News

It’s been a year and a half now since the EADA Innovation Centre initiative got off the ground. We would like to take this opportunity to tell you about some of its accomplishments and plans for the immediate future.

- The most important current project is being led by Manuel Marín. It is a joint collaboration between the Innovation Centre and the Entrepreneurship Centre, which he is the head of, and involves getting real company projects from the ACC10’s TECNIO network in touch with EADA tutors and teams from the International Master in Management. The idea is that our students can take technology projects with real chances for success and turn them into commercially viable business plans. Under Manuel Marín’s coordination and with the participation of associate professors (Xavier Bordanova) some really good work is being carried out which we expect to bring in results over the coming months and enable us to further our relationship with ACC10.

- In collaboration with Marcella Van Doorm’s Specialised Master in Marketing, we have been working on an initiative which has recently brought in results: a splendid collaboration between EADA and the company APLI, which has enabled the participants of these programmes to draw up their innovation projects with real products for this Catalan adhesive labels and office stationary company. This Open Innovation operation has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of APLI’s innovation manager, Xavier Olivares (former EMBA at EADA). APLI is studying the further development of some of the most successful projects in order to expand the company’s product portfolio. The professors Xavier Lesauvage and Joan Albert Garcia Moga also took part in this experience.

- In collaboration with the people management department we are about to bring out what will be the first volume of the centre’s book collection. It will be entitled "Team Beat", a text dedicated to collaboration phenomena and team work. The book has been coordinated by Enric Bernal and Jeroen Van Zoggel and quite a few EADA professors as well as associate professors and external consultants have taken part in it: Jordi Costa, Lucía Langa, Carles Brugarolas, Kelly Simmons, etc.

- In collaboration with Alumni, this year we have held 2 Trends in Management sessions and conferences. The first with Franc Ponti one in December, entitled “If it works, change it. Trends in innovation for restless managers”. The second one will be held on February 2nd and will be given by Alexandra Etel, who will be talking about the exciting area of Visual Thinking. We are organising a third session with David Gràcia, innovation manager at Catalunya Caixa.

- Also in collaboration with the people management department, we are beginning research on the competencies of creative people. Aline Masuda, Lucía Langa, Moira Bortagaray and Franc Ponti have begun the research and expect to have the first results in over the summer months. Along the same lines, Moira Bortagaray is finishing off a comparative study on Spain"s presence on the international ranking of countries with high innovation.

- We have begun more or less regular collaborations with the publication L"Econòmic, the Col•legi d"Enginyers Industrials, Barcelona Activa and more recently we have initiated contacts with ESADE Creápolis, which we hope will continue on a regular basis.

- During the months of March and April we have scheduled the seminar “24 hours in the life of an innovative manager” which will be attended by well-known professionals from the world of innovation. The seminar is intended to develop competencies and skills (cognitive, emotional, corporal, strategic, etc.) which every innovative manager needs to successfully perform their functions.

- And we have many future plans: high up on the agenda for this academic year, the creativity and innovation classroom in Collbató, book presentations and creative projects...