In these times of crisis, innovation is positioned as an important factor. Looking for new ideas or new ways of doing things is crucial.
Social innovation can be the laboratory for innovation in general, but now it can become a weapon to fight Covid-19. This is how our expert patron Ángel Cabrera, President of the Georgia Institute of Technology, explained it:
What kind of innovation do we need right now? What initiatives are being carried out that we can classify as innovation?
Great societal challenges require transformative solutions, and in recent days we have seen the importance of innovation as a public good. The emergence of Covid-19 has impacted humanity faster and more powerfully than any other event since World War II.
In a recent article in the Financial Times, Yuval Noah Harari reflected: “Humanity is facing a global crisis. […]. The decisions that people and governments make in the coming weeks will likely shape the world for years to come. They will shape not only our health systems, but also our economy, politics, and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We must also consider the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we must ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humanity will survive, most of us will still live, but we will inhabit a different world.”
Innovation, as a driver of change, must be attentive to Harari’s reflections and taking into account two key concepts:
1. The innovation that occurs must be aimed at the common good of humanity: We must learn to innovate in a global, supportive, selfless, generous way. Moving from competition to cooperation at all levels: between companies, between nations, between continents, with multidisciplinary teams in Fivefold Helix models, which are the driving force of social innovation (public administrations, private sector, university and research centres, civil society and the natural environment -sustainability-).
2. The innovation that occurs has to take into account the urgent problem to be solved (ending the coronavirus in this case) and, at the same time, the future consequences of said innovation. Harari puts it very well in his article: “Decisions that in normal times might take years of deliberation are approved in a matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are put into service, because the risks of doing nothing are even greater. Entire countries serve as guinea pigs in large-scale social experiments. What happens when everyone is working from home and communicating only remotely? What happens when entire schools and universities go online? In normal times, governments, businesses, and educational boards would never agree to conduct such experiments. But these are not normal times.” Therefore, we could say that the innovation to be carried out must be more responsible and more committed than ever.
The innovative solutions we make today must aim to solve a fundamental problem: we cannot prevent more pandemics, but we can be better prepared in many ways.
