Just to get this off our chests: ECCIX really needs to get its priorities right. The double 3rd keynote (with Niels Due Jensen, CEO, Grundfoss and Jørgen Knudstorp, CEO LEGO Group) didn’t start as scheduled. Instead came a little surprise: This being a conference on creativeness and innovation, we were all going to dance to an to the rhythm from an African drummer. That stole 20 minutes from the schedule – the exact same 20 minutes that we were lacking in the end of Knudstorp’s talk. Therefore the ECCIX host had to cancel all questions from the audience. Being late, however, didn’t prevent the same host to rambling on for another 10 minutes. What were they thinking?
Anyway: It was a pleasure listening to Niels Due Jensen’s presentation on innovation at the Danish pump-manufacturer Grundfos. He is a charming guy and that he turns up at events like this shows that Grundfos is walking the talk – as Knudstorp would later state as an absolute necessity for surviving as a company in a globalised market. Grundfos has built innovation into the structure of the company. For instance an innovation team trained in innovative and creative methods is stand by for all development teams to call upon. Also, more than 10 % of the revenue is channelled back into R&D (according to Jensen this is a serious figure for a company like Grundfos). Not the least, Grundfos top brass is all for innovation and creative thinking. Chairman Jensen being present at ECCIX shows that – without a completely dedicated top management innovation just won’t happen, he says. And his closing remark: “Don’t imitate – innovate… For heaven’s sake” summed up the presentation very well.
Jørgen Knudstorp was clear cut and to the point – no manuscript or slides. He talked about LEGO Group’s four main frontiers toward 2020: 1) To constantly adapt to a changing world without loosing the continuity; 2) to innovate a new platform business model; 3) To enter and thrive in the digital realm and 4) To continue executing rapidly.
Knudstorp has transformed LEGO from a very large enterprise (10.000+ employees) to a smaller, more agile company (the goal is 3.000 employees). It’s now a platform company more like IKEA with the LEGO Group at the center.
Knudstorp stressed repeatedly that innovation is not about being funky, trendy, fun or anything like that. It’s about corporate survival in a rapidly changing world. It maybe all we have left as all our production is getting outsourced to Asia.
We’re hoping that the people behind the ECCIX conference have heard Knudstorp’s message and that they in the next couple of days will pay more attention to the valuable knowledge that the Keynote speakers are sharing with us, instead of focusing on African dancing. It’s not that we don’t enjoy a creative atmosphere for learning. But the attempt to create an atmosphere should not be more important than the essential content. That’s a misconception of both creativity and learning.
