Norway is in a lot of ways on top of the world, but some have invested so much in today that they stand the risk of underinvesting in tomorrow. As a country Norway needs new innovative ideas. New energy, new solutions and new dreams we can aspire to and achieve.
The future is bright, it’s innovative and it’s digital, – we just need to collaborate in smart ways to come up with new insight.
INNOVATION for the Future
“Borders I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.”
Thor Heyerdahl
Norway has consistently won the UN global rank as the world’s best country to live in, and leads in important categories such as digitalization, equality and work/life balance. Yet Norway keeps falling on the Global Innovation Index, this year we’re only number 22, down from 15th 2 years ago.
To the extent that any country’s innovation capability says anything about its future it’s fair to state that Norway currently is eroding and that we’re living off its heritage based on resources that truly belong to the next generation. This is alarming! As Norwegians we need to do something! This is our call to action!
We need a navigation map for the future! Among the questions the new era gives Norway, few are more challenging than these:
- How does Norway increase the value of all current innovation efforts?
- How does Norway grasp the role as the global leader in combinatoric open innovation?
- How to make Norway a living lab for the new world?
Instead of regarding this as a mere political responsibility we believe that the speed and agility of an independent network operating outside of traditional boundaries can be of help. That’s why we’ve created Open Innovation lab of Norway. New combinations give us new possibilities and new results.
Participation has been drawn from several industries including transport, commerce, technology, energy, sharing economy, service, education and the government sector.
As a result, Open Innovation Lab of Norway has become a unique group of leading Norwegian innovative corporations across different industries joining forces with the best academic resources and the leading Innovation networks of the world to solve this challenge. We have a unique position that we should leverage: Norway is small enough to do experiments and to move quickly. At the same time, Norway is big enough to matter and to act as a springboard for scale-up of proven practices.
Our call to action needs a clear navigation map and there’s nobody better to hand us such a roadmap than United Nations. We suggest making the 17 sustainable goals of UN our guiding light.
As a result, we will base our work on 7 key principles, we call it our Digital Innovation Agenda;
- We learn from the best, work with the best, steal with pride and share with delight!
- We love open innovation, rapid prototyping and the power of collaborating intelligently across boundaries!
- We nurture teamwork, shaping and educating structural capital in the ways of combinatoric innovation in order to help solve each other’s problems. Alone, you might be faster, but together we get further.
- We prepare for the future, act independently and move fast, thus maximizing the value to our members.
- We are digital innovators and believe that we’re only beginning to grasp the true potential of digitalization.
- We have fun and celebrate those that challenge status quo and acknowledge those that lead the way.
- We use the best tools and value-increasing insights to help our members prepare for the future.
