What do we mean by “innovation”? Why do we need it? How can companies and societies encourage it? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Niron Hashai in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.

An expert on innovation and entrepreneurship, Hashai is a Full Professor at the Arison School of Business, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel. He currently serves as the school's Dean. Hashai obtained his BSc in Computer Science from the Technion and his MBA and PhD from Tel Aviv University. His research was published in top strategy, management, international business, and innovation journals, including Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Research Policy, Strategic Management Journal and Strategy Science, and he on the boards of the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and the Global Strategy Journal, among others. Before joining the Interdisciplinary Center, Hashai was a tenured faculty member at the School of Business Administration of the Hebrew University, where he also served as Vice Dean, Head of the Asper Center for Entrepreneurship, Head of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship area, the Academic Director of the EMBA program and held the Albertson-Waltuch Chair in Business Administration. Hashai is also a visiting Professor at the University of Manchester and an associate member at the John H. Dunning Research Centre, University of Reading. He has also held visiting positions at the Stern School of Business, New York University, the Blavatnik School of Government, the University of Oxford and Leeds University Business School. Hashai is co-founder and advisory board member of the Israel Strategy Conference (ISC).

In this episode, Hashai explains how innovation is born of an openness to “disobey your superiors”, while also being able to collaborate with your coworkers. He stresses the importance of risk-taking and of one’s willingness to fail to innovate, while “not failing too much”. Hashai also describes what a “culture of innovation” looks like: he gives some examples of companies that innovated and thereby improved their businesses, before examining the kind of corporate structure that can foster that kind of innovation. Later in this episode, he also discusses the dangers of “innovation for innovation’s sake” Finally, he considers the potential benefits and dangers of Artificial Intelligence, in a conversation well worth listening to.

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