stars insights

stars Insights
Innovating Innovation (in partnership with Developing Leaders Quarterly, DLQ)
19 March 2024

• Innovating Innovation – The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Munich’s UnternehmerTUM
  This amazing success story of Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem, written by the company’s founder and CEO Helmut Schoenenberger and two members of his team, is a must read. Last year, they produced 700+ start-ups and were responsible for one third of the entire VC funding of Germany. More than 150 corporate partnerships – most of them with SMEs and family offices – assure connectivity between companies and the start-up universe, which has so far created nine unicorns. Most recently, UnternehmerTUM launched a pan-European initiative called Rise Europe, designed to lift Europe’s innovation capability by connecting 20 start-up hubs across the continent.
• Hacking Our Way to Innovation – How Facebook Reimagined its Client Relationship Practices and Helped Global Brands to Innovate
  Former Facebook LATAM Executive Agustin Couto and his co-authors share an remarkable project of cross-functional and cross-organizational collaboration. “Innovation hacks” bring together stakeholders from marketing, communications, sales, strategy, finance, product, or sometimes even HR or manufacturing – both from the customer and the Facebook organization. Together they explore strategic challenges and develop custom innovative solutions that drive the growth of Facebook’s clients. It’s an exemplary lesson in business ecosystem
• Corporate Innovation: Quo Vadis?
  Michael Nichols, who leads the Corporate Venture Capital arm of Mann+Hummel, a global leader in filter systems, shares his experience with Corporate Incubators and Accelerators. He discusses challenges and success factors and warns of the widespread practice of “Innovation Theater” – rituals like pitch events, hackathons, agile sprints, etc., that often create only the pretense of innovation and ultimately work against a real culture of innovation.