At the end of September, we invited internal stakeholders from the RWA Group to our “Future Breakfast”. With inputs from Board Member Christoph Metzker, the well-known “Science Buster” Martin Moder and, last but not least, Georg, we succeeded in getting people to think about innovation again and encouraged them to try something new.
Evening events are very common. But why not start the day well and offer a little stimulation in the morning? That was the motto of the “Future Breakfast” at the end of September: Because innovation takes new and different paths.
Christoph Metzker reported on the beginnings of the AIL and the stress of the first accelerator program, where we were unsure if there would be the hoped-for number of registrations – or any at all! Innovation requires patience and the team already had to exercise this back then. Applications did come. Lots of them. Many more than we ever expected. But they came towards the end of the application period rather than at the beginning. So the waiting and all that work were worth it. In the past six years, a total of more than 1,000 startups have applied to us in connection with a wide range of topics. Georg then reported on the AIL’s current projects, including the Bio Innovation Challenge or the “Funkenflug” intrapreneurship program, which took place and was successfully completed in the summer.
Finally, we heard some refreshing news from the world of research, humorously put together by molecular biologist Martin Moder. He also brought some historical examples of innovation, such as the discovery of penicillin, which resulted from someone forgetting a dish of samples. Instead of throwing away the dish, which had become useless for its actual purpose, Alexander Fleming took a closer look, as a result of which he was able to make penicillin even more effective. This is exactly what innovation tries to do: to think more broadly about subjects and get ideas from other areas that can be applied to one’s own. This is done with thoroughly creative methods, because it’s also important to break new methodological ground.
The exchange of ideas among colleagues wasn’t neglected either; over coffee, smoothies, muesli and savoury treats, new ideas were generated and everyone was encouraged to start the day in an innovative way. #keeponinnovation
Picture: (c) AIL