myers, Director ofQuality, BMC Software, Inc.

"Good general overview of product development process and options to generate ideas. Good content. Well organized."

-Sherlene Bagley, Product Director, Portfolio Development, Healthpoint, Ltd.

"These lessons learned will clearly make the difference between true success and extinction due to global competition."

- Louis Bonhomme, Manager, R&D Millipore Corporation

"Overall the course was excellent. An excellent overview of the tools available to deploy."

-Kraig Tabor Director, Advanced Process & Product, Snap-On Tools

"An excellent survey of innovation in corporations with the tools and measures to facilitate improving innovative activities."

-Richard Knowles, CTO & VP Embedded Engineering, Ardence, Inc.

"The seminar gave me new insights to problem solving, new tools to explore, and the motivation to foster innovation and creativity within my company."

-Dave Tumey, Consultant, Immersion Medical

"Many of the ideas can be immediately implemented without being disruptive to "normal" behavior."

-Gary Jaspersohn, System Architect, NMS Communications

"For people who need a mind expanding overview of innovation. A tremendous overview of innovation strategy and tools all in one place and time, very valuable - thanks!"

-John Humphrey, Business Acumen Curriculum Specialist, 3M

"It opens your mind to a whole new way of thinking about innovation and provides tangible tools for encouraging and measuring it."

-Steve Zvonek, Brand Manager, White Castle Management Co..

"My expectation was that this Innovation Summit might be difficult to transfer to a Human Resources application.  In fact quite the contrary, there was a lot of relevancy in HR which is often the change agent in most companies."

-Gerry Strolmeyer, Manager of Human Resources, SGL Group

Summit Faculty

Bradford L. Goldense, NPDP, CMfgE, CPIM, CCP [seminar leader]

Bradford L. Goldense is Founder and CEO of Goldense Group, Inc. [GGI], a twenty five-year old Needham Massachusetts consulting and education firm concentrating in advanced business and technology management practices for line management functions. Mr. Goldense has consulted to over 150 of the Fortune 1000 and has worked on productivity improvement and automation projects in over 400 manufacturing locations in North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East. Abbott Laboratories, Bayer, S.C. Johnson, Ford, General Motors, John Deere, Phillips, Carrier, Molex, United Technologies, Bose, and Shure are representative among GGI’s clients. Mr. Goldense is an internationally recognized expert on both rapid product development and R&D metrics. Brad has been an invited guest on Alexander Haig’s World Business Review, and has appeared on PBS The Business & Technology Network, and on CNBC, and has authored or been quoted in over 150 articles in industry trade press. Brad is the Worldwide President of the Society of Concurrent Product Development [SCPD], and on the Worldwide Board of Directors for the American Society of Engineering Management [ASME]. View a more complete biography on GGI Staff page.

John R. (Dick) Power, PMP, CFP [instructor]

John R. (Dick) Power is Director of Executive Education at GGI. Mr. Power has been practicing in the advanced and new product development and production areas for over 30 years. He is highly experienced in project management of large and complex high technology products from Initial phases through production, distribution and sustaining support. As a US Army Signal Corps Officer, retiring as a Colonel in 1992, he was a leader in acquisition of electronic systems. More recently, Dick worked at GTE (before its merger with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon) as Director of Total Quality for the Government Systems Group and later as Corporate-wide program manager for information security. View a more complete biography on GGI Staff page.

Dr. Hans Ludi [instructor]

Hans Ludi is a long time Affiliate of GGI. Dr. Ludi has thirty years of experience in the life sciences and technology industries. During that time he has held a variety of technical and management positions in the areas of research and technology management. More recently, Dr. Ludi has focused on commercializing advanced technology projects in partnership with corporations and venture capitalists. Hans was most recently CEO of Gnothis SA. He has held senior management positions with Ciba-Geigy, Chiron, and Bayer. Dr. Ludi holds a Masters Diploma in Biotechnology and Microbiology from the Federal Institute of Technology in Z�rich, Switzerland. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bern in Bern, Switzerland. He is a member of the Worldwide Board of the Society of Concurrent Product Development [SCPD] and is the past President of the Boston Chapter of SCPD. He is also a member of the American Chemical Society [ACS] and the American Association for the Advanced of Science [AAAS].View a more complete biography on GGI Staff page.

Summit Guest Speakers:

James W. Todhunter
Semantic Technologies & Knowledge-Enabled Innovation

Stephem M. Brown James Todhunter is EVP and Chief Technology Officer of Invention Machine Corporation where he is responsible for the company's technology strategy and execution. A seasoned innovator and inventor, Jim works on the front line of innovation and has more than 30 years of experience in software technology and management. Prior to joining Invention Machine, Jim was Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Vality Technology Inc. Before that, he held various management and technology positions including Ardent Software, NCR, and Midas Systems Corporation. His award-winning blog, Innovating to Win, offers insight and observations on building high-performance teams that can drive sustainable innovation across the organization. Jim holds an M.S. in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine.

John E. Cronin
Best Practice IP Management

John Croninis Managing Director and Chairman of ipCG. Capitalizing on a life long study of creative and inventive thinking processes, business strategy development, and transaction negotiations, John has created the unique ipCapital System methodology, which extracts and documents invention, identifies opportunity and risk, drives transactions to completion, and creates significant market value from intellectual property (IP). John has led ipCG from a small consulting practice to the largest professional services firm of its kind, serving over 350 clients since 1998. Prior to founding ipCG, John was a distinguished inventor at IBM for 17 years. As a member of the senior technical staff and the prestigious IBM Academy, John led an intellectual asset team that spearheaded efforts to produce and manage the development of IP. Eventually known as "The IBM Patent Factory," this select group supported the division that increased IBM's annual licensing revenue from $30 million in 1992 to more than $1 billion in 1997 and every year thereafter. John holds a BSEE, an MSEE, and a BA degree in Psychology from the University of Vermont. Additionally, John is a member of the Advisory Board for Color Kinetics.

Summit Location

The seminar will be held at the Four Points Sheraton in Norwood, Massachusetts. The Four Points/Norwood is equidistant between Boston and Providence on major U.S. Route 1. One can fly into either Logan Airport in Massachusetts or T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island, each about a 45 minute ride. (Less expensive airfares are potentially possible through T.F. Green Airport, as well as less traffic congestion en route.) There are several fine restaurants within walking distance, more within a short hotel shuttle ride. A major attraction of this hotel is its food. The General Manager is a former chef and the head chef is a name in the Northeast. "One Bistro," at the Four Points/Norwood, is a locally renowned restaurant and nighttime hotspot. One of New England's largest brand name discount shopping malls is just a short ride south on Route 1.

A block of rooms have been reserved for this conference. Hotel reservations must be made by Friday, February 3, 2012 to ensure availability. GGI's block of rooms will be released back to the hotel after this date. If you choose to stay at the Four Points Sheraton, be sure to mention "GGI's Summit" when you call to register so you will get the room discount. If you book your room at the Four Points Shertaon online, please also place a quick call to the hotel to assure your room discount.

Summit Brochure

There is a single brochure for the Innovation Summit. The brochure includes a brief description of each module. Discounts are available for teams with 3 or more people registering from the same company..

      Download Innovation Summit Brochure

Summit At-A-Glance

The Innovation Summit Agenda, Table of Contents of the Coursebook, and the Biographies of the three Instructors are portrayed in a single document for a quick read.

      Download Innovation Summit At-A-Glance

Register

This Summit has already been held. Please visit our current Innovation Summit.

In the event your plans change after you register, GGI will refund your registration through end-of-business EDT Friday, February 3, 2012. Please note that a 5% credit processing fee will be deducted from your refund if you do choose to cancel.

Note: Currently, The Wisdom iStore cannot distinguish between services and physical products for sale. If you type in 'MA' as your state in the Shipping Information, the system will automatically add a 6.25% tax onto your total. The Innovation Summit is a service. When we settle your transaction, we will credit the sales tax added and you will not be charged a sales tax. We will not charge sales tax on services.

Innovation Metrics Summit Innovation Metrics Research