Professor Anne-Laure Fayard, holder of the ERA Chair for Social Innovation at Nova SBE, has co-signed a collaborative article published in the Harvard Business Review on innovation processes and their dimensions outside the traditional “conception of an idea” or a pilot project.  

The article, entitled "Nurturing Innovation", reflects on the concept of innovation and looks at the social and human dimensions extrinsic to brainstorming meetings — from creating and strengthening relationships of trust between team members to managing expectations and resolving conflicts between them.  

Different open innovation initiatives are mentioned throughout the article. One of them is Nova SBE's Project X, a three-month project that brings together students and the school's corporate partners to conceive new ideas or solve innovation-related problems. Project X, as explained by Professor Anne-Laure Fayard, also highlights the mentoring and management role of the program's intermediaries, an essential factor in ensuring the longevity and success of new ideas.  

Throughout the essay, the concept of innovation as a long and collaborative journey becomes clear, comprising all the people involved and their efforts to achieve real change in the long term. It also becomes clear that, despite participating in various cross-sector collaboration and open innovation initiatives, some companies still need help supporting the development of innovative ideas.    

For the authors, part of the solution to these challenges begins with recognizing that having a great idea is not enough — for this to be successful, it must be based on a curation process in which an intermediary takes responsibility for triggering and maintaining collaboration between the people involved.   

The article demonstrates how intermediaries can support collaboration throughout the innovation journey.  

The essay can be read in full here.