{"id":24729,"date":"2018-02-12T10:12:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T09:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/?p=24729"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:48:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:48:37","slug":"building-a-culture-of-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/2018\/02\/building-a-culture-of-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a culture of innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Innovation<\/strong> is, without a doubt, one of the fields which has most evolved in recent years. Like a prediction come true, increased innovation in the ecosystem has triggered a world which moves at lightning speed, where any product, service or business can change drastically from one day to the next, be surpassed or become completely obsolete. Many of the barriers which previously made this problem somewhat tolerable, such as borders or lack of information, have disappeared. Globalisation and global competition<\/strong> are no longer just a figure of speech: they are an evident reality in our daily lives.<\/p>\n

\"Innovation\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Culture of Innovation today<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Building a culture of innovation<\/strong> today is nothing like it was before. Years ago, many companies simply did not innovate: they did things as they had always done them, at most adding certain elements or new developments that allowed them to basically do the same thing more quickly or with improved quality. Innovation as such was confined, in companies where it was actually talked about, to a specific department, where a group of people with experience tried to work out which of such innovative elements might affect them, allow them to improve a particular aspect of the value chain, and, ultimately, improve results. In other cases, innovation was merely a question of inspiration, the result of intuition or a discovery by the founder of a company, the strategic acquisition of another company, or the hiring of somebody with a specific expertise<\/em>, etc.<\/p>\n

Change of Times<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The phrase \u201ctimes have changed\u201d is especially evident today: it\u2019s not so much that times have changed, rather that times change almost every day. Today, staff are divided into those who know and understand what\u2019s going on and what processes can affect their company\u2019s business, and those who just hear about it or, worse still, who don\u2019t even hear about it. Today, as in the\u00a0Red Queen\u2019s race<\/a> in \u201cThrough the looking glass<\/a>\u201d, we have to run fast every day not in order to advance, but simply to stay put<\/strong>. Evidently successful people such as\u00a0Warren Buffett or Bill Gates claim that they must spend at least five hours per week learning<\/a>, and in fact, consider it is irresponsible not to do so. Even if it is not our ambition to be the most successful investor in history or one of the richest people in the world, it seems more obvious by the day that the idea of staying in a job simply because \u201cwe have studied a career or a master\u2019s degree\u201d or because \u201cwe have so many years of experience\u201d is becoming increasingly irrelevant.<\/p>\n

\"Innovation<\/a><\/p>\n

Few comments have caused me more professional dismay than those of a participant in a course I imparted many years ago to a group of people who had recently passed the State exams to become Property Registrars. When I asked why he had scarcely prepared the subject under discussion, his reply was simply: \u201cSir, I have already studied everything I had to study in life\u201d. This young property registrar obviously believed that what he had studied to pass the State exams would do him for the rest of his life, and that he therefore did not need to study anything else, with this being enough for him to keep up a productive activity which would generate benefits and provide value to society. But I honestly have my doubts that this is so, even in professions as regulated as the property register. But if there\u2019s something clear to me, it\u2019s that I don\u2019t want to work in a company with somebody like that. And if that happens, then it will mean that I\u2019m not in the right place.<\/p>\n

Innovation in Companies<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If we agree on the fact that staying put<\/strong> is both uninteresting and increasingly risky for company employees, the risk for companies is even greater. The dynamics of innovation<\/strong> have become crucial for companies: today, not only is there competition for sales, but also for positioning in terms of innovation. Not having an appropriate profile as an innovative company can mean losing opportunities for sales, for forming alliances or attracting talent, and become a step on the road to irrelevance. Companies adopt different structures to ensure innovation<\/strong>: some\u00a0centralise<\/a> <\/strong>innovation, others share it<\/a><\/strong>, others change it into a\u00a0market or holdin<\/strong>g<\/a>, but in all these successful companies, there seems to be a common bottom line, though it might seem like stating the obvious: innovative companies are made up of innovative people. If they are not, innovation is not sustainable, and the company will run into trouble.<\/p>\n

\"Innovation<\/a><\/p>\n

So, what do we do to stimulate innovation processes?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

And to spread the message of commitment throughout the company? The statement \u201cIf you can\u2019t stay innovative, don\u2019t work here\u201d might be good for placing on the wall, but it doesn\u2019t in itself bring about the necessary discipline or give any clear instructions. To progress from ideology to action, we must take on specific commitments.<\/p>\n

\"Discipline<\/a><\/p>\n

We must ensure, for example, that our staff read what they need to read, are aware of whatever is going on in the world that affects them, and that they broaden their mind with additional reading material other than that provided by the company. Many heads think more than one: department or corporate newsletters should include clippings from relevant articles, blogs, virtual noticeboards, etc. to ensure that when innovation materialises and becomes a real option for the company, all staff understand it, know what we\u2019re talking about and see the logic of committing to it. Moreover, in order to go deeper than mere superficial knowledge, it will be necessary put in place training processes, regular workshops or an offer of relevant subject matter with clear objectives for our staff. Working for the company isn\u2019t simply about doing your job: it\u2019s also about being up to date.<\/p>\n

Innovative companies learn to learn<\/strong>, they practice it every day. This is the only way to keep up their strength, create discipline, standardise a certain attitude and take it on. The nature of work will change enormously in the coming years, and a vocation for innovation will be one of its defining elements. Companies that understand this and are able to put it into practice will be much closer to sustainable success.<\/p>\n

An article by Enrique Dans<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Innovation is, without a doubt, one of the fields which has most evolved in recent years. Like a prediction come true, increased innovation in the ecosystem has triggered a world which moves at lightning speed, where any product, service or business can change drastically from one day to the next, be surpassed or become completely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":24712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"nivel-1":[],"nivel-2":[7280,4700,4762,4705,4495,4726,4746,4748],"nivel-3":[],"nivel-4":[],"nivel-5":[],"topic":[7294,7296,7301,7299,7300],"coauthors":[3461],"class_list":["post-24729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","post_format-post-format-image","nivel-2-business-strategy","nivel-2-company-culture","nivel-2-company-objectives","nivel-2-design-and-engineering","nivel-2-estrategia-empresarial","nivel-2-estrategia-empresarial-es-es","nivel-2-innovation","nivel-2-internet-en","topic-business-and-people","topic-construction-and-infrastructure","topic-culture-and-society","topic-management-and-strategy","topic-technology-and-innovation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBuilding a culture of innovation - Ferrovial's blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Innovation is one of the disciplines that has evolved the most in recent times. 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Tras licenciarse en Ciencias Biol\u00f3gicas por la Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, curs\u00f3 un MBA en el Instituto de Empresa, se doctor\u00f3 (Ph.D.) en Sistemas de Informaci\u00f3n en UCLA, y desarroll\u00f3 estudios postdoctorales en Harvard Business School. En su trabajo como investigador, divulgador y asesor estudia los efectos de la innovaci\u00f3n tecnol\u00f3gica sobre las personas, las empresas y la sociedad en su conjunto. Adem\u00e1s de su actividad docente en IE Business School, Enrique desarrolla labores de asesor\u00eda en varias startups y compa\u00f1\u00edas consolidadas, es colaborador habitual en varios medios de comunicaci\u00f3n en temas relacionados con la red y la tecnolog\u00eda, y escribe diariamente desde el a\u00f1o 2003 en su blog personal, enriquedans.com, uno de los m\u00e1s populares del mundo en lengua espa\u00f1ola.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.enriquedans.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54039,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24729\/revisions\/54039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"nivel-1","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nivel-1?post=24729"},{"taxonomy":"nivel-2","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nivel-2?post=24729"},{"taxonomy":"nivel-3","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nivel-3?post=24729"},{"taxonomy":"nivel-4","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nivel-4?post=24729"},{"taxonomy":"nivel-5","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nivel-5?post=24729"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=24729"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=24729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}