Wellspring Blog

This article was originally published on Chemical Engineering. Read More

In recent years, the position of Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) has gone from a footnoted curiosity to a mainstream trend. And now we have data-driven evidence that CINOs play an important role in driving growth for their companies. In Wellspring’s 2021 R&D and Innovation Agenda report, the... Read More

For decades, everyone has called innovation the “fuzzy front end.” On everything from Advanced R&D to Corporate Ventures, program-level investment decisions have largely been driven by leadership intuition. Either you believe in the premise, or you don’t. If that sounds familiar, then I have news... Read More

When I speak with R&D and innovation leaders about their key metrics, two measures rise to the top: NPV (Net Present Value) and PVI (Product Vitality Index). These are the de facto standards for assessing innovation impact. Nothing else comes close. When pressed, the very same leaders express a... Read More

Starting with the development of a commercial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) product in the 1980s, bioplastics have received off-and-on attention given their potential for widespread application in industry. In particular, it has long been thought that biosynthesized polymers – plastics produced... Read More

A few years ago, I was involved in a two-day boardroom session at a respected company – let’s call them Acme Corporation. They’d asked for help with their innovation strategy. Read More

Every week, we meet a few more companies that are transitioning Technology Scouting from an implicit, under-the-radar activity into a formal, dedicated innovation practice. That’s a smart move – and long overdue for many old-guard corporations. The problem is that too many companies get stuck... Read More

In business culture today, there is still a broad, albeit implicit, belief that innovation is innate. Whether you’re a person or a company, you either have it or you don’t. If Steve Jobs is your CEO, high-flying innovation is inevitable. Otherwise, you’re destined for mediocrity. Read More

Wellspring is pleased to announce the public availability of a free community website devoted to pooling worldwide research and technology efforts in the fight against SARS-CoV-2, also known as the novel coronavirus or COVID-19. Read More

As the effects of COVID-19 continue to ripple through the economy, many tech scouting teams are facing a new and evolving reality. As a wide variety of industries are racing to keep the core business intact, new innovation projects have taken a backseat. We’ve seen many teams re-order their... Read More