Now that companies have bought in and successfully embedded innovation as an organizational core competency, funding is the next innovation hurdle to cross. With the floodgates open, ideas for innovative new products and services are overflowing. How does an organization fund all of these initiatives? Should an organization fund all of these initiatives?
 
Recognizing the expertise of venture capitalists, companies have been eager to learn and adopt their best practices as they seek to answer the following regarding new innovation initiatives:
 
• How to fund?
• When to fund?
• When to pull the plug?
• When to continue investing?
 
Drawing from their unique perspectives, experiences, and successes in applying a venture capital mentality and methodology to evaluating business opportunities and innovation initiatives, Bruce Nussbaum will discuss with David Berry, a Principal at Flagship Ventures, and Amanda West, Global Head of Innovation at Reuters, why and how this approach is relevant to all.  David Berry is a Principal at Flagship Ventures. He joined Flagship in 2005 while completing his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. David was previously awarded a Ph.D. through the MIT Biological Engineering Division, where he studied the biological effects of complex sugars with advisors Professor Ram Sasisekharan and Professor Robert Langer. David also did his undergraduate work at MIT, graduating in 2000 Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, with a degree in brain and cognitive sciences. He was named as a member of the MIT Corporation - its Board of Trustees - in 2006. David's work has led to 11 peer-reviewed publications, over 20 patents and applications, as well as over twenty-five awards and honors including the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize in 2005 for invention and innovation. David was also named as the Innovator of the Year by Technology Review in its 2007 TR35 list of world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35.

At Flagship, David focuses on investing in and founding early stage life science and cleantech ventures and works closely with portfolio companies BG Medicine, T2 Biosystems, Epitome Biosystems and LS9.


Amanda West is the Global Head of Innovation at Reuters. She is responsible for innovation and experimentation with a 2-5 year time horizon, identifying transformational growth opportunities for the Reuters Group.

The small, recently formed core innovation team manages the Reuters innovation portfolio. This includes identifying, funding and governing a number of market changing experimental projects, taking them through to the production of a prototype with the direct involvement of potential customers and external partners. A Venture Board chaired by Reuters CEO Tom Glocer supports and steers the projects and overall Innovation Program.

The Innovation Program is also challenging the way that Reuters gets things done. Looking to bring new working practices into Reuters with the customer on centre stage, taking greater risks in the way concepts are created, making the tough decision to stop projects early in their lifecycle and creating a new breed of entrepreneur for the company.

Amanda previously held a number of different marketing roles in Reuters, most recently as the Director Marketing Communications and prior to that in various Product Management roles.

She holds a degree in Geography from Leeds, and is married with two children.