• silicon.com
• Technology
• Software

By Joey Gardiner, 19 April 2000 00:20

NEWS Businesses risk losing everything in the knowledge economy if they do not foster a culture of innovation. That's according to Dr Bill Coyne, senior vice president of research for 3M and a keynote speaker at today's Institute of Directors (IoD) annual convention Coyne spoke to Silicon.com in an exclusive interview before his address to the IoD's event, called 'Innovate or Die: Translating Ideas into Business Success'. He said: "Innovation affects every business. We need to reinvent ourselves every three years just in order to stay in business, and at the heart of that is allowing your people to be innovative." He called on businesses to set higher and higher targets for improvement to make sure they stay on top of change. Coyle insisted: "Innovation doesn't happen if you only expect incremental improvement. You need to expect leapfrog changes." The IoD's president, Lord Young, is expected to cite ecommerce as the biggest issue on directors' agendas during his opening address. George Cox, director general of the IoD, is expected to back up that view and explain that because of IT advancements, businesses are facing rapid change. Richard Sykes, chairman of Morgan Chambers, welcomed the IoD's focus on ecommerce. He said: "What we really need is strong awareness of the issues from SMEs so they can rework their existing assets into a form for the e-economy. They need to go out and learn, not be overwhelmed by the change and move themselves and their business processes forward, and this clarion call will only help that cause." Among those to hear this message today will be fellow speakers Jan Leschly, CEO of SmithKline Beecham Professor John Quelch, Dean of the London Business School Steve Bennett, founder and CEO at start-up jungle.com and EasyEverything entrepreneur, Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The Institute of Directors has 50,000 members in the UK.