THIS LAB IS ON-GOING BY INVITATION ONLY
THE LOGISTICS INSTITUTE is sponsoring an Applied Innovation Lab, linking industry practitioners and professionals with post-secondary communities for the purpose of supporting innovative ideas and entrepreneurial opportunities in the supply chain/logistics space.
Current Lab Activity:
The Logistics Institute has partnered with the Rotman EMBA at UoT to run the Growth Strategy - Consulting Project Course. Students are taking on a logistics industry challenge articulated by our member companies.
The Logistics Institute is inviting student start-up teams to join our Lab as “co-ideators”, to work on new products/services as well as research initiatives to define opportunities.
Within the broad context of Global Value Chains and Supply-Chain Logistics, the Applied Innovation Lab seeks to analyze, assess and innovate around the following areas, among others;
digital/technology initiatives [such as new platforms, Blockchain applications],
data-driven business models [such as predictive analytics],
automated processes [such as robotics, IoT],
robust decision making [such as risk management, insurance and financing]
interactive processes [such as new partnerships, business models]
sustainability initiatives [such as environmental impact and green planning]
Through the Applied Innovation Lab, the Logistics Institute will facilitate network connections, establish research frameworks, help develop project requirements, provide access to data sets and clients, and review/assess/advise work in process.
Furthermore, companies and managers involved in the Applied Innovation Lab have the opportunity to identify talent and acquire capability among the next generation of employees in the post-secondary community.
Twenty-first century competitive advantage is no longer how much better your company, product or service is better than your competition. Your best can always be re-engineered, replicated and improved.
We face a fundamental shift from “value based on the production of goods and services” to “value based on knowledge exchange”. Uniqueness resides in the ability to organize yourself as a business ecosystem: a network of interlinked companies supplying key components of value.
As supply chain logistics practitioners and professionals, we are masters of process planning. Silicon Valley’s mantra has been Agile Innovation: a variation on process planning aimed at new product development. To lead differently, we need a new way of thinking, we need Applied Innovation.
Applied Innovation begins with generating ideas and insights, or Co-ideation - a way of thinking that involves an understanding of ethnography and stories, biases and the fringe, models and frameworks, scenario planning and Socratic inquiry and experimentation and iteration to imagine, innovate opportunities in globally competitive markets.
Learn more about what we are doing in the lab at our Global Value Chain Blog >>>
