Group items tagged

MaRS Innovation announced its permanent Board of Directors. MaRS Innovation is focused on converting important discoveries into a new generation of products, services and high value jobs.

MaRS Innovation announced its permanent Board of Directors. MaRS Innovation is focused on converting important discoveries into a new generation of products, services and high value jobs. Feb 6, 2009

Canada has always had to fight hard to attract talent and investment. As stated in Pharmafocus.com, "MaRS Discovery District helps to foster and accelerate the growth of successful Canadian businesses." MaRS Innovation has also been launched to accelerate ideas onto the market.

Dr. Raphael Hofstein named president and CEO of the new MaRS Innovation initiative.

Kevin Werbach, a professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, spoke recently with David Yaun, an IBM executive, about the company's Global Innovation Outlook project. According to Yaun, "traditionally, companies have identified innovation with gadgets and gizmos, but that thinking is being transformed." The definition of innovation is being broadened -- it is becoming more open, collaborative, global and inter-disciplinary. "The barriers to innovation and collaboration have come down dramatically," Yaun says. This was the second in a series of interviews about themes to be featured at Supernova, a conference Werbach organizes in collaboration with Wharton in San Francisco.

Consider the two faces of the global innovation movement. Company A, having grown through acquisition, produces multiple brands for multiple markets and operates a worldwide network of research and product development centers. Each of its R&D sites was initially responsible for its own brands and local market, but with globalization these distinctions have lost their importance. Company B, on the other hand, was built largely through internal growth and has two global brands. It operates one primary R&D center supported by a handful of special-purpose sites around the world. This comparatively sparse network has helped Company B win wide admiration for the efficiency of its engineering. Because expanding the number of nodes in a network exponentially increases its complexity, it is not surprising that Company A's R&D structure is more expensive to operate. Company A has considered closing some sites, but has resisted doing so because it fears losing capabilities and insights, and roiling local markets. Meanwhile, incremental budget cuts have chipped away at engineer and supplier morale. Having built its network to maximize the value associated with market access, it is now forced to manage the network for cost. Most global innovation networks look like Company A's - and suffer the same problems. Company B's R&D structure is clearly more productive, but it is not necessarily ideal either. Its network might be too compact, limiting access to knowledge that could maximize performance. Thus, to identify principles and practices for creating a truly well-designed innovation network, Booz Allen Hamilton and INSEAD, the international business school, surveyed R&D leaders in 186 companies from 17 industry sectors in 19 nations in 2005. The survey results, and our own experience, suggest one central truth: Organizations benefit when they configure their innovation networks for cost and manage them for value.

The social innovation eXchange (SIX) is a network that has been set up by a group of organizations to help build the emerging field of social innovation. They believe that many of the big problems that the world faces - from climate change to the care needs of an aging population - will only be solved by experiment, enterprise and innovation, and that innovation needs to tap into the creativity of every part of civil society, business and the public sector.

Out of the 100 largest economies in the world, about half are multinational corporations. Given their impact on global communities, it is increasingly essential that these large corporations execute responsibility to society, rather than rely on governments and non-profits to address difficult social issues alone

Ontario Public Service is interested in looking at the state of innovation in public sector organizations.Some of the leaders who have in public sector innovation are: Social Innovation Generation (SiG), a collaborative partnership between The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, the University of Waterloo, the MaRS Discovery District, and the PLAN Institute.

Communitech, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, and the MaRS Discovery District have ageed to work together to help the province compete more effectively against countries like India and China. These three companies partnership will function under the name MaRS Network. May 29, 2005

Communitech, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, and the MaRS Discovery District have ageed to work together to help the province compete more effectively against countries like India and China. These three companies partnership will function under the name MaRS Network.

Mobile Innovation week is from September 12-16 in Toronto where there will be over 100 mobile industry experts will present. MaRS is one organization that will be speaking at Mobilebiz BootCamp on September 16, 2009. This session will focus on how to accelerate profitable growth in a mobile business.

Mobile Innovation week is from September 12-16 in Toronto where there will be over 100 mobile industry experts will present. MaRS is one organization that will be speaking at Mobilebiz BootCamp on September 16, 2009. This session will focus on how to accelerate profitable growth in a mobile business. Aug 18, 2009

Blog talks about how Ontario should look at agriculture as a source of solutions and innovation. Mention of Agri-Innovation Forum held by MaRS Landing and Ontario Agri-Food Technologies.

Blog talks about how Ontario should look at agriculture as a source of solutions and innovation. Mention of Agri-Innovation Forum held by MaRS Landing and Ontario Agri-Food Technologies. Feb 27, 2009

Richard Florida, urban theorist and lead of the Martin Prosperity Institute housed at MaRS, wrote an article for The Atlantic and this his interview follow-up (web exclusive). He says that it's always been the economic upheavals that have caused the most innovation. Stop artificially supporting dead industries and let the innovative ones organically replace them.

"The United States spends more on health care-related research and development than any other country. In 2003, it was estimated that the Federal government alone spent over $26 billion. Pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers and other private companies invested over $10 billion more. At its best, the American health care system is capable of delivering care unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. Yet, a 1999 Institute of Medicine study estimated that as many as 98,000 Americans die each year from hospital related medical errors. A recent study by the Rand Corporation (a non-profit think tank) concluded that less than 50 percent of encounters with doctors and hospitals resulted in optimal, evidence-based treatment. Studies show that as many as 42 million Americans - almost 15 percent of the population - lack health care insurance. Surveys reveal that patients do not feel they have adequate information about their conditions, and that their experience with health care ranks below that of most other sectors, in fact below that of the post office. In the aggregate, the country is spending nearly $2 trillion on health care, and yet the nation's health care system does not meet acceptable thresholds for safety, quality, access or cost. In 2005, VHA Health Foundation's board of directors sought to better understand the reasons behind this paradox. The foundation commissioned Larry Keeley and his associates at Doblin Inc. to apply the rigorous analytical methods that are used in their evaluation of other American industries and companies. The project set out to discover when, where and how innovation was taking place in health care. It also sought to identify organizations that were developing model innovation processes, and to explore where opportunities for successful innovation might lay."

Mobile Innovation week is from September 12-16 in Toronto where there will be over 100 mobile industry experts will present. MaRS is one organization that will be speaking at Mobilebiz BootCamp on September 16, 2009. This session will focus on how to accelerate profitable growth in a mobile business.

Mobile Innovation week is from September 12-16 in Toronto where there will be over 100 mobile industry experts will present. MaRS is one organization that will be speaking at Mobilebiz BootCamp on September 16, 2009. This session will focus on how to accelerate profitable growth in a mobile business. Aug 20, 2009

Argiculture industry has escaped the bad economy thus far and the many of the nutraceutcals and other innovative food products are doing well. Mention of MaRS Landing and Ontaro Agri-Fod Technologies hosted an Agri-Innovation Forum which highlight developments of the linkages built betweem agriculture and sectors in health.

Argiculture industry has escaped the bad economy thus far and the many of the nutraceutcals and other innovative food products are doing well. Mention of MaRS Landing and Ontaro Agri-Fod Technologies hosted an Agri-Innovation Forum which highlight developments of the linkages built betweem agriculture and sectors in health. Feb 26, 2009

Francois blogs about the continuum of social innovation. He credits MaRS as his inspiration. Find out about the different types of socially innovative organizations and enterprises and how they differ.

An interesting Toronto-based social-purpose business. PUBLIC is a for-profit, social-purpose business focused exclusively on advancing the public good. We are an innovation company, generating positive social impact through the creation of scalable programs, products and campaigns that: * raise money for charitable purposes * increase civic and community engagement * advance social causes and issues * create new social norms We bring an integrated, impact- driven approach to mobilizing and advancing the public good by aligning brand awareness, policy influence and fundraising. For us, "advancing the public good" is about motivating people (and organizations) to behave in ways that benefit society while recognizing and appealing to their self-interest.

This is the kind of environment that Ontario is trying to build: The EuC2C partnership is an inter-sectoral group of organisations committed to making European businesses more innovative and competitive in the long term. The knowledge, skills and networks of the partnership complement each other, containing as it does a communications focussed SME, the world's most specialised firm in helping develop cluster-based programmes, a Europe-wide network of business innovation centres, a non profit national body for SME development, an independent SME training consultancy specialising in multimedia training and a specialist marketing communication company.

GreenHeroes, a website and TV show, tells the story of people who are "venturing forth" to change the planet. In their blog, they talk about MaRS as a place where science, business and innovation collide in a riot with academia, government, community leaders, private and not-for-profit sectors. We're listed here as a resource for social innovators, in good company with other organizations who want to help entrepreneurs with a social mission.

This book challenges the prevalent misconceptions about innovation, and lays out the tools and processes necessary for an organization to harness and execute innovation.