Asia Startup Pulse

How China's Beating the West in Innovation with Richard Turrin, FinTech expert, author of "Innovation Lab Excellence" and former head of IBM's Cognitive Studio

Episode Summary

To many people in the West, China is thought of as a copyer rather than an innovator. However, according to today's guest Richard Turrin, there are many areas in which China is out-innovating even the most advanced Western countries. Richard says "Innovation is really about people and how they relate to new technologies," and in China, both companies and people develop and adopt new technologies at an astonishing rate—they are "some of the best users of technology on the planet." This innovation isn't only happening on the tech side, but also in the corporate space. Richard is the former head of IBM’s Cognitive Studio and author of the book ‘Innovation Lab Excellence’, with over 20 years experience in innovation in both China and the West. During this conversation, he also shares insights on why innovation labs become ineffective. Big corporates all around the world are spending massive amounts of resources to connect with startups. Yet, there are still doubts about the tangible impact of many innovation labs. Tune in for a provocative conversation on the mistakes innovation labs make, and the differences in attitude towards innovation in the West and China.

Episode Notes

To many people in the West, China is thought of as a copyer rather than an innovator. However, according to today's guest Richard Turrin, there are many areas in which China is out-innovating even the most advanced Western countries. Richard says "Innovation is really about people and how they relate to new technologies," and in China both companies and people develop and adopt new technologies at an astonishing rate—they are "some of the best users of technology on the planet."

This innovation isn't only happening on the tech side, but also in the corporate space. Richard is the former head of IBM’s Cognitive Studio and author of the book ‘Innovation Lab Excellence’, with over 20 years experience in innovation in both China and the West. During this conversation, he also shares insights on why innovation labs become ineffective. Big corporates all around the world are spending massive amounts of resources to connect with startups. Yet, there are still doubts about the tangible impact of many innovation labs.

Tune in for a provocative conversation on the mistakes innovation labs make, and the differences in attitude towards innovation in the West and China.

[01:24] Intro of Richard Turrin
[02:23] Why some Innovation Labs work well and others don’t
[03:40] A short History of Innovation Labs
[04:09] Why best-practices are more suitable for Innovation Labs than fixed rules
[05:27] Are Innovation Labs unable to attain their goal or are they failing to actually set goals?
[06:56] How fear of competition is an obstacle to Innovation Labs
[10:41] Innovation in China & Difference in attitude towards innovation in the West and in China
[12:02] Chinese companies biggest advantages
[15:52] The growing trend of Chinese Innovation aimed at the whole World
[19:55] The three major reasons why people might not be thinking about China?
[25:29] Difference between R&D and Innovation
[28:00] Push vs Pull innovation strategy
[30:05] Blockchain in China
[32:19] People’s Bank of China supported Cryptocurreny
[35:17] Message to companies who are not thinking about China
[37:43] Contact Information Richard Turrin

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos, our guest Richard Turrin, editor David and Geep, producer Matthew Wu and Eva Shi, organizer Chinaccelerator and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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