Internationally-acclaimed academic Professor Harry Barkema recently joined ERIM, RSM's research institute, as the DSM Distinguished Chair of Innovation Management. As the new chair - RSM's first endowed professorship in innovation management sponsored by global chemicals powerhouse DSM - Barkema will serve as executive director of the Innovation Co-Creation Lab [ICCL], a revolutionary initiative that is the first of its kind in Europe. Barkema's covetable track record guarantees the spotlight will be on both the lab and its future progress. So who is Harry Barkema?
How would you describe Harry Barkema?
I think I am quite eclectic. I started out in economics writing my thesis on agency theory, but was far more interested in psychology and theory about how organizations learn, which is exactly where I ended up. I have done mainly quantitative research, but I very much like the rich stories that come from qualitative work. The most interesting ideas can often be found at the boundaries of different fields.
In your new role at RSM, you are the Chair of Innovation Management. What appealed to you about this position?
Han van Dissel (former dean) convinced me that RSM is pushing for the highest-quality research: I felt I would be proud to work in such an environment. Secondly, DSM is a very innovative company and will be even more so with its new energetic CEO Feike Sybesma. The fact that he is personally involved with the chair and the ICCL was an important factor for me. Third, RSM has a great group of innovation researchers in the Department of Management of Technology and Innovation. And there are other interesting initiatives going on at the school like the Institute for Social Innovation.
Innovation has become a buzzword in business today. Why is it so important?
Many international companies today are competing for the same clients. But we cannot compete anymore on the basis of labour or other resources with companies from India and China. We need to offer unique products, services and experiences - and repeatedly - because they will be copied. Right now, the most successful companies are developing breakthrough products and services and, increasingly, new business models. Innovation is one of the most important challenges today and will be even more important in the years to come.
What is required in order for a company to be innovative?
Sourcing ideas from outside is important, but you also need the right strategies and organisational designs in place. Proctor & Gamble, for instance, has been very successful in launching innovative products, and this is not a coincidence. P&G uses a variety of strategies to tap the world for great product ideas, and their processes, managerial roles and cultures/incentives channel these ideas into their existing product development process. Companies like Skype, ARM, MUJI also use innovative approaches. To be successful, you need to do all these things in combination, and we are only now beginning to crack what these things are.
What are your plans for the Innovation Co-Creation Lab?
The focus of the ICCL will be on breakthrough innovation in the domain of new products and new business models. How can companies do this systemically? What strategies and organisational designs (structures, processes, managerial roles, cultures/incentives) help to get breakthrough innovations? These are the questions we hope to answer. I plan to build a thriving research group in this domain that is part of a larger network - hence why it's called the Innovation Co-creation Lab. We will be collaborating with other universities including the London School of Economics (LSE), Stanford and MIT, amongst others, and will be building strong alliances with innovative companies. We also plan to develop new methodologies for learning from people in practice. Interesting experiments are already going on in this domain, and we aim to improve them further.
So you are a strong advocate of bridging research and practice?
Yes. The management field is in somewhat of a crisis. While much of the research in our top management journals is very well done, it is sometimes far removed from the real world. On the other hand, most of the work published in journals such as Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review and in "airport books" lacks a solid research base and is sometimes completely wrong due to flawed methodologies. One way to bridge this gap is to promote interesting experiments in terms of cooperation between research and practice. I would like to use the lab to do research that is both rigorous and relevant.
How do you anticipate future trends in terms of innovation?
Trends such as the globalisation of competition will only become stronger and fire up the need for breakthrough innovation; the speed of innovation will increase. For example, eBay and Yahoo were very successful new business models ten years ago, but they are already being beaten by new rivals. Apple's business model for the iPod is already under attack from Amazon. Infosys is currently acquiring the same capabilities as Accenture, while Accenture is mimicking Infosys’ low cost base through its 40,000 staff in India. As these companies become more and more alike, profits erode. Winning in these and many other industries means successfully breaking away from price-competition and systematically creating new platforms for growth and profitability – for breakthrough innovation in products, processes, and new business models.
Rotterdam is often described as a centre of innovation because of its major port and reinvention post-World War II. Would you agree with this?
I think so, yes - Rotterdam has a hands-on, enterprising culture. There is a sense of openness to the rest of the world; people are used to interacting and building contacts globally. With innovation increasingly becoming a game of sourcing ideas from outside, we have the contact and language skills to build these bridges to the outside world. But while there have been some great new products or business models like Senseo or ING DIRECT come out of the Netherlands, it is still too incidental - most companies still do not have the strategies and organisational designs in place to implement innovation systematically. Many have, in the past, wasted money on unproductive acquisitions, especially abroad, and still focus on cost-cutting. Most successful companies are innovative while containing costs. There are many tricks of the trade on how to do that. We teach them in our executive courses.
On a final note, who would you most like to meet and share your thoughts with?
The people I am meeting already - my PhD students and other bright, young researchers. Throwing ideas at them and getting wonderful responses; hearing their ideas and helping them to develop these ideas; these things are enormously rewarding. I feel privileged that I can spend a considerable portion of my time doing that. I also really look forward to meeting executives and other individuals at the companies we will work with in order to build a better understanding of what makes companies innovative and successful in the long-term.
As of November 1, 2007, Harry Barkema is ERIM Fellow at the department of Management of Technology and Innovation.
Interview by Joy Kearney for RSM Outlook, Autumn 2007
