Innovation is about going beyond the realm of new ideas - Interview with Dr Richard Tunstall
EITDr Richard Tunstall is helping to train the next generation of European entrepreneurs through his work embedding enterprise and innovation into the university curriculum. He took some time out of his busy schedule to chat to us about his experiences with innovation and entrepreneurship.
Innovation is often portrayed as being the realm of new ideas, but for me it’s also about going beyond that to how those new ideas are developed and implemented. It’s important that we see innovation as something that is about not only the development of technology and new products, but about new ways of working, new forms of services and new ways of doing good in society. Innovation is a small word, but it has a lot of big consequences.
In terms of Europe’s future, Europe operates in global markets and, increasingly, it’s about how we can bring out new forms of services and goods, and new ways of working. Unless we have an injection of enterprise and innovation, that’s not going to happen.
The reason why growth is important in a global concept is about how we can achieve scale in new innovations and entrepreneurship. Europe is a large place, but in order to really achieve global competitiveness you’re going to have to have a global position. We need entrepreneurship and innovation to instigate that, it’s a challenge that Europe has struggled with and I think the EIT’s initiatives will play a large part in how we’re answering that challenge.
A lot of our attention is around that growth issue; about how Europe can rival the US in terms of the traction and growth of ventures. But I think that rather than just looking at the US and the Far East in an aspirational way, we need to look at them and say, “How can we do things differently? How can we achieve growth and success through innovative and entrepreneurial means?” It’s about finding the right way for Europe to do it and then trying to capitalise on some of the things we’re already doing and take them further in a way that is unique to Europe, building on these unique competencies and capabilities.
For me, it’s about abandoning our obsession with the superstar entrepreneur who is going to change everything by themselves and the idea that, as part of that, you must have an interstellar business. That entrepreneurship and innovation are only about one goal and one path to success. Instead we should acknowledge the cultural differences in Europe, develop our strength through diversity and think about how we can actually have more focus on team entrepreneurship, collaboration and open innovation. And focus on entrepreneurship in areas that are challenging – like the environment, sustainability, society and areas of emerging technology – where we can, perhaps, capitalise on opportunities that other people aren’t. It’s about finding niches and developing those, and doing so in a way that will lead to sustainable growth in a way which becomes deeply embedded in Europe’s culture for all, not just the fortunate few.
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