The Qatar Research, Development and Innovation (QRDI) Council has strengthened its strategy towards corporate innovation.
This was undertaken at the webinar "Corporate Innovation as a Competitive Tool: Is Open Innovation an effective form of Corporate Innovation”, which highlighted the progress of Qatar’s business innovation ecosystem and shared insights for its successful advancement.
Panelists included Haya al-Ghanim, Director of Innovation Programs at QRDI; Kamran Siddiqui, Senior Director of Strategy at Ooredoo Qatar; and Mariano Amartino, Microsoft Startups Director for Americas.
The webinar, which was organised as part of QRDI’s “Spotlight On” series, was moderated by Rachel Chalmers, Managing Director of Corporate Innovation at Alchemist Accelerator – a QRDI partner and a pioneering thought leader and connector of established entities with startups.
The panelists emphasised the importance of businesses harnessing Open Innovation as a competitive tool and drive innovation from idea to reality, and from challenge to solution. The webinar also underscored QRDI’s role in furthering innovation through its various programs, webinars, and its flagship initiative, Qatar Open Innovation (QOI).
The panelists agreed that the importance of an innovation ecosystem relies on the link between opportunities and solutions driven by innovative modes of thinking and action. Organisations, being ingrained in their industry and having a strong grasp of it, can identify challenges for innovators to solve. Innovators, on the other hand, have the benefit of thinking outside the box owing to their external perspective.
The panelists also touched on the difficulties that arise when businesses attempt to tackle challenges on their own and cited bureaucratic procedures as a frequent challenge in rapid innovation integration in large corporations.
“That is the thing that I like about innovation. You just spark the idea, and there are tonnes of startups out there, both locally and internationally, that you can very quickly work with to take that inception to a running pilot,” said Siddiqui.
Companies’ procurement cycles would be too long to develop these ideas from start to end, he said, adding “this is where we are all looking forward to working with QRDI. We have got two innovation calls and we are hoping in the next few weeks and months to take those into a pilot stage as well.”
Highlighting that QRDI’s aim to nurture this indispensable link between opportunities and innovation through QOI; al-Ghanim said “we launched this programme earlier this year to foster businesses and partnerships. We want to see local entities doing more piloting and deploying innovative solutions for economic and social impact."
“I truly believe in the concept of ecosystem. An ecosystem is always evolving and everyone in it is also evolving. An open innovation strategy is basically where companies identify their pain points; the processes and internal processes used to tackle current problems, and the approach to solving them,” said Amartino.
People outside the company are then able to understand what processes can be improved, and which can be completely replaced, he said.
Additionally, the panelists noted that even with the Open Innovation model, challenges persist for organisations.
Siddiqui said challenges can arise when working with international startups including time zone differences, lack of geographic proximity for onsite work, and integrating startups into Ooredoo’s backend.
Amartino advised startups to pursue open innovation calls as a fantastic strategy for business growth.
“I saw the most genuine interest from our local corporates to launch innovation calls. Everyone is incentivised to make this work. And we, at QRDI, want to see this locally empowered, globally connected innovation ecosystem brought to fruition,” said al-Ghanim.
Panelists included Haya al-Ghanim, Director of Innovation Programs at QRDI; Kamran Siddiqui, Senior Director of Strategy at Ooredoo Qatar; and Mariano Amartino, Microsoft Startups Director for Americas.
The webinar, which was organised as part of QRDI’s “Spotlight On” series, was moderated by Rachel Chalmers, Managing Director of Corporate Innovation at Alchemist Accelerator – a QRDI partner and a pioneering thought leader and connector of established entities with startups.
The panelists emphasised the importance of businesses harnessing Open Innovation as a competitive tool and drive innovation from idea to reality, and from challenge to solution. The webinar also underscored QRDI’s role in furthering innovation through its various programs, webinars, and its flagship initiative, Qatar Open Innovation (QOI).
The panelists agreed that the importance of an innovation ecosystem relies on the link between opportunities and solutions driven by innovative modes of thinking and action. Organisations, being ingrained in their industry and having a strong grasp of it, can identify challenges for innovators to solve. Innovators, on the other hand, have the benefit of thinking outside the box owing to their external perspective.
The panelists also touched on the difficulties that arise when businesses attempt to tackle challenges on their own and cited bureaucratic procedures as a frequent challenge in rapid innovation integration in large corporations.
“That is the thing that I like about innovation. You just spark the idea, and there are tonnes of startups out there, both locally and internationally, that you can very quickly work with to take that inception to a running pilot,” said Siddiqui.
Companies’ procurement cycles would be too long to develop these ideas from start to end, he said, adding “this is where we are all looking forward to working with QRDI. We have got two innovation calls and we are hoping in the next few weeks and months to take those into a pilot stage as well.”
Highlighting that QRDI’s aim to nurture this indispensable link between opportunities and innovation through QOI; al-Ghanim said “we launched this programme earlier this year to foster businesses and partnerships. We want to see local entities doing more piloting and deploying innovative solutions for economic and social impact."
“I truly believe in the concept of ecosystem. An ecosystem is always evolving and everyone in it is also evolving. An open innovation strategy is basically where companies identify their pain points; the processes and internal processes used to tackle current problems, and the approach to solving them,” said Amartino.
People outside the company are then able to understand what processes can be improved, and which can be completely replaced, he said.
Additionally, the panelists noted that even with the Open Innovation model, challenges persist for organisations.
Siddiqui said challenges can arise when working with international startups including time zone differences, lack of geographic proximity for onsite work, and integrating startups into Ooredoo’s backend.
Amartino advised startups to pursue open innovation calls as a fantastic strategy for business growth.
“I saw the most genuine interest from our local corporates to launch innovation calls. Everyone is incentivised to make this work. And we, at QRDI, want to see this locally empowered, globally connected innovation ecosystem brought to fruition,” said al-Ghanim.