Innovation with a global impact

If I had a dime every time a company described themselves as “innovative”, I would be incredibly wealthy. If a company provides a product or service that fills a unique need or is simply very distinct from the competition, then using the term innovative is fair game.

Forbes contributor Mary Meehan interviewed Uri Neren of Innovators International, to discuss how companies drive innovation. Neren explained that one project, originally commissioned by The Mayo Clinic, researched the best practices of companies that most often succeed at innovation. As the research developed, they identified 27 commonalities among organizations that get great results. In Innovation Ready: Five Traits that Innovative Companies Share, he shares business practices that help make innovation repeatable and reliable.

One of the practices is establishing a common belief system. If a company seeks to innovate, the team should agree upon what innovation looks like. Is innovation big and transformative or is it bigger picture creating a change in behavior?

While identifying a shared view of innovation builds a foundation for progress, the next step is creating the right environment to grow ideas.

If you ask any employee at Insightec–what does your company do? Most employees would say, “We have an amazing technology where surgery can be performed without making any incisions.  We are changing people’s lives.”

The environment at Insightec is one of a shared vision – to transform healthcare by making incisionless MR-guided focused ultrasound a standard of care for patients.

That vision has created a connected culture so that every patient story has an impact on each of our 250 Insightec employees around the world.

One of Neren’s recommendations hit home for us here at Insightec: “The inventors should be involved all the way to the “to market phase”, not simply running a process but representing the soul of the product.”

Kobi Vortman, not only the founder but the soul of Insightec’s transformative technology, exemplifies a hands-on approach to innovation. He has been involved with every stage of the process: from developing the technology to bringing it to market.

Today Kobi continues to play a role shaping the future of Insightec. He continuously reminds us to push beyond the limitations we face because together, “we are making the impossible possible.”

How do you measure the success of innovation? According to the CEO of Insightec, it is the impact the innovation has on the world. Maurice R. Ferre MD explains, “The beauty of innovation is not the invention itself, but the number of people it affects.”