I am very excited about an upcoming event we are holding in Chicago mid-September. I’ve been busily collaborating with an internal team here at nGenera, and with a Professor from Emory University on creating an event designed for senior business, IT and HR executives. The session, entitled “Unleashing the Core, Innovating the Edge” explores the thorny subject of innovation in today’s businesses. It will open with a dinner on September 17, then continue through lunch on the 19th. It will be at the magnificent The Ritz-Carlton, Chicago, Illinois. We’re going for an innovative format and stellar presenter/facilitators including Enterprise Irregular Susan Scrupski, our own Dr. Nicholas Vitalari, Professor Gregory S. Berns, MD PhD, the Distinguished Chair of Neuroeconomics at Emory University, where he directs the Center for Neuropolicy. Greg’s new book “Iconoclast. A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently” is actually being published September 29, but the publisher has offered to get advance copies to us for the session. We will also have some of my friends from The Second City (improvisation and comedy) bring us lessons from the performing arts through experiential exercises.

Here’s the context. For the last decade or two, companies have been establishing and automating their operating models. Enabling all this process automation is a complex and sophisticated infrastructure comprising processes, systems, data centers, communication networks, data storage, and so on, plus a large group of technology professionals charged with building and running this infrastructure, and with defining and automating the company's business processes. We refer to this collection of processes, systems and infrastructures that have evolved over many years as “The Core”.

While this has been going on, a technology revolution has been taking place - one that took seed in DARPA and the academic communities in the form of the Internet and World Wide Web, and that has mushroomed into what is now referred to collectively as Web 2.0. Tools such as social networks and collaboration hubs can liberate the workforce from the constraints of legacy communication and productivity tools like email. They can provide business managers with access to the right information at the right time, anywhere, through a web of inter-connected applications, services and devices. The collective wisdom of the crowd can now be easily tapped, with the promise of a huge competitive advantage in the form of increased innovation, productivity and agility. We refer to this emerging suite of Internet-based capabilities as “The Edge”.

The Core is the known. It is designed and managed for operational excellence. When it is improved, the business calls it business process improvement and IT calls it maintenance. The Edge is the unknown. It is where experimentation is encouraged and innovation occurs. Companies with strong Edge capabilities have an incredible knack for flourishing along the edge of the markets they serve, the products they create, the services they offer, the geographies in which they participate, or the resources from which they draw. The Apple iPod, iTunes, and iPhone are all innovations occurring along the edge of what was the Apple core market (excuse the pun!). Perhaps more than any other company, Google has learned how to detect, attract, and cultivate edgy people - people who creatively dream up new ways to solve problems that result in improved internal effectiveness or external service offerings. The Edge can stimulate and refresh the Core, keeping it vibrant and relevant in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, the very constructs necessary to establish a healthy Core become sticking points in creating a thriving Edge - something I’ve posted on frequently in this blog. Core's are locked down, standardized, secured, designed to prevent bad change. The Edge must be open, agile, innovative, and designed to foster good change. How can a traditional company leverage the emerging Web 2.0 technologies? How can you unleash the Core by Innovating the Edge?

I’ll post more about the agenda, and even a link for folk to sign up for the event - please consider this an early notification.