Innovation boards

Two of our favorite regions in Europe are Italy and Scandinavia, both with a strong design heritage and innovation practices that we learned from to create innovation boards for our clients. Just like the audit committee increases the quality of financial responsibility, the innovation board stimulates future thinking and innovation.  
Sweden, Finland, and Denmark are consistently in the top 10 of most innovative countries in the world, and Nordic companies regularly work with innovation committees. They may have different names and objectives to fit their business needs, but they are organized as subcommittees of the board, and counterbalance the audit committee by being future oriented. Think of the R&D committee of Danish Novo Nordisk for example or the portfolio development committee of Swedish Essity. 
We enjoy Italy because of its strong cultural heritage and tradition of entrepreneurial leaders partnering with creative people. This is partly because so many Italian companies are design-driven, but it goes beyond that. It is also rooted in the more customary appreciation of the value of art and culture in Italian society. Entrepreneurs in other industries also believe in the interplay between the worlds of culture and business. Adriano Olivetti’s vision for the computer company Olivetti for example was inspired by his partnerships with scholars, sociologists, artists, and philosophers. These types of innovation boards for entrepreneurs are often set up as advisory boards.

No matter what setup works best for you, we encourage you to create a team of ‘outside the box’ thinkers from uncommon backgrounds to inspire the leadership team and unleash the creativity needed to design the future of your business.

What would your ideal innovation board look like? What kind of inspiration are you looking for?