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HOW TO DEVELOP A CULTURE OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN THE MEGA REGION?

Many companies are betting on increasing the volume of production, lowering costs, and selling cheaper, putting aside innovation

I In order to contribute to the discussion on how to develop a culture of technological innovation in the CaliBaja Mega Region, experts who work directly on topics related to innovation, in academia as well as the private sector, met at the Culture for Innovation Forum which took place in July at the BIT Center.

The program started with a conference by Dr. Antonio Rios Ramirez, General Director of the Orion Technological Park at the Monterrey Technological Institute in Chihuahua, and continued with a panel focused on how to improve the innovation and development ecosystem in the Mega Region. This panel included the participation of Omar Monroy, Director of Mink Global, Maria Concepcion Mendoza Diaz, the Director of Innovation Promotion and Development of CICESE, Jose Joaquin Jimenez, Director of Innovation for Skyworks Solutions, Oliver Perez, Director of Technology and Manufacturing for Becton Dickinson, and Flavio Oliveri, General Director of Tuteli, as moderator of the meeting. The forum finalized with interaction spaces around working tables to define concrete inter-institutional collaboration projects.

"Many companies are betting on increasing the volume of production, lowering costs, and selling cheaper, putting aside innovation, and this is reflected in the statistics," observed Dr. Antonio Rios at the start of his presentation. He emphasized that 53% of corporations hire Mexican companies because they consider them to be cheap, compared to 27% who hire Argentinian and Brazilian companies for the same reason. On the other hand, 40% of Argentine companies are hired for innovation, compared to 19% who hire Mexican companies for this same reason. In general terms, the hiring of Mexican firms happens due to price, not innovation. This is something we should analyze, more so when it has been proven that innovation has a return on investment. "The percentage of sales associated with innovation is 94% in small companies, 47% in medium-sized companies, and 24.5% in big companies," he added.

Why aren't the conditions necessary to transform ideas into projects happening? Why are we failing in the implementation of innovation? Why are we creative, but not very practical? Why do we have creative ideas but aren't able to evolve them into something tangible? These were some of the questions that Dr. Antonio Rios resolved, explaining that in Mexico the culture of innovation is still budding. "We are very creative, many ideas come to use, but we do not document them nor do we have a process to take advantage of them. This starts in universities but we have to work well for them to constantly occur." Another aspect we should work on, he added, is the fact that the availability of technical personnel in Mexican is still below the demand, even though technical formation is something that is becoming more and more important for the national and world industry. In addition, he emphasized the importance of defining industry priorities and specialization areas when elaborating the innovation agenda and assuring that said agenda does not turn in to one of occurrences. "At least 80% of the actions that happen at the Orion Technological park should be planned, leaving only 20% up to eventualities or occurrences."

Addressing the Orion Technological Park, he explained that its mission is to offer support to high value added technology companies, integrating professors, researchers, students, and business owners focused on creation and transfer of knowledge.

It houses research centers, high impact incubators, accelerators, technological transfer offices, companies in its "landing" program, business laboratories, engineering laboratories, and co-working spaces.

The Orion Technological Park is an example at the national level, as it generates.... Continue reading article here

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