Ideas
Innovation Reimagined
Innovation begins with a new way of thinking.
Every day, entrepreneurs, companies, and communities face challenges that don’t have obvious answers. We believe the best solutions begin by asking better questions.
This is where we share the frameworks, observations, and ideas shaping the work of the NIIC that we hope will help others think differently about innovation.
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Back Home Again with the Rockfellers
Toward a Zero-Barrier Innovation Economy John McDonald, President and CEO, Northeast Indiana Innovation Community I recently travelled from Fort Wayne to Lake Como in Italy with what I thought was a pretty big idea. I was selected to participate in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Big Bets Fellowship, which brought a cohort together at their Bellagio Center in northern Italy to challenge, sharpen, and expand the bets we had brought with us. With just ten members selected from more than 2,000 applicants, it was a true honor for Northeast Indiana and our work to be included. Bellagio is an unusually good place…
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Economic Development: The Great Misunderstanding
Prosperity is not something communities attract. It is something they create. For decades, communities across America have pursued a similar economic development playbook. They compete to attract companies from somewhere else and invest in entrepreneurial programming. They celebrate ribbon cuttings, announce incentive packages, recruit employers, and measure success by jobs announced, buildings constructed, and capital invested. Yet despite billions of dollars spent each year, too many regions continue to struggle with stagnant wages, declining labor force participation, slowing business formation, and the steady migration of talent. Communities compete fiercely against one another for a limited number of corporate relocations, invest…
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Continuous Innovation: The Right Decision at the Right Time
Business leaders are surrounded by people who genuinely want to help their companies succeed. Banks are willing to finance growth. Investors are looking for promising businesses. Universities and training providers are developing talent. Workforce organizations are recruiting employees. Technology companies are introducing new solutions. Consultants offer expertise to improve operations, strategy, leadership, and organizational performance. Collectively, these organizations represent an extraordinary advantage. Yet they also create an increasingly difficult leadership challenge. Every one of these organizations views your business through the lens of what it provides. Technology companies see technology opportunities. Workforce organizations see workforce needs. Financial institutions see capital…
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From Problems to Prosperity: A New System for Innovation-Driven Job Creation
Creating more high-quality jobs remains one of the defining challenges facing regions across the United States, particularly those without the traditional innovation assets of R1 research universities or dense venture capital ecosystems. This paper explores a different “big bet” approach. The core premise is that innovation-driven companies, rather than business attraction or generic entrepreneurship programming, are the most reliable engines of durable job creation and economic mobility. This approach intends to invert the traditional innovation model by starting with real problems inside established companies, pairing those needs with distributed academic talent, and deliberately developing entrepreneurs to turn validated problem/solution pairs into…