Cisco Technology Radar is a Grand Prize 2015 Finalist for ISPIM Innovation Management

I am delighted to announce that, on June 15th 2015, alongside the SunShot Catalyst by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the Tata Group Innovation Forum, the Cisco Technology Radar received an award for being named as a finalist in the prestigious ISPIM Grand Prize 2015 for excellence in innovation management! This prize, presented by leading industry experts in Budapest, is aimed at recognizing and rewarding the operations behind the products that make headlines in the market.

The best products are born out of a lengthy process of outstanding innovation and hard work that all too often goes unnoticed. This award highlights this behind-the-scenes management work that innovation researchers, industry executives, thought leaders and policy makers do to innovate and create new, unique strategies for delivering industry-leading products and services to the market successfully.

The award is fantastic news for us, as the prize confirms the impact of our program and its contribution to our unique position in the market.

It’s vital to be able to understand and track where IT is headed in the future, in order to be able to innovate, evolve and continue to grow as an organization, and remain an industry leader. Our Technology Radar is a key part of it: it analyses the market and identifies changes, enabling the tracking and acting on new technologies developed outside of Cisco that will impact the future of our business, either as a threat or an opportunity.

From Technology Management…
We initiated the Technology Radar back in 2010. Our objective then was to take advantage of a transition period in order to prepare for better days, find future paths for growth and raise awareness amongst leaders in a systemic way.

After more than five years spent assessing and identifying emerging technologies and trends, we are tremendously proud of what we have accomplished with this program: from recognizing technologies several years prior to acquisitions and helping drive academic funding in key emergent areas, to launching open innovation grand challenges to co-innovate with our ecosystem.

Finally, what we are most proud of is to have done this together, with more than 150 technology scouts across Cisco, employees contributing to the program motivated by their passion for technology and their willingness to push boundaries; with dozens of Cisco Fellows and Distinguished engineers, who relentlessly reviewed, commented, assessed, suggested and embraced those new technologies, quarter after quarter, contributing to breaking silos and paving the way towards the sourcing of some of those technologies.

… To Bold Idea Hunting
The Technology Radar is now an established platform within the company that will keep running as efficiently as ever. In this stage of exponential change, however, it is time for the company to add another ingredient to its innovation engine.

Together with my team, I will start exploring new territories, hunting for new ideas at the crossroads of technological breakthroughs and business model innovation. Taking into account macro-economic factors and unique insights from programs like the Technology Radar, we will focus on finding and assessing disruptive and bold ideas that have the potential to shape the future of Cisco’s business, outside of the usual areas of focus of our business units innovation programs.

Stay tuned for more details about how we get organized and for early results from our quest for bold and exciting ideas.