News

4th Front End of Innovation Conference

By: Heidi Bertels

Dr. Peter Koen was chairman of the Front End of Innovation (FEI) conference in Boston in May 2006 for the fourth time on a row. This year he was also awarded for that by IIR. The FEI-conference is a three-day conference with an impressive program focusing on issues of the compelling topic ìthe front end of innovationî. It is the only conference worldwide that concentrates solely on the front end of innovation, despite its importance perceived by practitioners and academics. On the pre-conference day, attendees had a choice out of four half-day workshops or two full-day symposiums. One of the symposiums was hosted by Peter Koen. He presented us the latest on his research in the Front End of Innovation (FEI). This was followed by presentations of ìThe Best of the Bestî, companies that outperform on certain aspects of the front end of innovation following dr. Koenís research team (i.e. they are top quartile performers compared to 180 US SBUís). John Leikhim from Proctor & Gamble, Charles Craig from Corning, Inc and Chuck House from Intel Corporation shared their insights and experiences with us. The symposium ended with a presentation by Nancy Eickman from Honeywell & Kathy Harold-Marlowe from Marlowe & Associates about ìHow to use the FEI tool to set the stage for changeî. Our kick-off keynote speaker on Monday evening was nobody less than Tom Kelley, General Manager of IDEO. Tom Kelleyís presentation turned out to be very fruitful for a creative first evening in Boston.

Tuesday followed with presentations of the ìMichelangeloísî of Innovation Management like Renee Mauborgne from INSEAD, Claudio Kotchka from Proctor and Gamble, Terry Jones from Travelocity and Clayton Christensen from Harvard. During lunch, Gary Erickson from the Clif Bar entertained us with his entrepreneurial story. The afternoon followed with four concurrent tracks, each with a diverse focus. The special keynote at dinner, this year by Miha Pogacnik, was enjoyable and refreshing as ìusualî. Miha Pogacnik gave us his view on how to understand innovation through his music and energetic drawings and managed to get the whole room of attendees singing with him...

Wednesday was ìseededî with most interesting keynotes from e.g. Burt Rutan; an inspiring person known from SpaceShipOne ( i.e. the first private manned space flight, flew in 2004) amongst other projects. Further, we had an inventorís forum featuring the same Burt Rutan and Rodney Brooks from iRobot Corp. The next keynoter was Eric von Hippel, well-known for his lead user research, with a fascinating talk. And than, most admirable, a CTO form with CTOís from Motorola, Dow Corning, Inc, DuPont and Xerox, with not less than three out of four womenÖ Michael Treacy helped us to digest our lunch on the second day while explaining ìHow to bring innovation to the product development processî. The afternoon offered again four concurrent tracks.

Click here for the offical conference website

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