Thursday, January 21st from 13:00-14:00 (GMT+2)

This webinar will take place online.
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://maties.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VabvQe0WSLiUQsTO6Y6zSQ

In the exponential world in which we live, highly interconnected and impacted by many exponentialities (technological, societal, climatic, geopolitical), we need to create our future, rather than try to control or manage it. Considering the world, the economy and society, as a complex adaptive system, allows us to build on an ontology (weltanschauung) of belonging, the network, the other, hence a systemic view of problems and solutions.

The complex aspects of innovation are not the technological innovations in itself, neither the start-up culture, but rather building meaningful and impactful new business models (yes or no using exponential technologies), that are economically viable and scalable. We are working with the concept of Living Labs in order to support companies and organisations with business model innovation within the realm of exponentiality. A Living Lab is a space and place, a diverse innovation ecosystem, and a methodology based on design thinking and systems thinking. This approach can be implemented in a physical space, as much as in a virtual space.

Presenter:
Prof Dr Walter Baets, HDR (Obviously Excellent)
Moderator: Rika Preiser

Walter Baets is Professor Emeritus of the University of Cape Town (South Africa). He is currently engaged in projects of pedagogical innovation, creation and management of corporate academies, virtual learning by doing, incubation ecosystems and other forms of continuous learning.  He is a renowned international speaker and teacher in the areas of complexity and the quantum interpretation of innovation and transformation, an area in which he specialized over his academic career. At the University of Cape Town he was Dean/Director of the Graduate School of Business and the Allan Gray Chair in Values Based Leadership.  He graduated in econometrics and operations research at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. After a corporate career in financial modeling and strategic consulting, he obtained a PhD (at Warwick Business School) and a Senior Doctorate (HDR, Aix-Marseilles). He has then developed an academic career which brought him in 7 countries on 2 continents. His key publications include Complexity, Organisations and Learning:  A Quantum Interpretation of Business (Routledge, 2006), Rethinking Growth: Social Intrapreneurship for Sustainable Performance (Palgrave, 2009 co-author Erna Oldenboom), Values Based Leadership in Business Model Innovation (Bookboon, 2013, co-author Erna Oldenboom) and Une Interprétation Quantique de l’Innovation (Editions Universitaires Européennes, 2017). He is the Past Chair of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS). He is an astute photographer and his life goal is to become a flamenco guitarist.