Most companies struggle with how to generate and commercialize their innovative ideas. Companies often don’t get innovation “right” because far too little attention has been paid to the power of incentives in shaping the behaviour of those individuals who design and commercialize innovations. Without rewards, good ideas languish. To succeed, innovation needs to be grounded in the economics of how firms are organized, be incentivized from the inside, and exist as part of an organization’s DNA.
For the Tangerine Lecture in Finance, participants will learn how to build an innovation infrastructure. Josh Lerner, Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, will outline how to establish the right incentives to drive innovation in your organization.
Drawing from the insights in his book, The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations, Lerner will present a new hybrid approach that combines the best features of the corporate research lab and venture capital-backed innovation. Through examples from companies in an array of industries, he illustrates how the hybrid “third way” solves the incentive problems faced by companies that seek to foster innovation.
REGISTRATION CLOSED
Event Details
Tangerine Lecture in Finance
Thursday, September 13, 2018
6:30-7 p.m. – Registration and reception
7-8 p.m. – Presentation from Professor Josh Lerner on building an innovation infrastructure
8-8:30 p.m. – Q&A
Location: Ivey Toronto Centre, King and York Street, Toronto.
Tickets: $30 (non-alumni), $25 (alumni), $20 (current students)
Topics You Will Explore
- What are the common mistakes made by companies that struggle to commercialize innovative ideas;
- The crucial role of incentives in shaping the behaviour of individuals who design and commercialize innovations; and,
- A hybrid approach to promote corporate innovation that combines the best features of the corporate research lab and venture capital-backed innovation.
About the Speaker
Josh Lerner is the Head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit and the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School. Much of his research focuses on venture capital and private equity organizations and is collected in three books: The Venture Capital Cycle, The Money of Invention, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams. He also examines policies on innovation and how they impact firm strategies, which is discussed in the books Innovation and Its Discontents, The Comingled Code, and The Architecture of Innovation. Lerner also co-directs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program and serves as co-editor of its publication, Innovation Policy and the Economy. He founded and runs the Private Capital Research Institute, a nonprofit devoted to encouraging access to data and research about venture capital and private equity, and has been a frequent leader of and participant in the World Economic Forum projects and events. Among other recognitions, he is the winner of the Swedish government’s Global Entrepreneurship Research Award. He has been named one of the 100 most influential people in private equity by Private Equity International magazine and one of the 10 most influential academics in the institutional investing world by Asset International's Chief Investment Officer magazine.
About the Moderator
Michael King is an Associate Professor of Finance, Co-director of the Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab, and holds the Tangerine Chair in Finance. He joined the finance group at the Ivey Business School in 2011 after two decades working in international financial markets, both in the private and public sectors. King began his career in investment banking and trading working between 1990 and 1998 in New York, London, and Zurich with Credit Suisse and RBC Dominion Securities. During this period, he obtained the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. After completing his PhD at the London School of Economics in 2001, King joined the Bank of Canada in Ottawa where he worked in increasingly senior positions in the financial markets and international departments. From 2006 to 2008, he also taught part time on the Queen's Executive MBA program. From 2008 to 2011, He worked for the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland, where he contributed to the analysis of the global financial crisis, wrote about developments in international financial markets for the BIS Quarterly Review, researched the economic implications of the revised Basel Capital Adequacy Accord (Basel III), and analyzed the results of the 2010 Triennial Global Foreign Exchange survey.
About the Tangerine Lecture in Finance
The Tangerine Lecture in Finance series, sponsored by Tangerine Bank, brings you thought-provoking and practical information about the world of finance.