The Woodward Report: Innovation Spotting

Talk of innovation is everywhere these days - in business, politics, investing and headlines. But what does innovation mean, and how can we spot it?(innovation, Mads Thimmer, Henry Chesbrough, David Michael, University of California at Berkeley, Open Innovation, Apple, Innovation Lab, Intuit, Boston Consulting Group, Nokia, China Mobile, Lasse Engelbrecht Jensen, Pia Elers, Brian Woodward)

Classic economics says that the key to economic growth is capital accumulation and production. A fact that holds true for both national economies and private companies.

But with both production and capital increasingly moving away from the world's developed economies, politicians, companies and investors alike are looking for new signs of how to spot and spur economic growth. And one of the answers they most often fall upon is "Innovation".

In fact, in a 2010 survey by BusinessWeek and the Boston Consulting Group, 72 percent of senior executives said innovation was a top three priority for their company.  The same survey showed that the most innovative companies outperform their peers by 12.4 percent over a three-year period.

But what is innovation? Is it anything more than a business buzzword?  What makes an organization innovative?  And how can one spot an innovative organization?

Our guests all have their own perspectives.  Among others,we spoke with:

• Mads Thimmer, Innovation Lab, Denmark
• Henry Chesbrough, University of California Berkeley
• David C Michael, Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group China.

Legal information