Innovation is important into a company, while competition comes to a critical stage in all industries. Against this background, on 8th April, Global EMBA Thought Leaders Talk ‘Eight Steps of Lean Innovation ‘was held at MBS China Centre. William Yu, Senior VP of Allegion Plc & President of Allegion Asia Pacific was invited to introduce a newly developed systematic and repeatable approach to bring innovation to next level.

The lecture gathered around 40 people, including senior management people from various industries such as finance, consulting, pharmaceutical and manufactures.

William joined Ingersoll Rand in 1997. Until November 31, 2013, he was the President of Security Technologies of Ingersoll Rand Asia Pacific and the Dean of Ingersoll Rand Safety and Security Institute. Prior to joining Ingersoll Rand, William spent 12 years in a large state-owned enterprise and local public company and also gained overseas experience by working in the U.S. and Singapore. The cross-cultural working experience and western perspectives enabled him to accumulate a broad spectrum of experiences from business strategy, operation management, marketing & sales to supply chain management. 

First, William illustrated the delimitation of Lean Innovation and the reasons why it is important to a company. Followed, showcasing some classic cases, he provided practical tips to solve the real innovation challenges which faced by current institutions includes GE, Allegion and Cirque du Soleil.

In short, Eight Steps of Lean Innovation consists of 1) makingInnovation Strategy, 2) Segmentation, 3) Understanding Customer’s Needs, 4) Determining Opportunity, 5) Generating Ideas, 6) Evaluating Ideas, 7) Executing Ideas, and finally building up 8) Innovation Culture

During the Q&A session, participants heated discussions on a wide range of creative problem solving and its generating way.