Rui Coutinho brought the theme of Innovation to City Café

In the third edition of the City Café initiative, Rui Coutinho, executive director of the Porto Business School (PBS) Center for Business Innovation, addressed the theme “The Innovation Mission for Smart Growth” at Porto Innovation Hub (PIH).

The sharing of knowledge in an informal register accompanied by the smell of coffee returned to PIH, this Thursday, and was attended by Rui Coutinho and about 40 participants.

This time, the 3rd City Café focused on the theme “The mission of innovation for smart growth” and allowed the guest to address the challenges ahead for all those who innovate every day.

The CEO of PBS’s Center for Business Innovation first recalled the case of Nokia, which in 2007 was a leader in the mobile phone market, but which had to be readjusted, especially after the presentation of the iPhone, revealed earlier this year by Steve Jobs.

“Today, Nokia essentially produces hardware. It’s a company radically different from what it was just over a decade ago. It had to innovate, had to totally transform itself and was able to make that change effective”, said Rui Coutinho.

The role of the user/consumer in the value chain of new products/services, “which is changing the process of innovation and increasingly accelerating it” was also highlighted.

“We increasingly need to talk about continuous innovation. To do this, we need a modern mindset, tools to accomplish this step, skills and knowledge to do this all the time. It takes quality training to innovate with quality”, said the City Café guest.

At the end of the session, there was room for public knowledge sharing, and each guest of the session was presented with an “Innovation Mission Map”, a free tool provided by PBS that allows the systematization of the innovation process.

The City Café returns on December 12, at 13:30. Miguel de Castro Neto, Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS), will address the issue of idea development and business creation based on data science and will share his knowledge on topics such as business intelligence and Smart cities.

Please note that all City Café sessions are open to the public free of charge and subject to prior registration via the http://www.portoinnovationhub.com/citycafe website.

(This event was broadcast live from Porto Innovation Hub’s Facebook. You can retrieve the broadcast here)