Innovationedge Partnership to bring disruptive innovation from Russia to the U.S.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Appleton, Wis. (DATE, 2008) — Innovationedge Founder and President Cheryl Perkins announced today that Innovationedge and partner InnovationPoint will collaborate with the Russian government to bring a consortium of that nation’s most promising scientific institutes and inventors together with American corporations.Innovationedge and InnovationPoint were awarded a multi-year contract with Russia’s International Science and Technology Center (ISTC), based on each company’s expansive network of clients and partners at Fortune 50, 100 and 150 companies. As external strategy and innovation consultants, both Innovationedge and InnovationPoint have led marketing and business development activities with companies across diverse industries including Hewlett-Packard, Phillips, Cisco Systems, Inc., Colgate–Palmolive Company, Kimberly-Clark, WD-40, Genentech, PepsiCo, Dean Foods and numerous other leading companies.Russia’s ISTC provides former U.S.S.R. weapons scientists and engineers with opportunities to redirect their talents to civilian activities. ISTC grants are awarded on a competitive basis. “This is exciting news for Innovationedge as we forge new strategic partnerships between Russian inventors and U.S. corporations to deliver commercial success,” said Perkins, founder and president of Innovationedge and former Chief Innovation Officer for Kimberly-Clark. “The partnerships we build will span U.S. companies across diverse industries to bring new capabilities, skill sets, operating models and strategies leveraging these externally skilled resources.”
Innovationedge, a consultancy based in Wisconsin, is collaborating with InnovationPoint, a consultancy in California, to deliver a competitive advantage to U.S. corporations that see the strategic benefits of tapping into the expertise of Russian innovators. These scientists are highly skilled in biotechnology, agriculture, biomass, health care, nanotechnology and bioengineering. Innovationedge and InnovationPoint will formally launch its partnership with ISTC in Moscow this month.
“Through Open Innovation, we can tap into new capabilities that organizations in the United States currently do not possess at a fraction of the cost. Our partnership with ISTC not only will benefit the scientific community in Russia, it will provide an enormous competitive boost to U.S. companies that join the ISTC Partnership Program,” said Soren Kaplan, Managing Partner at InnovationPoint.
Perkins added, “We will design a team-based, collaborative model with ISTC to deliver high-quality results as well as create alignment to ultimately ensure rapid delivery of solutions. The key to success will be to match technology capabilities and innovation strategy to US-based industry-specific trends and opportunities.”
About ISTC
The International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) in Moscow employs thousands of former Soviet scientists in useful civilian work. The ISTC was developed to counter the threat of “brain drain” from the former Soviet Union to countries wishing to acquire nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. The ISTC’s principle activity is to develop, approve, finance, and monitor science and technology projects for peaceful purposes. For more information visit http://partners.istc.ru/eng/.
About Innovationedge:
Innovationedge is a global strategic innovation consultancy based in Wisconsin. The team’s fearless champions of innovation break barriers to help executives define their business strategy, develop new capabilities, design a winning organizational structure, and deliver breakthrough innovations through a robust growth pipeline of solutions and new-to-the-world innovations. The company also gives inventors an edge by crafting winning business propositions and creating strategic corporate partnerships that deliver commercial success. For more information, visit Innovationedge.com.
About InnovationPoint
InnovationPoint is a strategic innovation management consulting firm focused on helping organizations achieve business breakthroughs that grow the top line – through opportunity identification, new business creation, strategy development and new product, service and category innovation. InnovationPoint also helps its clients build sustainable innovation capability by addressing strategic, organizational and cultural challenges. www.innovation-point.com
Questions, contact:
Amy Spreeman
Marketing Strategy and Communications
Innovationedge
920-967-0475
aspreeman@innovationedge.com