Collaborating with trading partners is one key area of innovation today.

You have to foster the belief in every employee that innovation is important. It starts with an employee's first day. You can't flip the switch when people reach middle management, and tell them to start thinking about new ways of doing business.

To present their agendas as even remotely credible is a sad reflection on the state of Canadian politics today.

Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.

For CEOs today, it's all about achieving growth and efficiency through innovation. It's not about product innovation so much anymore as about innovating business models, process, culture and management.

It's very clear that CEOs today are looking at new kinds of innovation to drive substantial organizational change and business growth. It's not just product innovation any more. It's about understanding how to innovate a business model, or an operational process, or management behavior -- such as real-time risk management, collaborative pharmaceutical development, or digital film distribution.