Teamwork: At the Innospire bootcamp, the project undergoes technical, legal and intellectual property rights reviews and its market potential is assessed
© Peter Thomas
© Peter Thomas
Criticism as an essential element of the culture of innovation
In 2011, participants at the second Innospire bootcamp were also coached by economics professor Stefan Stremersch from Erasmus University Rotterdam School of Management. Stremersch is a first-rate motivational speaker, as is demonstrated by his presentations “Time to Market” about product development and marketing and “Making Your Presentation Rock!” about how the participants can convince the grand jury of the excellence of their projects.
However, Stremersch doesn’t pull any punches when he conducts individual coaching sessions with the help of Betz and Gerards. Although Stremersch takes the teams’ business plans apart with probing questions, the team members appreciate this constructive criticism.
“It helps to make our ideas better,” says the chemist Gerhard Jonschker, who is on the same team as Hartwig and van der Heyden. According to Jonschker, the success of a project depends not only on its topic but also on the team’s cohesion and a dialogue-oriented culture.
This assessment is confirmed by Gerards, who states, “Specialist expertise alone is not enough. You also need to have the right chemistry. The people need to pursue the same objective and share the same vision.” From a purely organizational standpoint, collaboration between the employees from different continents and business sectors causes no problems, since Innospire makes extensive use of cutting-edge media technology, which ensures that the participants can engage in intense communication even when they are not attending events such as the bootcamps.
Working on new products
At the bootcamp, one can literally sense the excitement that people feel when they are working on products from Merck that will potentially be very successful in the years ahead. The teams have internalized Professor Stremersch’s repeated demand that participants maintain a balance between pursuing a visionary approach and generating quick sales.
The success of an idea discussed at the bootcamp is assured once the grand jury approves funding for the product’s development. In order to take the Innospire process to its logical conclusion, Merck has set up the “Innovation Incubator.” In this program, the grand jury directly funds and supports selected innovation projects in the same cross-divisional manner in which the innovations are developed from the initial idea to a business plan.
However, employees do not need to wait until a product is launched on the market to feel successful, says Jonschker, since participating in the process as a team member is a valuable experience in itself. “Innospire is one of the best training programs that Merck can offer its employees,” he declares.
In 2011, participants at the second Innospire bootcamp were also coached by economics professor Stefan Stremersch from Erasmus University Rotterdam School of Management. Stremersch is a first-rate motivational speaker, as is demonstrated by his presentations “Time to Market” about product development and marketing and “Making Your Presentation Rock!” about how the participants can convince the grand jury of the excellence of their projects.
However, Stremersch doesn’t pull any punches when he conducts individual coaching sessions with the help of Betz and Gerards. Although Stremersch takes the teams’ business plans apart with probing questions, the team members appreciate this constructive criticism.
“It helps to make our ideas better,” says the chemist Gerhard Jonschker, who is on the same team as Hartwig and van der Heyden. According to Jonschker, the success of a project depends not only on its topic but also on the team’s cohesion and a dialogue-oriented culture.
This assessment is confirmed by Gerards, who states, “Specialist expertise alone is not enough. You also need to have the right chemistry. The people need to pursue the same objective and share the same vision.” From a purely organizational standpoint, collaboration between the employees from different continents and business sectors causes no problems, since Innospire makes extensive use of cutting-edge media technology, which ensures that the participants can engage in intense communication even when they are not attending events such as the bootcamps.
Ulrich Betz and Michael Gerards jointly manage the Innospire project
© Peter Thomas
© Peter Thomas
At the bootcamp, one can literally sense the excitement that people feel when they are working on products from Merck that will potentially be very successful in the years ahead. The teams have internalized Professor Stremersch’s repeated demand that participants maintain a balance between pursuing a visionary approach and generating quick sales.
The success of an idea discussed at the bootcamp is assured once the grand jury approves funding for the product’s development. In order to take the Innospire process to its logical conclusion, Merck has set up the “Innovation Incubator.” In this program, the grand jury directly funds and supports selected innovation projects in the same cross-divisional manner in which the innovations are developed from the initial idea to a business plan.
However, employees do not need to wait until a product is launched on the market to feel successful, says Jonschker, since participating in the process as a team member is a valuable experience in itself. “Innospire is one of the best training programs that Merck can offer its employees,” he declares.
