German business leaders to form 'Innovation working party'

Participants at Germany’s inaugural Forum Kiedrich Innovation Meeting voted to form a working party for innovation. Supported by Oracle, the forum provides a platform for the development and commercialisation of innovative ideas in Germany.

The first Forum Kiedrich Innovation Meeting took place within the framework of the European Space Agency, and saw business leaders from across Germany debate how an innovation culture can be created and nurtured. Over 80% of the participants agreed that they would like to continue the discussions within a working party for innovation. For most participants, innovation is their top concern and they are looking for new ways to foster it.

Forum Kiedrich provides a platform for young entrepreneurs, mentors and business angels and helps to further innovation in Germany. It was one of the first entrepreneurial networks in the country and counts prominent senior executives, scientists and government officials among its members. The organisation has helped over 400 start-ups to create more than 3,000 jobs.

As Forum Kiedrich’s lead partner, Oracle provides workshops on sales and marketing and introduces potential business partners to forum members. Oracle employees also make themselves available to participating entrepreneurs as mentors.

Forty five business leaders, board members and senior managers from global companies took an active part in the discussions at the first Innovation Meeting.

The host, Gaele Winter, the director of ESOC/ESA, emphasised the importance of innovation for space exploration in his opening lecture. Professor Löhn, president of Steinbeis University and honorary curator of the Steinbeis Institute, delivered a keynote presentation entitled ‘Innovation culture – a pre-requisite for innovation’. The Steinbeis Institute has helped 20,000 ideas to transfer from the laboratory into the economy.

The plenary discussion was highly rated by participants and addressed the questions of how a business culture should be created and how it can be nourished; how business leaders can create an innovative environment and how innovation-led cultures are differentiated from other business cultures.

Oracle Germany’s managing director Jürgen Kunz and director of consulting Victoria Ossadnik moderated sessions. Other moderators included Dr Thomas Groth, chief visioneer at Sun; Oliver Gentzsch, head of sales at Geohumus; Arne Jungstand, managing director at Cesah; and Klaus C. Plönzke, board director at Plönzke Holding.

Oracle EMEA has established an ‘Innovation Network’ to capture ideas that result from customer interactions, either with Oracle employees or with partner businesses. The network organisation identifies, assesses, publicises, and rewards innovations, as well as deploying them across markets, products and processes. The network is led by an Innovation Board, which has members from most of the involved countries and lines of business who work on the board in addition to their day jobs. The network operates free from Oracle’s organisational hierarchy and aims to establish the right culture for creativity internationally and across lines of business.

Oracle and Forum Kiedrich will continue their close partnership in the interests of promoting innovation within Germany.