ABOUT UNFINISHED BUSINESS

The Unfinished Lecture is a monthly event hosted by the Strategic Innovation Lab at OCAD and sponsored by Torch Partnership. Part of the Unfinished Business initiative, the lectures are intended to generate an open conversation about strategic innovation in the business and design of commercial enterprises and public organizations.

THE LECTURE: R & D for New Business Models

Most organization leaders today have only had to lead a single business model throughout his or her entire career. And most haven't had to significantly change a business model in order to sustain the organization competitively.  Organization leaders of tomorrow will have to change their business model several times over the course of a career and the successful leader will establish an ongoing process to explore new business models, even models that might threaten the current one.

We all know that technologies have matured enough to enable networked business models.  Technology isn’t the barrier to delivering better value.  It is humans and the institutions we live in—both stubbornly resistant to change—that impede our ability to network people, resources, and capabilities across institutions. What organizations need is a safe and manageable environment to explore and test new business models or better ways to deliver value—a real world test-bed where public and private sector players can collaborate and innovate without disrupting current operations.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Saul Kaplan is the founder and Chief Catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory.  He also is the chair of the non-profit’s Board of Directors.  

Kaplan started BIF in 2005 with a mission to enable collaborative innovation. The non-profit is creating a real world laboratory for innovators to explore and test new business models and system level solutions in areas of high social importance including health care, education, energy independence, public safety, and quality of life.  

Prior to focusing on business model and system level innovation at the Business Innovation Factory Kaplan served as the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and as the Executive Counselor to the Governor on Economic and Community Development.  Kaplan created Rhode Island’s unique  innovation @ scale economic development strategy aimed at increasing the state’s capacity to grow and support an innovation economy, including an effort to turn the state’s compact geography and close knit public and private sector networks into a competitive advantage.   

Prior to his state leadership role in economic development Kaplan served as a Senior Strategy Partner in Accenture's Health & Life Science practice and worked broadly throughout the pharmaceutical, medical products, and biotechnology industry. Earlier in his career, Kaplan worked for the Pharmaceutical Division of Eli Lilly and Company. As a Marketing Plans Manager, Kaplan assisted in developing the launch strategy and successful introduction of Prozac into the U.S. market.

Kaplan holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute focusing on the strategic management of technology and a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island.