What is the Journey of Innovation?
The Journey of Innovation is the name given to the programme for culture and management of the innovation of the Algeciras Port Authority (APBA), whose objective is to foster an innovative culture in the APBA and its Port Community. That is to say; to transform itself into an organisation where the capacity to learn, innovate and improve is integrated and systemised.
The designation of the programme refers to the context of ports and maritime transport, furthermore to the journey of transformation and exploration of new opportunities that results from innovation. A journey to unknown land, where we will find resistance and obstacles, but also unexpected discoveries.
For its part, the image of the programme has inspired in the Strait of Gibraltar, a geostrategic enclave where a sea, an ocean and two continents converge, and that in Greek mythology their hero Hercules attributes the creation of the strait we see today.
What does the Journey of Innovation consist of?
The Journey of Innovation has been divided in various stages, where the following are highlighted:
- Getting ready for the journey: Making the analogy that while Hercules ship was being constructed and the crew being formed, the initial situation is evaluated, challenges and opportunities are detected, objectives and goals are fixed, and a strategy of innovation that will set the course is defined.
- Sailing in open waters: The main stage in the transformation process towards an innovative organisation. On this journey, different activities will be carried out that will help to correct and to define the course, such as the elaboration of innovative projects, organisation of interdepartmental workshops to detect ideas and opportunities, organisation of co-creation creation, training activities and empowerment, to identify resistance (unfavourable winds and currents) or even to find unexpected discoveries (favourable breezes and currents) etc.
- Port’s calling over the journey: The journey will land at strategic places in the effort to explore new opportunities, to implement partnerships with other innovation ecosystems and share experimental learning. Furthermore, innovative volunteers and all of those public-private actors that would like to be engaged to this journey (open innovation) will be welcomed.
- The return journey: The final stage of the journey, the year 2030 fixed on the horizon, will serve to evaluate the lessons learned and the achievements. At the same time will pose a starting point for a new journey with new objectives and new challenges.