BUS604: Innovation and Sustainability

"I am involved in innovation today because of the connection with the whole concept of the new economy. We are living in a time of disruption, things are changing very rapidly. It is the world of 3D printing, nanotechnology, the internet of things, big data, robotics. There is a technical dimension and a social dimension, the sharing economy, social innovation, and it is a matter also of the moral aspects of innovation. This whole discussion around the new economy cannot be separated from the global agenda.

The global agenda has to do with sustainable development goals, climate change, and the circular economy. You can see so many changes at the moment that I think it is fascinating. How can innovation be relevant to finding the right solutions? From time to time I refer to Peter Diamandis's book, Abundance - The Future is Better Than You Think, a very interesting book with a description of all the global issues of today. His message is that we do have the technical means to solve them but there are too many vested interests and traditional forces that are hindrances to take advantage of these new solutions.

"Let me go back to my work in the 1980s. They were the first years of my party, the Christian Democrats. We were talking about what the basic principles of our party were, how we could develop a new view of society, and what the concept of a responsible society was. It was a matter of thinking, having ideas, and then putting them into practice. That is exactly what you can see here.

"At EY, I am involved in corporate responsibility. That means that everything has to be done to fully integrate sustainability into business models. That is one of my key areas at EY. This approach starts with the conviction that it is not business as usual. There is a need to change. It starts with having ideas. What does sustainability mean for my company? Then it is a matter of developing this into a strategy. When you have defined your strategy, then it is a matter of implementation, execution. Then you have to evaluate. Then you have to report on it. And then the cycle starts again.

"When I look back at my career, it always starts with having new ideas. That accounted for the concept of a responsible society, that accounted for the fact that we had to do much more in the sphere of innovation, and that is the reason why we came up with the idea of an Innovation Platform. And now in the world of corporate responsibility it is a matter again of having ideas and vision. It is my conviction that it is not business as usual, there are reasons to change things fundamentally.

"If you are aware that things have to change, then the question is: what should you do about it? Then you develop views, strategies, make proposals, and so on. That accounted for the concept of a responsible society, that accounted for doing more in the spirit of innovation with the Innovation Platform, and that accounts for sustainability and sustainable-goal business models. The idea, vision, and disruption are key.

"And more than that: in this time of the new economy it is all about creativity, it is about new ideas, otherwise you can forget it. This is the key element. Companies can suddenly be there and they can disappear. The life cycle has changed completely. So you must have this awareness that you are living in changing times. And that, of course, is fascinating.

"Why did we start the Innovation Platform? It was all about strengthening the position of the Netherlands and focusing more on competitiveness. We had to have new ideas. We were convinced that there were many reasons to do more in the sphere of innovation. That was the general framework.

We had to start from scratch. That was the moment of innovation breakthrough, so we said hey, wait a moment. Our analysis was that there were not enough contacts between knowledge centres and SMEs.

How could we develop strategies, develop new ideas, to have a better connection? Just to give one example. That was the reason we defined many issues that had to be solved, and why we generated those ideas. That led to a kind of concept, which I have described. That accounted for the first and second Innovation Platforms. Later on sometimes it had to do with government responsibilities, then it had to do with universities' and business' responsibilities.