Madrid’s Digital Enterprise Show 2019: Opportunities in Open Innovation

Solutions based in Internet of Things, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Marketing Automation were explored throughout the show in varying key industries.  This year Opinno returned as one of the 300 world’s top tech companies to discuss how digital is changing the business and to share knowledge and expertise in innovation evolution.

Innovation investments are becoming increasingly important to large corporations that want to maintain a competitive edge.  According to an IESE report, 70% of Spanish companies have increased investments in innovation units. Opinno’s Elena Rodriguez, an expert open innovation and strategy, presented a relevant talk on “Opportunity in the Innovation Ecosystem: Open Innovation,” which was followed by an engaging round-table talk with the editor-in-chief of MIT Technology Review in Spanish, Marta del Amo. The speakers discussed hesitations towards innovation in relation to disruptions that pose a threat to large corporations’ business models and leadership positions. Rodriguez responded by providing insights and clearing common misconceptions towards open innovation, a concept that embraces external innovative solutions. Companies are now prioritizing identifying new products, new markets and new solutions that can be solved through open innovation and corporate venturing.

Thought leaders debated on whether addressing challenges through open innovation is necessary or simply a buzzing trend in the business world. As with all evolving mindsets, risks exist; however, open innovation presents serious opportunities to both large and small companies. The exchange of knowledge between scientific players, public institutions and business partners, for example, decreases investment costs in research and development, while increasing potential for differentiation in the market. Furthermore, open innovation has the potential to reduce the uncertainty that exists when a company invests internally in research and development. This is because the external knowledge pool is often greater and more developed.

Bureaucratic corporate culture has been characterized as a resistor or an opponent to startups, which is why the incorporation of startups into corporate business models has raised problems and questions. At the Oppino-led round-table talk, experts led the conversation on innovation adoption programs and change management.

The world’s innovation ecosystem as a whole is growing one, and Spain is no bystander in the evolution. Growing players like Wayra, Insur-Space by MAPFRE and Start4Big in Barcelona have stood their ground in filling the gap in market space. With an increasing dedication and widening knowledge of innovation, experts in the round-table reflected not only on a company's potential to include startups in their business models, but went so far as to discuss the potential to collaborate with competitors.

Arguably, innovation has become a precondition to success. However, businesses and corporations have all the say as they lead and adapt to the disruptions changing their industries.’ Often times, a company’s voice would benefit from the guidance that open innovation provides. Opinno’s Antonio Fontanini, Pablo Caño, Diego Rocha and Maria Maciel have therefore chimed in to enlighten and encourage digital transformation across the board to share their expertise with budding entrepreneurs, as well as with growing and highly developed businesses.

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Find more information about the agenda and the speakers on the event’s website.

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