Building a Winning Team for Innovation

Kurt Hertogs, co-founder of Graphene.Works, will present at, and participate in a paneldiscussion at the 6th Innovation For Health Conference in Rotterdam.

The lecture zooms in on a ‘THE’ question that is on many executives’ and investor’s mind these days. How can we build winning teams around the innovations that will create value in ‘Industry 4.0’.

Until recently it appeared as if the Life Science and Healthcare sector was running behind to being dramatically impacted by technological evolutions when compared to other sectors. Lately, it is becoming increasingly clear that with the advent of CRIPR-technology, Artificial Intelligence Advancements, Miniaturisation of Technology, Advancement in Manufacturing Technology, Availability of new Medical Grade Materials and Innovations, Biological 3D Tissue Printing or Implantable Nano-robots, also this sector will be subject to performance characteristics of that either make or break organisations in an exponentially evolving world. It will not be “Big Beat Small” anymore, but “Fast Beating Slow”.

For an industry that relies so heavily on innovation and significant capital invest (2.5bn USD to bring just a single drug to market), it is not wrong (not to say overdue) to explore where “True Augmented Individual and Team Performance” is possible, especially when complexity of deliverables increases and multidisciplinary collaborations will be the default setting. Studies are indicating that 75% of classical teams are dysfunctional (we all have been in one, or more than one, haven’t we?). In contrast, and equal amount of evidence is presented that a 50 to 120% higher ROI is achieved when upfront attention is paid to engineering a true High Performing team before starting any actual work. Just calculate yourself what a big difference this would make in a complex and fast changing sector as Life Science and Healthcare.

Industry 4.0 Product Innovation & Development requires a 4.0 mindset, talent base, team engineering ànd executional approach. High Performing Teams will be the Units of Performance that drive succes & ROI. The ability of investors and executives to follow this pace of organisational and team adaptability will determine relevance in a society that moves to a pay for performance approach in Healthcare and Life Science.