Classic, but not Old World – Eddie Obeng at Innovate ‘11

Everyone is looking for innovation, whether they are in the public, private or third sector. New ideas that will make everything faster, better and cheaper. The only problem is, innovating isn’t easy. Luckily though, organisations dedicated to imaginative solutions can meet like-minded businesspeople, government officials and academics at Innovate UK, an exhibition organised by the Technology Strategy Board and UK Trade & Investment.


To get people in the mood for Innovate UK 2013, @innovateuk tweeted a link to the opening keynote from Innovate ‘11, given by Prof Eddie Obeng.

Titled “Innovate or Die”, Eddie pointed out that while everyone says in public that they’re in favour of innovation, only one idea in 300,000 is actually successful and makes that company money. Part of the reason for this is that innovation has traditionally been thought of as a “funnel” – coming up with lots of ideas and then whittling them down to a single great idea. Instead, Eddie proposed using the RABBIT model – giving more support to a smaller number of ideas, so that they’re “healthy” enough to make it all the way. The audience were kept on their toes by the way Eddie kept asking them to discuss the concepts among themselves and challenge each other’s opinions.

If you’d like to see Eddie’s speech for yourself, you can watch it below.