Creating a Roadmap for Innovation

How do organizations innovate?  Are there good ways to innovate and bad ways to innovate?  Can public and nonprofit organizations learn from innovations in the private sector?  Are there models for innovation that community developers in Arkansas can use? These were just some of the questions that were raised during a recent event hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Little Rock Branch, during Exploring Innovation in Community Development Week. 

The purpose of the week was to draw national attention to innovation in the community-development industry and its important role in American life. 

At Wednesday’s event, Satish Nambisan, author of The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster & Smarter in a Networked World, explored the critical role of innovation in the rapidly evolving marketplace. Nambisan examined how lessons learned from other sectors that have incorporated innovation into their culture may be applied to community and economic development.

Nambisan explained that successful innovation is network-centric, and that the most creative networks are diverse and include government agencies, nonprofit organizations, private companies, citizens, universities and innovation intermediaries. 

So what is stopping organizations and communities from being more innovative?  Nambisan pointed to a combination of three challenges that hinder true innovation:  1) mindset challenges (Are we OK with innovation?); 2) contextualization challenges (What is the best approach for us?); and 3) execution challenges (Are we prepared for innovation?)

A panel of local experts in innovation responded to Nambisan’s presentation and helped the audience apply the concepts to the market in Arkansas.  Participating in the panel were Tom Dalton, Innovate Arkansas; David McCalman, University of Central Arkansas; and Ben Steinberg, Southern Financial Partners.

This is the first installment of a three-part community-development speaker series in 2008 sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Little Rock Branch.

Events set during the week offered opportunities to learn new information, to celebrate successes and to network with other professionals and stakeholders who share a commitment to building diverse, thriving communities.