The innovation economy is only as strong as the ideas that fuel it. Companies large and small recognise this and are providing inspiring places where people can relax and come up with concepts for reshaping society.
Accenture – for example – has announced it is going to expand its New York City Innovation Hub as a place where ‘transformative ideas’ are born. It is going to set up in the new Hudson Yards district in 2020, giving its clients and workforce a home for creating the future of the digital world.
“Our clients, who are leaders in virtually every industry, are under tremendous pressure to innovate continuously and harness the power of disruption for competitive advantage,” explained Kathleen O’Reilly, senior managing director—US Northeast, Accenture. “We are bringing innovation to the doorsteps of our clients, creating a new destination where we can work side-by-side with them to reimagine their futures and solve their biggest challenges.”
And by 2020 Accenture says it plans to have 10 innovation hubs across America.
Bosch is another global leader when it comes to nurturing a culture of innovation. The top floor of its €300 million research campus, near Stuttgart, is home to a space called platform 12. It is “a place where not only employees but artists and academics come together to think about applied research in entrepreneurial and collaborative ways,” says Birgit Thoben, senior innovation manager at Bosch.
Platform 12 is an unconventional space where artists, academics and engineers come to dream up the products and technologies of the future
Facilitating intrapreneurship should be a priority for any company with ambitions to succeed in the innovation economy. Thomson Reuters understands this and in our latest edition Katherine Manuel, Senior Vice President, Innovation, Thomson Reuters, told us it is an imperative in the ‘age of acceleration’.
“Allowing our employees to experiment and try new approaches that they think will delight customers, streamline processes or improve methods is extremely important,” she said.