Dates: 7-9 June 2011
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre

We are at booth B109, Hall 3, Ground floor.

The event theme is Pioneering Business Innovation Through Innovation.

Get an update on IXC Services, and look out for special deals on IXC QuickLink, our service offering for SMEs – on how SMEs can innovate through collaboration and partnerships.

In this article, Hasannudin lines out some benefits and difficulties for SMEs in partnering with others particularly larger firms which can be achieved by the change of mindset. Understanding the benefits and difficulties are important for effective collaborations.

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Ariff Ismail, IXC Intermediary at InnovationXchange Malaysia will be presenting on the 2nd. day (Saturday, 30 November 2010) of the event, at 10:00am.

In this introductory article in the series, Hasannudin shares a definition of innovation in general, and goes on to discuss open innovation for Malaysian SMEs.

Photos in the article are from the Ask InnovationXchange Luncheon Forum on 28 October 2010.

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The forum is part of our overall Ask InnovationXchange initiative. This is a multiple channel platform for the public and us to discuss the subject of innovation, in particular open and collaborative innovation. The online channel of Ask InnovationXchange is the Ask InnovationXchange section of this website. Additional to this cyber discussion is the face-to-face medium such as this forum — as you see from the event “invitation card” (photo above – to enlarge, keep clicking on the image), it says “Discover what collaborative innovation can do for your organisation.” Another channel is the print medium such as my column in the Malaysia SME newspaper (see my first article there in the 6-19 November edition) which invites further discussion at the online medium.

At the 28 October event, I moderated 4 panelists and Q&A and comments from the floor. Conclusions at the forum included that Malaysian organisations (in particular, SMEs) are indeed innovative, but do not collaborate enough with external parties. Reasons for not collaborating include lack of trust, and key performance indicators that encourage competition over collaboration. I will blog more on the forum proceedings soon.

This being the first forum on open and collaborative innovation, it was generic and had audience from multiple sectors including social organisations (10%), government (20%), universities (30%),  and industry (40%). We plan our next physical forums to be sector-specific. Will announce the next one soon, to be held in early 2011.

In the last couple of months, we also exhibited twice, at the SMI 1-Stop Solution 2010 and at the exhibition in conjunction with the 5th Islamic Conference of ministers of Higher Education & Scientific Research.

I also spoke at 3 other events, organised by others: 1. ASEAN Conference on Energy 2010, 2. Kuala Lumpur Innovation Forum 2010, and 3. Mastering IT Project Management Conference 2010. Yeah… championing the message on open and collaborative innovation!

The news media covered us, too! Business Times and Malaysia SME focused on our benefits to SMEs. After our Press Launch of “Ask InnovationXchange” in the morning ahead of the Luncheon Forum, MYLAUNCHPAD News picked it up, Bernama reported on it and Yahoo! News featured the Bernama report.

Pretty eventful 2 months, you would agree…

For full view of image, click image once, then once more:

On day 1 of KLIF 2010, Professor Mahendhiran Nair of Monash University, in his keynote presentation on Multiple Innovation Ecologies and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities for Malaysia, made reference to InnovationXchange (he called it “Innovation Exchange in Malaysia and Australia”) on slide 33 when he talked about “interaction” in his 7i’s framework for innovation. Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak of Universiti Sains Malaysia, in his keynote presentation on Innovation Ecosystem, too, described InnovationXchange with its intermediary services as an enabler and facilitator in the innovation ecosytem.

On day 2 of KLIF 2010, Dr. KJ John, Moderator of the Panel Session on Leadership and Growth broke away from the norm – he started the session, ahead of the scheduled panelists, by inviting 5 leaders from the audience to speak for about one minute on their thoughts on leadership and growth. Amongst the 5 was Hasannudin Saidin, Chief Executive Offier of InnovationXchange Malaysia. Hasannudin (photo below) spoke of leaders’ need to acknowledge the power of open and collaborative innovation for business growth and raised the idea of intermediation as one way to achieve it.