Embiggen Consulting launched The Future of Corporate Innovation in the Philippines study, the first study of its kind in the country, in an online event last September 29, 2021.
Embiggen’s corporate innovation and corporate foresight experts created 3 different scenarios that show how corporate innovation may look like in the country in the next 10 years.
“These scenarios are by no means a prediction of the future but we used Futures Thinking to see where corporate innovation might go in the next 10 years and how it might affect the Philippines” said Rolan Marco Garcia, Embiggen’s CEO and Head of Corporate Innovation.
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To build these scenarios, Embiggen used Futures Thinking and scanned the current Philippine business ecosystem for signs and trends that may influence corporate innovation in the future.
"Futures Thinking is needed by all organizations not only to survive but also to thrive in the coming years,” said Jose Decolongon, Embiggen’s COO and Managing Director for Corporate Foresight.
3 different corporate innovation futures
Embiggen’s experts built and explored 3 different possible directions that the state of corporate innovation in the country can take in the next 10 years.
The first scenario, called “we innovate to survive” talks about the status quo where the state of corporate innovation in the Philippines neither advanced nor degraded. This may be the case if there is mixed success in implementing innovation initiatives and a lack of improvement of current innovation practices.
The second scenario called “we strive for creative destruction” portrays a thriving Philippine economy through the improvement of innovation practices in the country. It shows a Philippines that is on the way to competing with innovation hubs around the world like Silicon Valley and Israel.
The last scenario called “we stick to our traditions” depicts a bleak future, wherein the state of innovation in the Philippines has degraded. In this future, there is a lack of a skilled workforce in the country and lengthy bureaucratic processes which both stifle innovation.
For all the scenarios, there are plenty of uncertainties such as innovation regulations, the political landscape of the Philippines, and the appetite for risk of corporations.
These scenarios have many different implications on Philippine organizations. They highlight the need to invest in the labor market, the need to give importance to innovation. They also highlight how essential private public partnerships are.
A constantly changing world
In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, businesses are impacted by a variety of different signals, events and factors.
A number of these are the key to understanding what the future has in store for corporations and businesses around the world.
“Ultimately it’s interesting to think what type of future we would have if all these signals converged and became a norm. Or even perhaps think of a future wherein these signals did not grow in scale,” said Research and Development Associate Carlo Lopa.
For example, the innovation practices of a few innovative organizations in the Philippines can be a tell of what more and more businesses will do in the future.
The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are other examples that have a big impact on the current operations of businesses in the country and will dictate the future of corporate innovation in the country.
The study discusses many more of these in-depth to give business leaders and entrepreneurs a better idea of how corporate innovation is developing in the country.
The authors of the study are Embiggen CEO Rolan Garcia, COO Jose Decolongon and Research & Development Associate Carlo Lopa.
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