Innovator’s DNA Expert Hal Gregersen To Speak At R3 Gala

INSEAD professor of leadership Hal Gregersen, co-author of the popular book The Innovator’s DNA – Mastering The Five Skills Of Disruptive Innovators will give the keynote presentation at its third bi-annual R3 Gala on March 21st at the Fredericton Convention Centre.

The Innovator’s DNA emerged from an eight-year collaborative study sought to uncover the origins of innovative—and often disruptive—business ideas. Interviewing nearly a hundred inventors of revolutionary products and services, as well as founders of game-changing companies, the authors identified five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from the ordinary manager.

“The five skills that Gregersen will explain at R3 Gala are ones that everyone has to some extent, and can develop in themselves and others to create a financially rewarding innovative culture for their business,” says NBIF Chair Robert Hatheway, “and he’s working on putting some of the method into context for New Brunswick business people and researchers.”

R3 Gala is a bi-annual event that honours three of New Brunswick’s top applied researchers with the R3 Innovation Award for Excellence in Applied Research. At the gala dinner, short documentary films will be shown about each researcher and their impact on business and society. The Gala is presented in partnership with law firm Cox & Palmer.

“Game changing innovation and entrepreneurship is the shot in the arm the province needs to grow and prosper, and showing people what’s going on in the across New Brunswick and the opportunities businesses and researchers can create is such a big part of that,” says George Cooper, Managing Partner of Cox & Palmer in New Brunswick, “as a law firm, we have to be innovative in the way we approach business, and we’re looking forward to Hal Gregersen putting us all on the same page. Public awareness is the key, and it takes the support of the entire business and research community to accomplish that.”

At the gala, NBIF will also announce the winners of the 2012 R3 Innovation Challenge.Two companies with the most innovative ideas will each receive $50,000 worth of research and development services at one of New Brunswick’s post-secondary or research institutions.

“When NBIF first started R3 Gala, its purpose was to recognize the research results of some of the province’s top research talent, and help bridge the gap between research and enterprise by bringing the two communities together,” says Hatheway, “since then, support for the initiative has grown by both communities at an astounding rate, contributing more financial support through sponsorships than we ever thought we could muster—which is so important to a non-profit corporation like ours.

Tickets for R3 Gala are available on NBIF’s website at http://nbif.ca/eng/r3galaFor