ABB集团董事长    冯恩博

2011年初，在市民的积极参与下，北京市政府发布了“北京精神”。作为城市精神，它体现了北京作为首都的历史文化特征，体现了首都群众的精神文化诉求。

以“爱国、创新、包容、厚德”为内容的“北京精神”旨在提升北京的核心价值，增强北京的软实力。尽管所包含的四个内容各有侧重并相互作用和补充，然而，创新无疑是这座伟大的历史名城不断取得经济发展的关键所在。同时，对于ABB这样的科技企业，创新也是保持活力与兴盛的要素。因此，我谨提出几点关于孕育创新的建议，分享一些我认为最有价值的知识，以帮助这座城市永葆青春活力，让“北京精神”成为活的精神。

创新的重要性尽人皆知，然而，营造有利于创新的文化氛围却殊非易事。创新是一个自上而下的过程——领导人负责指明方向和创造鼓励创新的组织环境。也就是说，政治领袖应提供实现创新所需的高层基础设施，而商业领袖则应鼎力支持其员工进行创新，激励他们勤于思考、敢于创新、不惧失败。爱因斯坦有句名言：“一个从不犯错误的人，一定从未尝试过任何新鲜事物。”这句话道出了创新的真谛——尝试新鲜事物。爱迪生在发现可用作电灯泡灯丝的适当材料之前，曾经历了多少次失败？

创新需要一些软资源，如人才、科学、技术、教育、信息和资金等，北京的所有这些资源都十分丰富。本报告将从两个方面探索这个主题。首先，本文探讨了激励创新的必要条件及如何与创新主体——即政府、学术机构和企业进行有效合作，以取得所期望的突破。其次，本文剖析了在电力行业进行创新的机会，快速发展的电力行业对北京的工业和服务业有着事关成败的重要影响。

孕育创新
创新的形式五花八门，既可以是逐步改进现有技术，也可以是经过不断试验产生出的新的应用，还可以是能够改变世界的技术突破，不一而足。通常，突破性创新带来的回报最大，但与之有关的风险也最高。正因如此，在创造适宜的环境，为这类创新提供沃土时，必须格外谨慎。有三个方面尤待发展：组织结构、回报策略和领导能力。

组织结构
在促进创新方面，组织结构的作用至关重要。设计组织结构时，应当以所期望的结果为导向。例如，想要进军新市场的企业，与打算实现私有化的国有企业，或者希望通过并购实现资产整合的企业，所需的组织结构各不相同。组织结构囊括了管理制度、治理结构、工作流程、职责划分、企业文化和员工能力等。所有这些要素都必须完全合乎企业的战略，同时又应当足够灵活，以适应快速变化的市场。在许多行业，正是变革和创新能力不足，构成了成功的最大羁绊。

人们一般会认为，企业会一成不变地在流程的驱动下，冷静地追逐利润。尽管并不尽然，但企业确实以赚钱为天职，并且往往坚持做自己最在行的事，避免行之有效的机制遭到破坏。因此，较之于在内部从事技术开发，收购具有商业可行性的拥有新产品和新思路的初创企业，是极具吸引力的替代之选。老牌企业携手初创企业，可以将老牌企业的精湛技能和丰富经验，与初创企业的灵活性、干劲和士气相结合，让双方实现共赢。

老牌企业要在内部实现同样的目标，应当调整其组织结构，以防止轻则妨碍创新，重则导致创新人才流失的变革阻力。对官僚作风严重的大型企业而言，这是最严峻的挑战之一。需要营造一个能让员工挥洒创造力的环境，允许员工为取得长期效益所采取的短期变革。这很难实现，甚至可能意味着，要在与正常的产品开发工作区域相隔离的单独区域内，从事新的创新工作。例如，极富创新的苹果公司的前任首席执行官乔布斯，便是在一个单独的仓库里，指导开发出大获成功的创新产品iPod。这样做确保了进行创新的过程中可能发生的程序上的颠覆，不会对现有的开发组织造成干扰，同时，也不会有负面影响阻碍创新过程。

为了培植我们的创新文化，ABB已经在世界各地设立了7个研发中心，其中之一就座落在北京。这些研发中心的工作重点是，开发有助于客户增强竞争力，同时最大限度地降低对环境影响的独一无二的技术。为了做到这一点，我们在全球范围内雇用了7 500位科学家（其中1000位在中国），并与70多所高校（包括中国的10所著名学府）开展合作。政府政策也是一个能影响我们的研发机构选址决策的重要因素，因为政府政策营造了我们从事研发活动所处的商业和创新环境，并且能够保护我们的发明。学校和大学是为我们输送受过良好教育的人才和技艺精湛的商业领袖的主要源泉；规章制度确保了我们在透明的市场上参与公平竞争，我们的知识产权受到保护。这些组织结构能提供良好的商业环境，促进经济增长。必须为企业提供便利的交通运输及通讯设施，以支持国内外供应链和配送渠道；政策和法规必须鼓励长期的可持续发展，否则，来自私营部门的投资很快就会偃旗息鼓。

政府可以通过政策引导，如授予奖学金，激励学生学习特定科目，为行业培养所需人才。同样，通过为面向高中生和大学生的辅导项目提供资助，也能激发新的创意，甚至能为行业提供关于新一代消费者的思想和行为方式的宝贵信息。

在大学校园内部或外部设立的“创业孵化园”，是一种鼓励深化产学合作的组织结构。大学常常是创意的源泉，世界上的一些最伟大的突破通常诞生于大学。例如，Delta机器人（并联机器人）就是瑞士洛桑联邦理工学院（EPFL）的Reymond Clavel在二十世纪八十年代初期发明的。以Delta机器人为蓝本，Demaurex公司相继开发了Pack-Placer、Line-Placer、Top-Placer和Presto等系列产品并推向市场。后来，ABB也推出了名为FlexPicker的Delta机器人产品。

有了政府和其他外部机构的资金支持，大学可以开展基础研究以及有助于增进关于广阔的技术领域的知识和理解的项目。然而，大学往往缺乏将研究成果转化为商业应用所必需的市场知识和商业技能。如果不能清楚地理解客户需求，就不可能确定哪项技术能推进新一轮商业成功。美国麻省理工学院（MIT）的创业中心是个“创业孵化园”，让它引以为豪的是，其毕业生创建了25000家欣欣向荣的企业，雇佣了300多万名员工，他们所创造的经济总量接近于全球第十大经济体。  通过为衍生公司提供这样的支持，学术机构的声誉将会大大提高，从而增强对才华横溢的青年教授和广大莘莘学子的吸引力，也为当地居民带来了更多机会。

在自身的实践中，中国高校结合国外的经验，兴建了大量国家级、省级和校级科技园，在实现科技成果转化、扶持高新技术企业和培植具有战略意义的新兴行业等方面，发挥了重要作用。2010年，全国各地134所高校中已有86座国家级科技园，入驻在孵企业6 617家，累计孵化出企业4 300多家，累计转化科技成果4 600余项。

当世人还在津津乐道斯坦福大学为硅谷崛起立下的汗马功劳时，被誉为“中国的硅谷”的北京中关村地区，已日益成为为世人熟悉的现代传奇。这个科技优势区域拥有以北京大学、清华大学为代表的32所高等院校（北京总共有90所大学）、206个国家及北京市科研院所、67个国家重点实验室、55个国家工程中心或工程技术中心，以及不计其数的科技企业孵化器和大量海内外高科技人才。超过三分之一的中国国家重点科技项目，是在这个区域实施的。

过去20年，中关村也为数以千计的高科技企业提供了成长的摇篮，包括中国最大的计算机企业联想公司和最大的搜索引擎百度公司。2010年，中关村对北京经济增长的贡献近四分之一，而其能耗仅为全市平均水平的五分之一。

尽管大学在创新过程中发挥了核心作用，但是在开发切合商业需求，而不只是具有技术可行性的产品的过程中，企业作为与市场或最终用户之间至关重要的联络点，发挥着更加重要的作用。全球管理顾问公司Booz & Co.发布的研究报告指出，领先企业实现成功创新的关键在于，在“创意”阶段广泛采纳客户的真知灼见，在“产品选择”阶段评估市场潜力，以及在“开发”阶段设法让客户参与其中。这个信息收集过程能够推动周而复始的创新循环，是取得投资回报，并将之用于为进一步的研发提供资金的关键理念。

在一项新的技术或创新似乎存在很高风险或者太过超前的情况下，可能需要政府率先采用，以便该创新能够展示其具有商业价值的潜力。例如在美国，在政府支持下开发出来的意义深远的创新，已经催生出不计其数的新产品，乃至诸多全新的行业。早在1842年，美国政府提供的资金便被用于展示塞缪尔•摩尔斯发明的电报的可行性。电报是人类朝着网络世界迈出的第一步。如今，网络纵横，全球通信已成为人们生活中不可分割的组成部分。同样，政府的支持对于计算机行业的早期起源也至关重要。此外，对于诸如微电子、机器人、生物技术、纳米技术和人类基因组研究等领域的进步，政府支持同样不可或缺。人类基因组研究领域取得的进步，激发了改进诊断应用和研发快速的药物方面的突破。

回报策略
有了适当的激励，科学家、工程师和企业家将渴望迎接挑战，开发面向全球市场的创新产品。本质上讲，创新就是一种具有不确定性和风险性的活动。做好准备承担风险的人，也应当有权利获取回报，或者有责任承担损失。

选择过程是无情的：虽然胜利者赢得的回报即便不是初始投资百倍，至少也是数十倍，但失败者却往往陷入破产的境地。这个体系有多么残酷，就有同样多么成功，因为只有最出色的创新，才能为社会所用，为人类创造福祉。政府出资设立的创业孵化园，不会像私营风投那样成功，是因为这些项目的决策者，与正常环境中决策者相比，面临的激励（或惩罚）大相径庭。

投资于诸如研发和科技成果转化等高风险业务，是指望在成功后获得比投资成本高许多倍的回报。只有在丰厚回报的召唤下，海内外的投资者才愿承受巨大风险。

正因如此，创新和科技成果转化能力强的社会，市场制度也完善，包括法治的神圣性，保护私有产权（包括知识产权），维持公平竞争环境，避免保护主义，以及允许进行开放、透明的竞争等，而这正是营造创新环境的关键所在。

在规模较大的企业内部，回报政策的类型应当反映企业的总体经营战略和工作文化。这些回报政策应当经过精心设计，以提升员工士气和忠诚度，激起员工对在工作中取得成功的渴望。适当的薪酬政策，能留住重要员工，否则，将眼睁睁看着他们被竞争对手挖走。

诸如对投资研发的企业实行减税优惠等政府激励，会影响企业的投资额度，鼓励它们继续投资。例如，面向投资于研发的企业的最新税收减免政策出台之后，英国最大的制药公司葛兰素史克公司日前已决定在英国进行投资。

领导能力
中国曾是发明大国。中国的许多发明改变了世界，包括造纸术、印刷术、火药和指南针等
然而进入15世纪，发明的步伐戛然而止。时事评论员Fareed Zakaria在最近出版的一部著作中 描述道，自1405年起，郑和先后七次共率领317艘舰船和28000名将士，浩浩荡荡下西洋，历经三十载遍访东南亚和印度洋。但是，新帝登基，实行禁海令，迫使郑和停止航海。中国从此闭关自守。

不久之后，欧洲的哥伦布仅率三艘航船、150名船员，从西班牙海岸驶向茫茫大西洋。哥伦布此番远航的规模比郑和下西洋小得多，但他发现了美洲大陆，改变了欧洲和美洲的命运，将欧洲的思想远播寰宇。

这两段历史表明，仅凭创新和技术能力，不足以发生影响。还需要环境和文化的支持，并且往往要有志向远大、标新立异的带头人（哥伦布向西航行是为了寻找东方）。

创新是艺术与科学的结晶。创新要求科学家富于艺术气息，善于横向思维，同时不失潜心钻研、严谨笃学的科学精神，才能将创意变成发明。然而，要实现艺术与科学的融合，并不容易，因此，诸如以开放的心态接受新观点和以团队协作解决问题等其他文化特质，也有利于进行创新。

从前面的例子可以看出，领导力是推进创新的中坚力量：分清轻重缓急、分配资源、营造容许失败的环境、从失败中汲取教训、改进不足，等等。在畏首畏尾或官僚主义盛行的大环境中，很难营造创新文化。虽然文化是进行创新不可或缺的组成要素，但文化也可能是最难以界定和复制的要素。

有效的领导者必须具备一些特质，包括个人魅力、体贴周到、平易近人、能言善辩等。领导者应当在发生问题时及时出面解决，并且乐于尝试新颖的方法。只有当领导者有能力赏识其潜力，并且在迈向成功的征途中，勇于承担一路相随的风险时，新的创意才会不断涌现。

接下来，要将好的创意，转化为成功的硕果，还需要跨学科团队密切合作，各施所长。要让一支各有千秋、人才济济的团队尽其所能，好的领导者必须赏识其所有团队成员做出的贡献，同时展现出优秀的团队合作能力。

这种洋溢着团队精神的合作不仅在企业内部十分重要，而且应当鼓励在各类机构之间，进行这样的团队合作，包括政府、高校和企业。这些机构各尽其力，相互合作，能够大大促进人类发展和经济增长。

电力行业
三年前，麦肯锡和世界经济论坛联合发布了一份关于成功的创新中心的共同之处的调查报告。  调查发现，最杰出的创新中心总是首先在某个新兴领域成为世界一流的专家，然后再将触角伸向其他领域。

在如今的北京，信息通信技术是一个核心产业，并且在许多其他领域，信息通信技术仍将是推进生产率的核心力量。要进行创新，就必须通过广泛应用信息技术来发展经济。

在电力行业，信息技术引发的变革刚刚拉开序幕，借机创新，大有可为。从发电到用电，电力供应系统的每个环节都实现了更高程度的自动化，同时，借助大功率半导体，可以更加有效地控制电流。随着这些技术进步，更具交互性、灵活性和高效率，并且能减少二氧化碳排放的智能电网将水到渠成。
世界各地开展了许多旨在实现智能电网的计划。要实现这个目标，需要多管齐下，包括可再生能源发电、开发高能效技术、碳捕获以及多种不同的其他技术。应当将所有这些挑战视为机遇，并且就像所谓的“太空竞赛”一样，在应对这些挑战的过程中，将成就许多让人意想不到的衍生企业，包括生产用于室内装饰品的记忆海绵的制造商（丹普公司），以及提供诸如全球定位系统（GPS）和卫星电视等基于卫星服务的企业。

在北京乃至全中国，同许多其他国家一样，电力网络基本保持未变，这意味着，电力网络存在巨大的创新和改进空间。据说，如果托马斯•爱迪生现在还活着，他除了电网，对身边的其他事物可能一个也认不出。自从他在十九世纪开创电气化时代以来，电力网络几乎一直是最初的样子。这当然有点夸大其词，但也道出了一个事实，那就是，电力行业是信息技术尚未渗入的最后几大行业之一。随着更加尖端的通信和自动控制系统的引入，让具备智能性和自监控能力的电力系统——智能电网——离我们更近一步，这一点正在迅速改变。

随着信息通信技术在电力行业开辟出无限潜力，北京将迎来重大发展契机。预计今年全国将有约３０００至４０００万千瓦的发电缺口，而耗电量则将增长9.5%（中国电力企业联合会），必须利用创新技术来提高电网（及其他领域）的能效，以节省电力。

按照中国的第十二五规划，到2015年，中国的发电装机容量将有望增加4.5至5亿千瓦，其中水力发电、风力发电和太阳能发电将分别达到6000至8000万千瓦、8000万千瓦和1000至1200万千瓦。全球都会出现类似的用电需求，这意味着世界各国的政府都在寻求进一步增加可再生能源发电量和提高发电效率，以缓解增建发电设施和增加火力发电量的压力。要帮助满足这些用电需求，而不加剧排放问题，必须借助智能电网。如若不然，电力供应将依然是制约发展的瓶颈。

全世界都需利用创新技术来降低电力损耗和进行电网调峰，特别是在变化莫测的可再生能源发电量与日俱增的背景下。这一领域的创新不仅带来了经济增长机会，而且通过稳定电力供应，为现有的工业和服务业保持竞争力，扫除了电力短缺或断电的威胁。

国际能源署的分析表明，要实现全球二氧化碳减排目标，三分之二要通过提高能源效率和增加可再生能源发电去实现。因此，更有效地使用能源是一项重点任务，要求在电力产业链的每个环节——从发电和输配电到工业、商业和居民用电，采用增效节能技术。对于像北京这样的直辖市而言，这意味着需要让电力消费者更好地参与减少浪费的行动。

为了建设这样一个电力网络，吸纳发电量时高时低的可再生能源发电，让电力用户发挥更加积极的作用，需要借助创新技术来提高电网的灵活性、可靠性和智能性。这样，电网公司就能时刻了解电网的运行情况，从而能够对潜在问题做出快速响应，防止和降低电力故障的影响。尽管克服这些挑战的许多技术已经投入使用，但其他一些需求仍在探索之中，譬如：

• 可以将多余电力储存起来以便在风电和太阳能发电量骤降时使用的蓄能解决方案。水电的抽水蓄能相当有效，比较适合长期储电，但这只在山区切实可行。其他蓄能解决方案包括：通过对水进行电解生产氢气、压缩空气蓄能释能、将FACTS（柔性交流输电系统）与电池结合使用的储能技术，以及使用巨型蓄电池组等。
• 电力交易。更多跨地区互联的输电网络有助于缓解电力供需矛盾。要做到这一点，需要改善通信系统和信息技术基础设施，以快速有效地控制和消除电网扰动，防止出现可能导致停电的功率骤降骤升现象。
• 需求响应机制（平衡电力需求和生产之间的关系）和先进计量基础设施。利用能够根据实际需求调

节室内温度和照明的智能控制系统，可降低建筑物的能耗。北京ABB低压电器有限公司生产的智能楼宇电气控制系统及其他低压产品，已经准备在这座城市大显身手。如今，这类智能化楼宇系统可以独立于电网运行，但是相关技术正在朝着让这些系统与电网交互的方向发展。这可以让电力用户更好地控制用电量和用电时间。要完全融入供电网络，建筑物必须配备能够收集精确的耗能数据、还能与电力公司的配电自动化或网络管理解决方案进行沟通的电表，以及能够将所有家用电器融入电网的软件解决方案。高级智能楼宇系统的优点是，这些系统采用了简单而又成熟的KNX技术。KNX技术是全球公认的第一个用于控制各类智能建筑（工业建筑、商业建筑或住宅）的开放式标准。

所有这些进步要求开发新技术和新型设备，以实现更先进的自动化和通信功能，包括变压器、断路器、电池和电力电子器件等，还要尽可能使用传感器及其他智能器件。毋庸赘言，信息技术正日益成为促进电网朝着更加灵活、可靠、相互连接发展的重要力量。我们的许多电力产品正在充分利用信息技术，为北京的发电厂提供软硬件相结合的解决方案。在北京，ABB有5家企业，拥有大约4 500名员工。

还要求信息技术行业进行创新，为监测、保护和控制电力系统提供软件解决方案，以预测和防止电网崩溃。对软件解决方案的这一需求，不仅有助于电网更加高效地提供更加清洁、更加可靠的电力，而且也有助于新兴行业在这一地区的发展。

智能电网的发展已经推动世界各地积极试验创新业务模式。譬如，美国的SunEdison公司出资为客户安装、运营和维护太阳能电池板，并拥有这些设施的所有权，然后向客户收取电费——就像一家传统的电力公司一样 。丹麦的Better Place电动汽车网络和服务公司，正在试验一个新的业务模式，在该模式中，车主可租赁汽车电池，在需要充电时，可在全国各地的服务站付费交换电池。

随着电网发展而浮出水面的重要技术之一，是在可再生能源发电并网和配电中，增加使用直流技术。直流技术长期以来被用于高效率、低损耗的高压输电——譬如从三峡水电站向外输电的线路，虽然越来越多的设备使用直流电，如电脑、手机和LED灯等，在配电时直流电却被转成了交流电（AC）。目前，所有这些设备利用自身装配的整流器将交流电转换为直流电。而一个更加有效的解决方案是，在交流电进入建筑物之前，采用一个较大的整流器将其转换为直流电。ABB估计，若在建筑物中使用直流而不是交流电，可节省大量电力。

ABB早已是全球领先的输配电网络供应商，并且在可再生能源发电并网方面，拥有相当深厚的技术专长。然而，直到最近，我们一直未能充分运用这些世界一流的技术专长，推出适用于网络管理的公用事业软件。几年前，为了解决这个问题，ABB收购了公用事业软件公司Ventyx，后者拥有广博的业务组合，包括适用于规划和预测电力需求（包括可再生能源发电）的软件解决方案。

结语
能够带来重大突破的创新，往往要求政府、高校和企业进行有效合作，同时每一方都要发挥独特的作用。这是提升价值链和提高生产率的基础。只有开放、透明的市场，辅以适当的组织结构、回报策略和领导能力，才能为创新提供温床。

与此同时，电力行业正在经历一个由信息通信技术引发的巨变时期，它将改变我们生产、提供和使用电力的方式。这一发展变化为北京带来了两大机遇：建设一套低碳供电系统，参与在全球范围内实现智能电网所需的信息通信技术的发展。

让我们大力弘扬“北京精神”，依托创新去推动所有的梦想和希望，让“北京精神”变得鲜活！

Living the Beijing Spirit by Focusing on Innovation
——Hubertus von Grünberg,   Chairman of the Board of Directors,   ABB Ltd

In early 2011, with the active engagement of local citizens, the Beijing government unveiled the “Beijing spirit,” a set of values based on the characteristics of Beijing’s history and culture as well as its spiritual and cultural pursuits.

The “Beijing spirit,” comprising patriotism, innovation, inclusion and virtue, is intended to enhance the city’s core values and represent the city’s soft skills. While all four themes are important and complementary, innovation is surely the key to the continued economic success of this great historical city. It is also essential to the survival and prosperity of technology companies such as ABB. As such, I feel that recommendations on fostering innovation are the most valuable knowledge I can share to help the city keep young and vigorous, and live the “Beijing spirit” to the full.

The importance of innovation is universally acknowledged, yet developing a culture conducive to innovation is not easy. Innovation starts at the top, with leaders who provide strong direction and establish an organizational environment that encourages invention. This means political leaders providing the high-level infrastructure that is required, and business leaders supporting their employees, giving them time to think, and allowing them to work without fear of failure. Albert Einstein once said, "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." That is the key to innovation, trying something new. How many times did Edison fail before he found the right filament for the electric light bulb?

Innovation requires “intangible” resources like talent, science, technology, education, information and capital, all of which are abundant in Beijing. This report looks at two aspects of innovation. The first part reviews the conditions required to stimulate innovation and how the key players in the process – governments, academia and business – can best work together to achieve the desired breakthroughs. The second part considers the opportunities for innovation in the power sector, a rapidly evolving sector that has an impact on the successes or failures of Beijing’s industries and services.

Nurturing innovation
Innovation can take a number of different forms. It can be incremental improvements to existing technologies, or the generation of new applications for tried and tested ideas, or a quantum leap in technology that has the potential to change the world. The breakthrough type typically brings the greatest rewards, but is also associated with the biggest risks. For this reason, great care must be taken to develop the right environment in which such innovation can flourish. Three areas in particular need development: organizational structures, reward strategies and leadership skills.

Organizational structures
Organizational structures play a critical role when fostering innovation and should be designed with a focus on the desired outcomes. For example, the organizational structure of a company looking to support expansion into new markets will require a different structure to those of a state-owned company looking to privatize, or to a company wishing to integrate assets resulting from a merger or acquisition. The organizational structure includes management systems, structures for governance, processes, jobs, culture and people capabilities. All of these must be fully in line with company strategy, yet be flexible enough to respond to rapidly changing market conditions. In many industries it is the inability to change and innovate that poses the greatest barrier to success.

Business is often thought to be highly deterministic, driven by process and a cold focus on the bottom line. Although not entirely true, businesses are set up to make money and often stick to what they know best, resisting the disruption of a formula that works. This is why the acquisition of commercially viable start-up companies with new products and new ways of thinking can be an attractive alternative to in-house technology development. A well-established business partnering a start-up company can benefit both parties, by combining the skills and experience from an older establishment with the flexibility, passion, and excitement of the start-up company.

To achieve the same goals in well-established companies, structures should be formed to prevent the kind of resistance to change that, at best, inhibits creativity and, at worst, cause creative minds to leave a company. This is one of the biggest challenges for large corporations with increased levels of bureaucracy. What is required is an environment that provides room for employees to create; to allow them to cause short-term disruptions for longer-term gains. This is hard to achieve and can even mean physically isolating new endeavors from normal product-development zones. Steve Jobs, for example, the late CEO of the highly innovative Apple corporation, guided the development of the hugely successful and innovative iPod in a separate warehouse. This ensured that the potentially disruptive processes required to innovate were insulated from the existing development organization, and that no negative influences would hinder the creative process.  

To nurture our culture of innovation, ABB has seven Corporate Research Centers around the world, one of which is located in Beijing. The focus of these centers is to develop unique technologies that will help our customers to become more competitive, while minimizing environmental impact. To do this we employ 7,500 scientists from across the world (1,000 of them in China) and collaborate with more than 70 universities (including 10 universities in China). Government policy is an important factor that influences our decisions on where to locate our research and development facilities, since these policies shape the business and creative environment in which we operate, and safeguard our inventions. Schools and universities are the primary source of our educated workforces and skilled business leaders; rules and regulations ensure that we work in transparent markets with fair competition and that our intellectual property rights are protected. These structures encourage the growth of economies by providing a good environment for business. Unless businesses have access to integrated transport and communications to support supply chains and distribution channels, both domestically and internationally; and government legislation to encourage long-term, sustainable development, private investment will quickly dwindle.

Government policies can be used to encourage the development of skills required by industry by creating incentives for students to study certain subjects, offering grants for example. Similarly by sponsoring mentoring programs for high school and college students, new ideas can be sparked and they may even provide valuable information to industry regarding the way the next generation of consumers think and act.

Structures that encourage greater collaboration between industry and academia can be developed in the form of “incubators,” built on or off university campuses. Universities are frequently the source of ideas from which the world’s greatest breakthroughs have emerged. The Delta robot (a parallel-arm robot), for example, was invented in the early 1980s by Reymond Clavel at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) and further developed and commercialized (under the names of Pack-Placer, Line-Placer, Top-Placer, and Presto) by Demaurex, and later by ABB (under the name FlexPicker).

With the support of government and other external funding bodies, universities can carry out fundamental research providing support for the kind of projects that contribute to the advancement of knowledge and understanding in broad fields of technology. Very often, however, universities lack the market knowledge and business skills necessary for commercialization. Without a very clear understanding of customers’ needs, it is all but impossible to identify which technologies will contribute to the next wave of commercial success. Incubators like the Entrepreneurship Center at MIT in the United States claims that its graduates are responsible for setting up 25,000 thriving businesses, which employ more than 3 million people and generate so much revenue that, if they were a country, they would be hovering just outside the world’s top 10 economies . By supporting spin-off companies, the reputation of academic institutes can be greatly enhanced, making them more attractive to both talented young professors and students, and enhancing opportunities for local residents.

China has combined the good experience abroad with its own practice of setting up on campus science and technology parks of three levels – central government, provincial government and university level, playing an important role in implementing technology industrialization, incubating high- and new-technology companies, and cultivating strategic emerging industries. In 2010, there were 86 central-government supported parks in 134 universities nationwide, hosting 6,617 businesses demanding incubation, spinning off more than 4,300 companies, and putting more than 4,600 technologies into commercial use.

While the world remembers the story of how Stanford University contributed to the creation of Silicon Valley, it’s also becoming familiar with the modern story of China’s “silicon valley” in Beijing’s Zhongguancun area.  This technology-privileged district sits in the neighborhood of 32 universities (out of a total of 90 universities in Beijing), including Beijing University and Qinghua, 206 state and municipal science and research institutions, 67 state key labs and 55 state engineering centers, numerous incubators and a huge number of high-end technology talent from China and abroad.  More than one-third of China’s state key science and technology projects are undertaken in this area.

Zhongguancun is also the cradle of thousands of high-tech companies in the past 20 years, including the largest Chinese computer company, Lenovo, and the largest search engine, Baidu. While Zhongguancun contributed almost one-quarter of Beijing’s economic growth in 2010, its energy consumption was only one-fifth of the city’s average.

Universities play a central role in innovation, but business is still essential in the process of developing products that are commercially relevant rather than just technically feasible, by providing the crucial interface with the market or end user. According to the global management consultancy Booz & Co., the key to successful innovation in the leading companies it studied is to gather customer insights during the “ideas” stage,” assess the market potential during the “product selection” stage, and engage with customers at the “development” stage. This information gathering is the key concept that can drive the cycle of innovation, generating returns on investments, which can be used to fund future endeavors.

Under circumstances in which a new technology or innovation appears to be very high-risk or far ahead of its time, government  may be required to become an early adopter, so that the new innovation can get through the initial commercialization phase and fully realize its potential. In the United States for example, government support has helped foster significant innovations that have led to the birth of numerous new products and even completely new industries. As early as 1842, US government funds were used to demonstrate the feasibility of Samuel Morse’s telegraph, the first step in the development of today’s networked planet in which access to global communications has become essential. Similarly, government support was essential to the early origins of the computing industry, along with progress in areas such as microelectronics, robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and the investigation of the human genome, which has subsequently spurred breakthroughs in improved diagnostic applications and faster drug discovery.

Reward strategies
Given the right incentives, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs will be eager to rise to the challenge and develop innovative products for the global market. Innovation is an inherently uncertain and risky activity, and those who are prepared to take the risks must be allowed to reap the rewards or made to take the losses.

The selection process is brutal: while the winners earn tens, if not hundreds of times their original investment, the loser will often go bankrupt. The brutality of this system is matched by its success, as society reaps the benefits of only the best innovations. Government-funded incubators cannot copy the success of the private venture capital industry because the decision-makers in these projects do not face the same incentive (or punishment) as in normal circumstances.

The incentive for investing in such a risky business as R&D and technology commercialization is the expectation that success will recover the capital spent many times over. Investors, whether domestic or foreign, will only take big risks if big rewards beckon.

This is why societies with a high capacity for innovation and technology commercialization are those with strong market institutions, including the sanctity of the rule of law, protection of private property rights, including intellectual property, and maintaining a level playing field by avoiding protectionism and allowing open and transparent competition, which is key for an innovative environment.

Within a larger corporation, the type of reward policy should reflect the overall business strategy and work culture of the organization. It should be designed to boost employee morale, increase employee loyalty and make employees want to succeed in their business. The right remuneration policy can make the difference between retaining key staff or watching them go to competitors.

Government incentives, such as tax breaks for corporations investing in R&D can influence the amount they invest and encourage them to stay. GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest pharmaceuticals company, recently decided to invest in the UK, for example, following the introduction of new tax incentives for companies investing in R&D.

Leadership skills
The Chinese were once prolific innovators. Paper, printing, gunpowder and the compass are just some of the Chinese inventions that have changed the world.

It all stopped in the 15th century. In a recent book,  Fareed Zakaria, a commentator on current affairs, describes how Admiral Zheng set off in 1405, with 317 vessels and 28,000 men, and led seven voyages of exploration throughout South East Asia and the Indian Ocean over the next three decades. But a new emperor put a sudden end to the trips. Going to sea was made a crime, and China turned in on itself.

A little later, in Europe, a much smaller expedition with fewer and poorer-quality resources left the shores of Spain under the command of Christopher Columbus. His 150 men and three ships made contact with the Americas, a trip that was to transform both continents and spread European ideas around the world.
The story shows that innovation and technical competence alone are not sufficient to make an impact. A supportive environment and culture are also needed, and, very often, a person with drive and an unorthodox way of looking at things (Columbus was going west in search of the east).

Innovation itself is a combination of art and science. It requires scientists with an artistic bent who can think laterally, as well as scientists with more patience and discipline to turn ideas into inventions. These two types don’t work together easily, which is why other cultural traits such as openness to new ideas and to solving problems in teams are conducive to innovation.
As we saw in the examples above, leadership is crucial to driving innovation: setting priorities, allocating resources, fostering an environment in which failure is acceptable, and drawing the learnings from failures to do better next time. An innovative culture cannot evolve in a fearful or bureaucratic environment, but while culture is an essential ingredient of innovation, it is possibly the hardest to define and copy.

Effective leaders must, among other attributes, be personable, considerate, approachable and perhaps most importantly persuasive. They should be available when problems arise and receptive to novel approaches. New ideas will only be offered if a leader has the skill to recognize their potential and embrace the risk of developing them as part of the journey to success.

The next stage of transforming good ideas into successful outcomes requires interdisciplinary teams working collaboratively to take full advantage of their skills. To get the best out of a diversely skilled and talented team, a good leader must appreciate the contributions of all its team members and also demonstrate an ability to be a good team player themselves.

Such team-spirited collaborations are important not only within an organization, but should also be encouraged between organizations, including governments, universities and commercial companies. Each has a role to play, and collaboration between these groups can result in tremendous benefits for human development and economic growth.

The power sector
Three years ago, McKinsey and the World Economic Forum published an analysis of factors common to successful innovation hubs.  The analysis found that the best had first established themselves as world-class players in an emerging specialty before expanding.
ICT is a core industry for Beijing today and will remain a core driver of productivity in many other branches. Developing an economy in which information technology is widespread is essential to innovation.

One major opportunity to do this is in the power industry, which is on the verge of a transformation driven by information technology. Increased automation of every stage in the power supply system, from generation to consumption, together with greater control of power flows enabled by high-powered semiconductors, will gradually lead to the creation of a smart grid that is more interactive, flexible and efficient, and that emits much less carbon dioxide.

There are many initiatives around the world aiming to resolve parts of this puzzle and it will require a multifaceted approach including renewable energy production, the creation of more energy-efficient technologies, carbon capture, and a variety of other technologies to achieve the goal. All of these challenges should be viewed as an opportunity and could, just like the so-called space race, result in the generation of unexpected commercial spin-offs, such as the development of memory foam (Tempur-foam), which is now part of the thriving soft furnishings industry, or the development of commercial satellites, which now provide satellite-based services such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and television broadcasting. 

In Beijing and across China, as in so many countries, the power network has remained largely unchanged since its inception, which means there are great opportunities for innovation and improvement. It has been said that if Thomas Edison were alive today he would recognize none of his surroundings except the power network, which has remained almost unchanged since he pioneered electrification in the 19th century. This is an exaggeration, but the power sector was one of the last big industries to be touched by information technology. This process has now started and changes are happening fast, with sophisticated communications and automated control systems bringing smart grids – intelligent, self-monitoring and self-healing electricity systems – a step closer.

The possibilities offered by ICT in the power industry could be a major opportunity for Beijing. With a predicted national shortfall of approximately 30 - 40 million kilowatts this year and growth in electricity consumption expected to rise by 9.5 percent (China Federation of Electric Power Enterprises), innovative ways in which to save energy by improving efficiency in the power grid (and beyond) are required. 

According to China’s 12th five-year plan, China's installed power capacity is expected to increase by 450 - 500 million kilowatts by 2015, with hydropower, wind and solar power contributing 60 - 80 million kilowatts, 80 million kilowatts and 10 - 12 million kilowatts, respectively. Similar demands for power are expected across the globe, which means governments are looking to further increase renewable power generation and energy efficiency to moderate pressure to build more power generators and burn more fossil fuels. To help meet these power demands without adding to the emissions problem will require smarter grids. Without these developments, electricity will remain a limiting factor.

Innovations that reduce energy losses and help stabilize the grid are required all over the world, particularly given the ever-increasing contribution from less predictable renewable sources. Innovation in this area will not only provide opportunities for economic growth, but by stabilizing the availability of electric power, existing industrial and service sectors can remain competitive, without threat of power shortages or blackouts.

Energy efficiency and renewables have been identified by the International Energy Agency as having the potential to achieve more than two-thirds of the required abatement of carbon dioxide emissions globally. Using energy more efficiently is therefore a key priority requiring the deployment of energy-efficient technologies at every stage, from the generation, transmission and distribution of power to its end use in industrial, commercial and residential facilities. From the perspective of a municipality such as Beijing, this means much greater involvement of individual consumers of electricity in efforts to reduce waste.

To create such a power network able to cope with intermittent renewable sources of power and that gives consumers a more active role, innovations are needed to ensure that the grid becomes more flexible as well as stronger and smarter. This will allow operators to know what is happening at any given moment in the grid, so that fast responses to potential problems can prevent or reduce the impact of power failures. Although many technologies that are needed to overcome these challenges are already in use, other requirements are still under development,
such as:
• Energy storage solutions, which would allow excess power to be used when wind and solar production dips. Pumped-storage for hydroelectricity is efficient and well suited to storing power for longer periods, but only practical in mountainous regions. Other solutions include the production of hydrogen through the electrolysis of water; compressed air storage and release; using FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) technology in combination with batteries; and the use of battery storage banks.
• Power trading. A greater number of transmission interconnections across regions would help balance  and alleviate shortfalls in electricity supplies. To achieve this, improved communication systems and information technology infrastructure will be required to enable fast and effective containment and correction of disturbances to prevent power dips or surges leading to blackouts. • Demand-response management (bringing a balance between electricity demand and generation) and advanced metering infrastructure. Consumption in buildings can be reduced with intelligent controls that adjust the indoor temperature and lighting to actual requirements. In Beijing - ABB Low Voltage (LV) Installation Materials Co. Ltd. produces intelligent building electric control systems among other LV products ready to serve the city. Such intelligent building systems today operate independently of the power grid, but technology is on the way that will enable these systems to interact with the grid. This will give consumers greater control over the amount of electricity they use and when they use it. To become fully integrated into the power supply network, buildings will have to be equipped with meters capable of collecting more precise data about consumption and capable of communicating with the utility’s distribution-automation or network-management solutions, and with software solutions capable of integrating all home appliances into the grid. An advantage of advanced intelligent building systems is that they are based on the simple and proven KNX technology, which is accepted as the world’s first open standard for the control of all types of intelligent buildings - industrial, commercial or residential.

All of these advances will require further development of new types of technology and equipment to enable greater automation and communication. This includes products like transformers, circuit breakers, batteries and power electronics, with use of sensors and other intelligent devices where possible. Needless to say that IT is becoming a key enabler for a more flexible, reliable and interconnected grid, and we are leveraging this for many of our power products, combining software and hardware solutions for power plants right here in Beijing, where we employ around 4,500 people across five companies.

Innovations will also be required in the information technology industry to provide software solutions for the monitoring, protection and control of the entire system in order to anticipate and prevent disruptions. This demand for software solutions will not only help the grid to evolve into a more effective provider of cleaner, more reliable electric power, but may also facilitate the development of new industries in the region.

The development of smarter grids is already prompting lively experimentation with new service business models around the world. For example, SunEdison in the US owns, finances, installs, operates and maintains solar panels on customers’ premises and charges them for power in return, just as a traditional power utility does . Better Place, an electric-vehicle networks and services company, is testing a business model in which car-batteries are leased by the car owner and can be switched for a fee at one of a network of service stations installed across the country when recharging is required.

One of the key technologies that is emerging as part of the grid’s evolution is the increasing use of direct current (DC) for integration of renewable and also now for distribution purposes. Long used for efficient, low-loss high-voltage transmission – as in the links that bring power from the Three Gorges hydropower plant – DC is converted to alternating current (AC) for distribution, even though more and more equipment, such as computers, cell phones and LEDs, runs on DC. Currently, each of these appliances uses its own rectifier to switch power from AC to DC. A more efficient solution would be to convert the power in a larger rectifier as it enters each building. This could translate into significant potential savings from using DC instead of AC in buildings.

ABB has long been the leading supplier of transmission and distribution networks and has considerable expertise in the incorporation of renewable power into the grid. However, until recently, our portfolio lacked world-class expertise in utility software for network management. To resolve this issue, ABB acquired a few years ago the utility software company, Ventyx, which has a broad portfolio that includes software solutions for planning and forecasting electricity needs, including renewables.

Conclusion
Innovation of the kind that produces significant breakthroughs requires a productive collaboration between government, universities and businesses, each with a distinctive role to play. It is the foundation to move up the value chain and boost productivity. Innovation flourishes only when the market is kept open and transparent, and when the right organizational structures, reward strategies and leadership skills are there to accompany it.

Meanwhile, the power sector is experiencing an ICT-led upheaval to the way we generate, deliver and use electricity. This evolution offers Beijing the opportunity of innovation both to create a lower-carbon power supply system and to participate in the development of the ICT technologies needed to make smart grids a reality across the globe.

Let’s live the “Beijing spirit” to the full, and keep fulfilling dreams and hopes through innovation.