The head of Economy and Business of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), Pablo Adrián Hardy, has closed the First Ibero-American Forum of Open Innovation, which started with the interventions of the Ibero-American General Secretary, Rebeca Grynspan, the Minister of Commerce Industry and Tourism , Reyes Maroto; the Secretary of State for Economic Diversification of the Government of Andorra, Marc Galabert; CEOE CEO Antonio Garamendi; and the president of the Council of Ibero-American Businessmen (CEIB) and the Andorrana Business Confederation (CEA), Gerard Cadena. The Forum, organized by CEOE, from its Council of Ibero-American Businessmen-CEIB, and SEGIB, is the first official business act of the XXVII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State, which will be held in Andorra in November 2020 and will have the motto “ Innovation for Sustainable Development. Objective 2030 ”.
During the day yesterday, the co-founder and managing partner of FinTLV Ventures of Israel, Gilbert Ohana, gave a keynote conference on the new challenges of open ecosystems to innovate, after which, José María Siota, representative of IESE Business School made a presentation on “Open Innovation: the 7 myths of Corporate Venture in Latin America” and, in turn, Hugo Kantis, director of PRODEM spoke about the state of the art of open innovation in Latin America. In addition, leading international experts from the public and private sectors intervened in the Forum to present corporate accelerators as a means of rapid innovation; industry 4.0 and open innovation; and public promotion initiatives in this area.
To address these issues, leading international experts from the public and private sector from more than 20 countries participated; among which the Vice Minister of Economy of Costa Rica, Laura Pacheco; the Secretary of State for Economic Diversification of the Government of Andorra, Marc Galabert Maciá; the director of Financing and Investor Relations of the Executive Directorate of Invest in Spain of ICEX, Sergio Vela, among many other authorities and prominent representatives of companies.
SMEs
During the course of today, we discussed the open innovation from the shoes of the SME and the challenges and opportunities that arise. To present these questions, the Director of Market Intelligence and Innovation Processes of I + DEA, Carolina Martín; the general secretary of FIJE, Antonio Magraner; the executive president of TRIA Ingeniería, Francisco Paños; General Partner & Co Founder of Mark Ventures, Fernando Rodríguez; the director of Corporate Development of CEPYME, Álvaro Ramos Catalina; and the professor of the University Rey Juan Carlos and author of the book "Ranking of nurseries of companies and incubators of Spain", Francisco Blanco. The vice president of the CEOE R & D & I Committee, Francisco Marín, moderated the table.
The speakers explained that SMEs face the enormous challenge of relying on external factors to innovate and at the same time, have fewer resources to develop strategies. In the closed model, large companies widened the gap with SMEs by having their own R&D laboratories and currently, with the phenomenon of knowledge dispersed in multiple actors and the availability of venture capital funds, accelerators and public programs , opens an opportunity to be at the forefront. Business organizations play a fundamental role in the entire process.
Intrapreneurship cases
The Forum continued with a panel dedicated to internal collaboration to innovate and intra-entrepreneurship cases in Latin America. On this subject, the Founder and CEO of The Global Institute for Experienced Entrepreneurship and Senior Fellow in Babson College in Wellesley (US), Elizabeth Isele; the Director of Strategy and Innovation of INDRA; his counterpart in Strategy and Corporate Development of SACYR, Víctor de Ávila; the president of fix, César Durán; MAPFRE's Head of Innovation Practice and Governance; and the director of VIVA Venture Partners España, Diego Fernández; They explained that the management of business innovation is an intense and dynamic experience that, increasingly, is characterized by the interaction between departments and actors in and out of the company. “Internal interaction strategies break the myth of linear vision, denying the sequential process in which R&D laboratories are the origin of ideas, engineering departments responsible for design, and marketing departments responsible for sell it, ”they said. The speakers also discussed what place they occupy in the innovation strategies of Latin American companies and what are the main tools for generating ideas, selecting entrepreneurial teams and filtering innovation projects.
Interconnecting the entrepreneurial system to innovate
The third panel focused on companies, startups and technology centers and how they interconnect with each other to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem capable of innovating. To address the issue, spoke the founder of DOC.COM of Mexico, Charles Neder; Innovation expert and responsible for Acceleration of Oxentia of the United Kingdom, Bruno Reynolds; the coordinator of UP Emprende and the Incubator of the Universidad del Pacífico de Perú, Thais Gaona; the Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum in Washington DC, Baybars Altuntas; the head of the Division for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Secretariat of Global Relations of the OECD, José Antonio Ardavín; and the general director of the Global Sports Innovation Center powered by Microsoft; Iris Cordoba. The table was closed by the general director of the EFE Agency, Emilia Pérez.
The speakers talked about the transfer of knowledge and how to link the productive sectors with universities and technology centers, as it is a challenge that has been going on for many years. They pointed out that the new paradigm of open innovation enhances interaction, breaks the monopoly of the origin of knowledge and establishes mutually beneficial relationships.
Corporate venturing
In the last panel of the day, which served to close the Forum, corporate venturing was analyzed as an alternative for investment in innovation and the cases that exist in Latin America. At a time when the entrepreneurial ecosystem does nothing but evolve and explore new business models to accelerate access to technology, a new hybrid innovation model is born that functions as a connecting thread between companies and startups: he corporate venturing, which allows to capture talents and new business models from the investment. After the first experiences in the world in general and in the Latin American space in particular, the speakers talked about the lessons learned; how it impacts the actual innovation strategy of the companies; and how to find balance in the relationship between the largest company and the startup, taking advantage of the scale and organization of one and the innovative dynamics of the other.
In this last panel, the director of Innovation and Digital Transformation of Iberia participated to discuss the various issues; the Investment Manager at CEMEX VENTURES of Mexico, Mateo Zimmermann; the head of the Impact Investment of Iberdrola, Gema Sánchez; Found Manager of Ax Ventures and managing partner of ALTA Ventures of Argentina and Israel, Lisandro Bril; the general director of Enagás Emprende, Fernando Impuesto, and the director of Corporate Venturing de Repsol, Clara Rey. ASCRI Director of Studies and Venture, Ángela Alférez, moderated the table.
Pablo Adrián Hardy, responsible for Economy and Business of SEGIB, closed the Forum encouraging Spanish entrepreneurs to promote and suggest initiatives in the innovation sector, in view of the next Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State, to be held at the end of November of next year in Andorra.