Fostering Innovation

Proven and practical strategies for leading IT teams and departments In Fostering Innovation: How to Build an Amazing IT Team, accomplished technology strategist, executive, and leader Andrew Laudato delivers an eye-opening exploration of how to design, build, staff, and run a high-performing IT department. The book is filled with universally applicable strategies and techniques that can transform any IT team into an all-star cast perfectly aligned with your organization’s objectives. Incorporating proven and practical processes throughout the narrative, the book offers useful continuous improvement concepts the reader can apply to their team, company, and professional development. Readers will also find: Foolproof ways to put people before technology Detailed discussions of perennially important topics, like the importance of uptime, how to deploy redundancy, and creating the perfect organization chart Strategies for managing and motivating the wonderfully unique individuals we refer to as "technologists." The perfect resource for newly minted Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers, Fostering Innovation will also earn a place in the libraries of non-technical professionals who work closely with IT, and business leaders seeking a better understanding of how to lead an IT team.

Public sector innovation does not happen by itself: problems need to be identified, and ideas translated into projects that can be tested, implemented and shared. This report looks at how governments can create an environment that fosters innovation.

Due to the emergence of innovative technologies, various professional fields are transforming their traditional business practices. Specifically, the financial and legal markets are experiencing this digital transformation as professionals and researchers are finding ways to improve efficiency, personalization, and security in these economic sectors. Significant research is needed to keep pace with the continuous advancements that are taking place in finance. Fostering Innovation and Competitiveness with FinTech, RegTech, and SupTech provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of technologically innovative mechanisms and applications within the financial, economic, and legal markets. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as crowdfunding platforms, crypto-assets, and blockchain technology, this book is ideally designed for researchers, economists, practitioners, policymakers, analysts, managers, executives, educators, and students seeking current research on the strategic role of technology in the future development of financial and economic activity.

Analysing the trends that are emerging in sport enterprises such as advancements in technology and social media, the authors of this illuminating book tackle the issue of how to create new opportunities in such a changing industry. Providing valuable reading for sports business scholars, this book draws on examples from inventive companies as well as inspirational sports leaders and illustrates the various drivers behind innovation. Addressing the need for a culture of innovation within sports enterprises, the authors reveal sustainable ways for companies to stay ahead of the game in an increasingly competitive global sport market.

The scientific and technical development of any kind of germplasm is regulated by a vast network of treaties, conventions, international agreements, and national and regional legislation. These regulations govern biotechnological innovations in plants and microorganisms, access to and use of plant genetic resources, and biosafety. This complex mix has made it difficult to arrive at global interpretations, due to overlaps, gaps, ambiguities, contradictions, and lack of consistency. The big picture is even more complex, as a series of scientific developments – gene editing in particular – have in some cases rendered these international regulatory frameworks obsolete. This book puts forward an innovative approach: a “Comprehensive Plant Germplasm System”. The System is a cooperative game theory-based proposal for a binding international convention which would supersede all other conventions, treaties, national and regional legislation covering native varieties and traditional developments, heterogeneous plant varieties, microorganisms, biotechnological inventions, plant genetic resources, and biosafety regulation. In short, it offers a comprehensive framework regarding intellectual property, biosafety, and business regulation and covers all types of germplasm. If applied, the system is expected to yield higher productivity rates in crops and improved food biodiversity, as well as a new paradigm based on the promotion of innovation for “Agriculture 4.0.”

While innovation can be defined in many ways, the author sees it as a process. It is not the sudden eureka moment in the middle of the night, nor is it a clear and linear path towards a final destination. Instead, it involves a strong sense of creativity and curiosity. An innovative mind has a natural inclination towards out-of-the-box thinking. It involves a willingness to try something new, without fear or judgment, to develop something no one else has ever articulated. While the mindset comes naturally, it requires fuel to keep it running. Innovators are voracious readers and researchers. They feed their mindset all of the fuel it needs to stay informed and relevant in their field. Many of the same things can be said for the Lean mindset. Lean management doesn’t happen overnight, and it is very rarely a clear and linear path to true Lean thinking. Some might consider Lean a subset of innovative thinking, while others see it in reverse. Regardless of the relationship’s directionality, one thing is certain: You cannot have one without the other. This book follows John Riley, the CEO of a medium-sized valve company just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who will stop at nothing to create an innovative work environment. Through the ups and downs of his journey, he learns a number of Lean and innovative skills, strategies, and mindsets to help him build the business he’s always envisioned for himself. Throughout the book, you see examples of both strong and poor innovative leadership skills demonstrated by each of the main characters. The key messages are ones that help leaders build and access a mindset insistent on continuous improvement. Leadership techniques and abilities that bolster creative thought and problem-solving are the most successful throughout this book. To be truly innovative, you can never stop driving the learning process. For this to happen, leaders need to recognize when there is a need for a change or improvement. This is the beauty of the marriage between Lean and innovation: They both require continuous learning and growth. The desire to improve is only one piece of this equation, however. The other is the willingness to act. Without both of these factors, true innovation will always be out of reach.

Christian Schwarzkopf has developed a new more holistic entrepreneurial ecosystem on a national level and has analyzed as well as compared the fundamentals of innovation and entrepreneurship in Germany and the USA in order to derive the key elements for an entrepreneurial ecosystem. The described ecosystem consists of four circles and 24 elements, with the entrepreneur in the core. Surrounding essential elements, for example, are risk financing, culture or domestic markets. The author shows the differences between Germany and the USA and provides improvement proposals for nations like Germany.

In response to the increasingly ubiquitous, asynchronous, and pervasive use of cyber technology in everyday life, unique threats to cybersecurity (CS) have emerged requiring innovative and systemic solutions. Of the potential threats, Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance (UTS) presents one of the most acute generalized vulnerabilities facing the broader Intelligence Community (IC), Department of Defense (DoD), and United States Government. While security systems and networks have attempted to adapt to meet these evolving threats, internal organizational structures, culture, and human behavior often lag behind due to the inherent challenges in changing these dynamic variables. It is crucial that scientific disciplines identify systemic and innovative behavioral countermeasures that are informed by sub-disciplines of the psychology and CS literature. Innovative strategies involve collaboration amongst experts from the domains of social psychology, game theory, Bayesian statistics, and the IC, which will be discussed in-depth. A special issue that pulls from cross-disciplinary professionals will have a broad impact for the IC and DOD eliciting wide readership and spurring needed innovation._____________________________________________________________________ "Cultivating a culture of innovation, though difficult, is important for any enduring organization. It's downright essential for the US Intelligence Community, which must stay one step ahead of adversaries on surveillance technologies and tradecraft to be effective. This collection of articles brings together insightful research and analysis from diverse domains, moving us closer to the deeper appreciation of innovation and culture that is so urgently needed."David Priess, Ph.D., former Central Intelligence Agency officer and author, The President's Book of Secrets