Innovation: A Critical Driver for Business Success

--lecture presented by Mr. Michael Treschow, Chairman of Ericsson

On March 20^th2006, Mr. Michael Treschow, Chairman of Ericsson visited Tsinghua and came to the lecture “Innovation: A critical driver for business success” held by “The second classroom” committee. The lecture was hosted by Prof. Zhu Hengyuan, Assistant Dean of Tsinghua SEM.

Mr. Treschow emphasized that innovation, rather than just a product, is a concept and a mindset that there will always be a better way. It is only the matter of how to find it. Who, that manage to find the better way will win. Innovation is not just in the technology field, it is 360 degrees around. In his opinion, the most important drive for innovation is globalization and the pressure to find a better way and better quality to satisfy the customers.

As he mentioned, the next five years’ plan of China is very innovative and focusing a lot on sustainable development. However, there is a long way to go. As in Sweden, 50% of the population graduated from universities and 4% of the GDP is used in R&D, of which 75% goes directly to the industry. Mr. Treschow also mentioned the merger between SONY and ERICSSON as an example of innovation.

After the lecture, Mr. Treschow had some wonderful interaction with the students and the Q&A section was a big success. Mr. Treschow answered several questions about Ericsson’s relation with the supplier, with SONY and further plans in China. The lecture ended in