October 24 Member Update

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IRI Member Update
IRI Horiz

10/24/2022

IRI’s CTO Forum

CTO Forum Highlights

On September 19, 2022, IRI brought 15 Chief Technology Officers to Washington D.C. to discuss the nature of innovation in the current Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) World. The companies represented were: Arkema Inc., Campbell Soup Company, Danaher Corp, DuPont, FM Global, GE Aviation, Harbison Walker International, Hess Corp, Mars Petcare, NASA Langley, National Gypsum Company, Saint-Gobain North America, Sonoco Flexible Packaging, and Tata Consultancy Services


Key take-aways include How To:

  • Plan for the VUCA world to be around for a while to come;
  • Develop innovation governance models that include senior leaders and protect resources. A quarterly innovation governance board can use tools like trackers and scorecards;
  • Use similarities in research and innovation leadership challenges across industries; 
  • Develop an ecosystem for long term research and innovation including public funded research and industry centered research, perhaps globally;
  • Use young talent to drive young talent attraction, retention, etc.
  • Build a culture to encourage back to office;
  • Solve for sustainability by being innovative on the supply chain;
  • Use “Community Days” on those days that the team is in the building.
  • Avoid the mindset that technology can solve ‘unachievable’ sustainability goals; and
  • Increase measurements and leverage select external consultants.


A full summary will be published in the January issue of Research-Technology Management.

Shaping Innovation Leaders

Develop Your High-Potential R&D Managers to Gain a Competitive Edge

Registration is now open for the Shaping Innovation Leaders executive management course, May 13-19 in Evanston, Illinois. This intensive program is designed to enhance the business skills of your promising R&D managers and give your business a competitive edge. 


How Participants Benefit

  • Address the challenges of leadership and motivate others to lead
  • Gain insights into marketing, finance, accounting, organization behavior and operations functions
  • Develop the ability to analyze, formulate and implement strategies
  • Gain fresh perspectives for competing in a global marketplace
  • Network with other innovation leaders across industries


“I’ve taken a leap forward in both my ability to have organizational savvy within the company and my ability to influence as a leader.”

—Jason Pierce, Eastman Chemical Company, program graduate


Register Now

Shaping Innovation Leaders was created by the IRI in partnership with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Register your high-potential R&D leaders today. Space is limited, and last year’s program sold out well in advance. As an IRI member, you receive $2,000 off each registration.

Visit our Website

IRI Board of Advisors

Here is your chance to lead the leading Innovation Organization

IRI is accepting nominations for the Board of Advisors. Board members will serve for a three-year term setting the strategic direction of IRI. If you know of someone who would be a great candidate or if you would be interested in serving yourself, contact Ed Bernstein at ebernstein@nam.org. Nominations are accepted through October.

IRI TRACK Workshops

IRI Virtual i101 Bootcamp

The IRI Virtual i101 Bootcamp Part 2 workshop is designed to introduce topics of managing corporate innovation. In it, the participants will learn both the essential tools for managing innovation and how to deal with organizational issues. 


This course is designed for both researchers who have recently assumed a team leadership role and for individual contributors who seek to lead an innovation team in the future. It is designed for those who want to broaden their knowledge of innovation management and to learn more about the practical aspects of key innovation topics and tools. It is also appropriate for an innovation team member who wants to develop a broader understanding of innovation practices. This course can be viewed as a springboard to the participant’s professional advancement. 



October 26th, 1pm-5pm EST

Virtual i101 Bootcamp: Part 2: Organizational Issues in Managing Innovation 

Member $295 /Non-member $395

Community Events

DE&I Community

Thursday, November 10, 12pm ET

Veterans Day Panel – Sean Bruce (Hess), Perezam Takouda (Cargill), and Scott Ponsor (Barone Consulting/DARPA)

IRI honors Veterans Day with this fantastic panel of veterans brought together to discuss:

  • Barriers that impede a smooth transition from military to civilian employment;
  • Key skills that are developed in the military;
  • Ways that veterans’ experience can help them in industry roles; and
  • Steps that organizations can take to make themselves more attractive to veterans.
To register, please request a calendar invitation form Lee Green

DxCommunity

Thursday, November 17, 12pm ET

Thought Leader Interview on Digital Twins with Don Kinard, Lockheed Martin

Focus: 

  • Defining digital twins;
  • Use cases at Lockheed Martin;
  • Building trust in digital twins and their capabilities;
  • Creating and maintaining the infrastructure needed for effective digital twins, especially in legacy companies; and
  • Maintaining cybersecurity while using digital twins. 
To receive the calendar invitation for this session, please email Lee Green.

Member Benefit Spotlight:

Community Forum

The Community Forum is an opportunity to ask questions and have the IRI community reply with their viewpoint or experience. Whether you are looking for advice on planning an engaging meeting or wondering what digital tools can help you share your IP, an IRI member has advice to share! All the responses are compiled and sent out in an email to members within three business days. Contact Kathy Hillegas to submit your question today.


Click here to see what IRI members have done to effectively brainstorm virtually, and check out other Community Forum surveys in the Resource Center!

Fall Networks

Fall Networks Conference cancellation

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the 2022 in-person Fall Networks Conference has been cancelled. We hope to see everyone at our 2023 Spring Networks Conference on March 13-15 in Charlotte, NC. Registration will open in early November and we will announce the agenda later this month. IRI is currently working to incorporate some of the Network agendas into future Coffee Houses and Webinars.

Annual Conference Call for Presentations

2023 IRI Annual Conference Call for Presentations Open Through Nov 9

IRI’s 2023 Annual Conference will convene at The Logan in downtown Philadelphia on May 22-25. This event will explore the future of innovation through the lens of “connectivity” across four focus areas: technology, people, ideas, and communities. Visit our website to learn more about the conference topics, theme, and submission requirements. Submissions are welcome from both members and non-members! Proposals will be reviewed and selected by the IRI Program Advisory Group in mid-November, and our conference agenda will be announced in early December. 


Please contact Mallory Smith (msmith@nam.org) for more information about the submission and review process or content scope.

View Call for Presentations

IRI Awards Committee Recruiting New Members

IRI Awards Committee Recruiting New Members

The IRI Awards Committee is now recruiting new members. This group is responsible for identifying, nominating, and selecting the recipients of the IRI Medal, IRI Achievement Award, and the newly established IRI Innovation Excellence Award (presented to IRI members only). This committee meets approximately 5 times per year, all virtually except for an in-person meeting held at the IRI Annual Conference. 


If you are interested in joining the IRI Awards Committee, please contact Mallory Smith (msmith@nam.org).

Contact Mallory Smith

Learning at what you need – when you need it –

Learning Modules On-Demand

How to Drive B2B Organic Growth

B2B Organic Growth… in 50 two-minute videos

Join Dan Adams in a tour of 50 two-minute videos that will completely change the way you think about B2B organic growth. Perfect for R&D leaders wishing to eliminate most commercial risk in new-product innovation… so they can concentrate on technical risk.


What is the IRI On-Demand Training Library? It is a variety of modules that address business, management, and leadership skills to offer convenience and flexibility of self-paced learning.

External Technology: Identifying and Sourcing External Technology presented by Joe Fox

Tapping External Technology can be an effective way of supplementing an organization’s internal R&D activity and accelerating its new product development efforts. For companies and organizations that have relied on internal R&D activity, this module teaches about effective mechanisms for accessing and integrating external technology. The Want-Find-Assess-Get-Manage (WFAGM) process is an effective approach to implementing an external technology program and will be described in detail in this module. The “Want” and “Find” modules can help technology scouts become more effective in their jobs. The “Assess”“Get” and “Manage” modules can help R&D managers with external technology assessment, intellectual property considerations, and effective project management involving external partners.

The 7 Principles of Lean Startup presented by James Euchner

Lean Startup is a system of practices that can be used for creating new businesses from scratch. Every startup begins under conditions of extreme uncertainty; the Lean Startup practices are designed to progressively reduce uncertainty through a series business experiments. This course gives a basic overview of the seven principles of Lean Startup.

Cultivating High Performing Talent in Innovation Teams presented by Matrice Jackson 

This on-demand module was designed to give you a head start on building talent within technical teams. It contains information you might want to use in your next leadership-inspiring meeting, or perhaps you can find something new about yourself. We cannot have a conversation about high performing teams in innovation without having one about diversity and inclusion. This module will touch on those topics, but we might surprise you with an insightful fact or two about the impact that diversity and inclusion can have on a team’s performance and the company as a whole!

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