Innovation can come from anywhere, Tech Council panelists say

As major companies in the state seek to advance and leverage new technologies, panelists at a Wisconsin Technology Council event stressed that innovation can come from anywhere. 

Speaking yesterday at the Tech Council luncheon in Madison, Rockwell Automation Innovation Program Manager Krystal Thibault said organizing events like hackathons and innovation challenges can lead to valuable breakthroughs. But she noted the company environment has to be welcoming of new ideas for them to flourish. 

“I think it happens in small and large ways,” she said. “Be creative. Build psychological safety and trust within teams, and really cool things start to happen.” 

Steve Nieland, vice president of software engineering and controls for Faith Technologies Incorporated in Menasha, said the electrical systems business has a monthly innovation awards program. This effort solicits ideas from employees across the company and offers monetary incentives, and is paired with technology incubators as a more structured approach to innovation. 

He said providing an idea for the incubator — even one that doesn’t go anywhere — is rewarded with $50. But if the employee’s idea is selected for implementation, that jumps to $2,500. 

“Within my team, there’s an expectation that I want you to spend between 10% to 20% of your time playing with technology,” he said. “Find something that you’re interested in, find something that you like to learn more about, and play with that. Spend some time and we’ll grow from that.” 

Sharing useful findings with the rest of the team is a critical piece of that process, he added, as some ideas end up being applicable in a different part of the business. He also said the company tries to involve the person who had the idea with its application, whether that’s an experienced researcher or new apprentice. 

“If it’s field personnel, we pair them with the engineer, and they’ll work with the engineer to develop their idea,” he said. 

Similarly, doctors at UW Health will often develop new ways to tackle hands-on problems in their daily work, and the health system’s innovation-focused Isthmus Project works to commercialize these and other technologies. That’s according to Elizabeth Hagerman, the project’s executive director. 

“We’ll see a lot of clinicians who, in their own practice, don’t like the tools that they have available to them … maybe it’s a software program, maybe it’s a physical, surgical implement,” she said, adding nurses, researchers and even guest services staff have come up with new innovations. 

Sara Mann, vice president of commercial excellence at Promega, said “innovation is at the core of everything that we do” for the Madison-based scientific products manufacturer. She and other panelists underlined the importance of getting buy-in from leadership for innovation initiatives. 

“We like to give people space and time, so our R&D team does this really well,” she said yesterday. “They have what’s called individual justified research, so they can work on any project that is interesting to them for a certain amount of time, as long as it’s legal, and that has actually led to some really cool, innovative projects.” 

She described one example, a scientific test called a kinase glow assay — spearheaded by one of Promega’s researchers. 

“It actually seemed like it was a challenging business model, but we had one scientist who truly believed in it and actually championed it, and leadership listened,” she said. “A lot of it comes down to leadership, and who believes in you … And it actually still continues to be one of our highest selling products.” 

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