Built to innovate, BIF keeps R.I. in the conversation

The Business Innovation Factory would appear to be a shoo-in for an innovation award. After all, innovation is, literally, its middle name.
But innovation is much more than a buzzword to BIF’s leaders. The organization, founded by Saul Kaplan, the former R.I. Economic Development Corporation chief, may be hard to pigeonhole – it is part think tank, part research-and-development office – but its constant commitment is to revitalizing old industries with new ideas, and that is the reason BIF is a finalist for Innovation Champion in the 2009 Rhode Island Innovation Awards program.
“Since its launch in 2004, BIF has built a national network of innovators who are committed to solving problems that require transformative, new business models and new ways of delivering value to citizens, students, patients and customers,” the nonprofit wrote in its application.
BIF’s Research Advisory Council includes some of the nation’s most prominent thought leaders. Among its members are Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School, who wrote the classic book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”; Richard Florida, the urban studies researcher who authored “The Rise of the Creative Class”; and Clay Shirky, the New York University professor who is a leading thinker on new media.
A key way BIF has attracted them is with its annual Collaborative Innovation Summit, held each October at Trinity Repertory Company in downtown Providence. The five-year-old event brings together dozens of speakers – or “storytellers,” in BIF parlance – to share short tales of how they championed new ideas.
High-profile though it is, the summit is just one of the Business Innovation Factory’s activities. Equally important are BIF’s two Experience Labs, which are used to put new ideas into action in order to research how they work in the real world. The organization’s three focus areas align with the national priorities set by President Barack Obama: health care, education and energy.
In the health care sector, BIF’s Elder Experience Lab explores different approaches to caring for seniors – an important area of study for a nation with a rapidly aging population. In education, BIF recently created the Student Experience Lab, which is focusing on improving the collegiate education experience. The group also hopes to create an energy lab that will test new efficiency methods in residential homes around Rhode Island.
“With its unique nonprofit platform, BIF has created a neutral place for partners to work on problems in areas of high social impact,” the group said in its application. That emphasis is likely to keep the Business Innovation Factory – and Providence – on the leading edge of innovation’s frontier. •