5 Trends in Innovation
Director of Operations
MBA
Class of 2014
London, UK
@eleonora_ferr
The speedy
startup
Startups can move at ten times the
speed of a corporate. They know
they will mostly fail unless they are
very good and very lucky. From
startups, I’ve learned to fail fast. In
my role in charge of a team of
20 people, I’ve had to develop a
startup-friendly way of working.
Meaning, we need to fail fast and
learn even faster.
Cities are
the new countries
Eleonora Ferrero
Eleonora started her role as Head of European Op-
erations at Mind the Bridge just as she was wrap-
ping up her MBA at Hult San Francisco and the
company was expanding into Europe. In a company
that matches startup talent with innovation-hungry
corporates, in a role demanding an entrepreneurial
approach to growth, Eleonora has been on the front
line of innovation for the past five years. Here are
her observations on trends in the field.
The mighty corporates
In the past five years, we’ve seen cer-
tain cities develop themselves more
as innovation centers. Most obvious-
ly London, but also Berlin. Lisbon
has grown significantly. Barcelona
and Madrid, as well as some cities in
Eastern Europe. We’re moving from
startup countries to startup cities—
cities that are able to attract freelanc-
ers, developers, and startups with
innovation-friendly legislation.
The future is
scenario planning
Job search and hiring is changing so
much. Now, innovation is every-
where; we can’t use yesterday’s case
studies to make decisions. The skills
that the new workforce need are
much closer to scenario planning.
Most new hires are asked to artifi-
cially simulate futuristic scenarios.
They need to go into a new role im-
agining what the world of 2025 will
look like and take an educated guess
on the skills, knowledge, and deci-
sion-making processes to undertake
and propose to their company.
When I started in Europe five years ago, large corporates were hiring Mind
the Bridge to scout for innovative startups. Now, a few large corporates are
running programs independently—they have investment departments, they
run accelerators, or have specific procurement practices to connect with
startups. However, most organizations are still exploring what innovation
means for them, and how to execute on it. The issue can be the attitude
“we’ve been here for the last 50 years, we will probably still be here in an-
RIP JD
other 50”—which is simply not true.
Traditional job titles and job descrip-
tions—those things aren’t so rele-
vant any more. The really important
thing, in my experience of working
Skills for a lifetime
with 10,000 startups per year, is to
Lean into Hult lifelong learning to ensure your skills stay up to date with the world
be able to see trends and understand
around you. Join the 500+ alumni who chose to take an elective in the summer of 2019;
how
to map and adapt them to your
become a stronger leader at Ashridge—or maybe it’s time for an MBA? Explore your
company
or your project, and then
many options at hult.edu.
take decisions accordingly.
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Adapting Skills
Adapting Skills
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