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Valley science and technology group meets to talk innovation
WARREN
Innovation is intentional.
That was the central focus of a presentation given during a meeting of the Valley Alliance for Science and Technology on Friday.
Hosted at the Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center in Warren – a technology and energy company incubator and proving grounds for developed products – the discussion examined how to cultivate a favorable company culture to spur innovation and argued that idea development should be treated as an intentional pursuit rather than a result of fortuitous chance.
Mike O’Donnell, vice president of operations at the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET) – a state-supported consulting group aimed at growing Northeast Ohio manufacturers – was the featured speaker.
O’Donnell gave the gathered technology specialists a crash course in strategies for maximizing innovation in their companies. He advised companies to develop leadership strategies that prioritized innovation and to be willing to take well- researched risks to grow their new ideas.
Dave Nestic, the executive-in-residence at TBEIC, said the event was meant as a way to allow technology professionals to network with other like-minded professionals and engage with potential resources, such as MAGNET.
“Today’s talk was important because innovation is the genesis of new product development,” Nestic said. “Developing a process for ideation accelerates that development and makes innovation and intentional goal.”
MAGNET works with Northeast Ohio manufacturing companies to help them think up, develop and sell new products and works with companies at any stage of a product’s development.
“We come in and work face-to-face with these companies, whether its in pre-development, ideation, developing production, staffing issues or even marketing and sales,” O’Donnell said. “We want to be a one-stop shop.”
Emily Lipovan, a manufacturing liaison at MAGNET, characterized the network as a “toolbox for growth,” and said that underwriting from the state through funds from Ohio’s manufacturing extension partnership allowed it to take on consulting jobs that – while beneficial to local business growth – would have been otherwise cost-prohibitive to a strictly private company.
She said companies that were aware of MAGNET’s existence were pleased with the results of their work.
“Once they find out who we are and what we do, it’s easy. People want to work with us,” she said.