Contact: Ronald Gayhart
(262) 472-1689
gayhartr@uww.edu
WHITEWATER An expert on innovation will bring his message to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater as he offers advice on how businesses and organizations can thrive in a fast-changing world.
“The main themes have to do with why innovation is such a hot topic now, not just in the U.S., but globally,” said Thomas Koulopoulos, founder and president of Boston-based Delphi Group, a technology and management advisory firm.
He will speak at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, in Timmerman Auditorium of Timothy J. Hyland Hall. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Small Business Development Center and the College of Business and Economics at UW-Whitewater.
A popular speaker and authority on innovation, Koulopoulos has written eight books, including “The Innovation Zone” in 2009. His message is that innovation is a process that can be learned and must be embraced by businesses in a global economy.
“Innovation isn’t just about more creativity,” Koulopoulos said. “We have abundant creativity. What we don’t have, often enough, is a very basic process to take creativity and channel it.”
He said it’s “an exciting landscape” when organizations understand that innovation is everyone’s job.
Koulopoulos “is one of the real forward thinkers when it comes to the innovation process,” said Ronald (Bud) Gayhart, director of UW-Whitewater’s Small Business Development Center.
His message transcends business, Gayhart said, and can be applied in education, government, nonprofit organizations and elsewhere.
“It helps everybody understand the economic value of innovation and why innovative processes are important and why all organizations need to be thinking about innovation,” Gayhart said. “It has applications universally across all disciplines.”
Koulopoulos will talk about his newest book, published online, called “In the Cloud,” which he calls the first megatrend of the 21st century. In its simplest terms, he defines the cloud as “the new context for business and society.”
He said the cloud is a metaphor for how people will interact and work with each other in new ways to solve global problems. For example, Koulopoulos said, users of Facebook already have become accustomed to socializing that is not defined by place or time.
“It’s absolutely astonishing, and I think it gives us great hope for the future when we especially need it,” he said.
