Earlier in September, we brought together 16 innovation and R&D leaders from large organizations at the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Cambridge’s Kendall Square.
These “Underground” gatherings are off-the-record, primarily because they’re designed to enable a group of peers to openly discuss issues they’re grappling with — in this case, related to scouting emerging trends and technologies, and then organizing pilot tests, investments, or collaborations related to those trends and technologies.
One big idea that emerged from the conversation: the high-level corporate strategy shouldn’t completely dictate what you are looking for when you’re scouting, and what you find in your scouting shouldn’t be the only input for setting corporate strategy. But the two activities — creating strategy and scouting trends and tech — ought to inform one another.If you’re a corporate innovation, strategy, or R&D leader and you’d like to join an upcoming Underground, you can request an invite here. Our next Underground gatherings will be in New York on November 2nd and Los Angeles on December 5th.
