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EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
WHITEPAPER

EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS
         Learn about the three main species of experts.
              Discover the ideal profile of experts.
   Understand how your company can better leverage experts.

                                                                  © Presans 2010 – 2020
                    © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRESANS 2020        1
EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
“Experts create problems!” This is how Hervé Arribart, Fellow at Presans and former
scientific director at Saint-Gobain started our interview when I was writing my book
Innovation Intelligence back in 2014. By saying this, Hervé meant two things: first,
experts have the ability to see new interesting intellectual problems – and ways to
address them. This is the good side. The second aspect is less positive: experts can
have a tendency to turn into gurus and become difficult to manage.

Presans is a platform-driven consulting company founded in 2010 at the crossroad
of expertise in science & technology and of strategy consulting & innovation.
Presans’ service portfolio relies on a digital platform, a network of six-million experts
and a team of Fellows. Based on these 3 pillars, Presans delivers complex problem
solving and strategic guidance on innovation to 50+ industrial multinationals. Over
the last 10 years, Presans was involved in hundreds of engagements in various
industrial sectors covering pretty much all the fields of science and technology,
ranging from technologies relevant for any sector (ex. 3D printing) to very niche
technologies such as computational optics or Promethium 147, each time, engaging
on demand one or several of the best experts in the world.

Hervé Arribart’s citation above is a very good illustration of what we sometimes hear
from our clients. “Experts create problems”. “We don’t know how to manage them”.
“We don’t know how to evaluate them”, etc.

With the present whitepaper, we want to share with you some of our
operational knowledge on experts and expertise, accrued over the course of 10
years, in a context of industrial innovation. We want to share with you some of
the key things we learned.

                                                                       – Albert Meige
                                                          PRESANS, founder and CEO
                                                          HEC Paris, Academic director

                                                                                                   Presans2010
                                                                                                ©©Presans         2020
                                                                                                           2010––2020
                                                                                            2
                                                                                            2
EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
INTRODUCTION
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ARE BACK ON                                                                  In this whitepaper, we
THE FRONT STAGE.                                                                                  uncover and describe:
EXPERTS ARE THE NEW ROCKSTARS.
10 YEARS AGO: R&D IS DEAD, INNOVATION IS KING

A decade ago, innovation, open innovation, and quite a few other buzzwords
became popular. It was not fashionable anymore to be an R&D director. It was
                                                                                                  1.   Three distinct
trendier to be an innovation director. Research centers were has-been. Innovation
labs were the new places to be. Innovation was no longer about developing science
                                                                                                       species of experts.
and technology. Innovation was about usages, business models, post-its, colored
sofas and walls you can write on. And also about startup-corporate collaborations.
We thoroughly described this new era in our previous book Innovation Intelligence.

STARTUPS AS CORPORATE R&D LABS, ENTREPRENEURS AS ROCKSTARS                                        2.   Essential skills of
All industrial revolutions and more generally all innovation waves follow the same                     experts.
pattern: scientific discoveries are made; based on these discoveries, technological
bricks are developed; these bricks are first adopted by a limited number of people,
and then they are massively adopted and combined by a majority. This is when
disruptions at the business level occurs. In this era, innovation is about use-cases
and business model. About combining stuff. Startups are combination attempts.
Many die along the way. A few get acquired or listed. To some extent, in the
                                                                                                  3.   How companies
combination phase, startups are the R&D labs of corporate groups. Entrepreneurs
are their rockstars. But guess what? The combination phase is transient.
                                                                                                       can better
                                                                                                       leverage experts.
TODAY: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPERTS ARE MAKING A COMEBACK

At some point, the new cycle needs to be prepared. Scientific discoveries need to
be made. New technological bricks need to be developed. And this is exactly what
we have been observing over the last couple of years: science & technology are
back on the front stag. Experts are the new rockstars of innovation… once again.
––––––                                                                                            IF YOU’RE IN A HURRY, JUMP TO THE

                                                                                                                                  © Presans 2010 – 2020
Sources:
                                                                                                      CONCLUSION ON PAGE 28 è
Innovation Intelligence, A. Meige & J. Schmitt, absans publishing (2015).
The Return of the scientific and technological expert, J. Knight, open-organization.com (2020).

                                                                                                                              3
EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
Nobody knows what trait in a future expert triggers the quest for knowledge. We tend to think of experts as
similar to collectors, but instead of accumulating postcards or luxury vintage cars they collect knowledge.
What is the personal reward that justifies such effort and dedication? Could it be curiosity and the satisfaction
of a desire to know? Could it be the need to create a virtual security blanket? We do not know, but it is
probably a mixture of both of these factors, as well as other ingredients. What counts is the result: experts do
exist, and some of them reach a superior level of mastery in their fields of knowledge.

In this first section of the whitepaper, we will discover:

           What an expert is                                         What it takes to become
                                                                      and remain an expert

 Two distinct species of experts:                                 How certain experts mutate
   silo diggers and chipmunks                                          into polymaths

                                                                                                                        © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                                                    4
EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
“
The journey to truly superior performance is neither for the faint
  of heart nor for the impatient. The development of genuine
 expertise requires struggle, sacrifice, and honest, often painful
                         self-assessment.
                           K. ANDERS ERICSSON
            FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY, PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCHER

                                                                         © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                     5
EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
WHAT IS AN
              Dr K. Anders Ericsson, professor of psychology at                       Dr Olga Lelebina, in her doctoral thesis La gestion des
              Florida State University, is an expert on experts. In                   experts en entreprise (2014) provides a          detailed
              The Making of an Expert, Harvard Business Review                        description of an expert’s output for her company:

EXPERT? AND   (July-August 2007), he defines an expert as a person
              who, in resolving problems related to her field, will:                  SPOTTING PROBLEMS

WHAT CAN A    PROVIDE CONSISTENTLY SUPERIOR ANSWERS
              COMPARED TO HER PEERS
                                                                                      Efficient in detecting problems and determining their
                                                                                      causes.

COMPANY       The word superior implies that an expert has reached
              a very high level of knowledge and agility with the
                                                                                      STRATEGY

EXPECT FROM   topic. As we will see, this also implies hard, constant
              work. An expert is, by necessity, a person who is
              willing to dedicate a significant amount of time and
                                                                                      Efficient in selecting the best strategy for solving a
                                                                                      problem.

HER?          energy to learning and mastering a field of
              knowledge.
                                                                                      SOLUTIONS
                                                                                      Proposing the best solutions, faster and with more
                                                                                      accuracy than do other individuals.
              PRODUCE CONCRETE RESULTS
              Concrete results are key. It is not sufficient to perform               QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
              a brilliant analysis of a situation to be an expert. An
              expert leaves a trace: the situation is different after                 Focused on qualitative analysis and novel points of view.
              the expert has provided input, the situation has
              progressed, the degree of uncertainty has decreased,                    MONITORING
              or some of the potential solutions have been
                                                                                      Acute observers, thanks to their error-detection capacity.
              considered and discarded.

              ––––––                                                                  COGNITIVE EFFORT
              Source: The Making of an Expert, K. Anders Ericsson, Harvard Business
              Review (July-August 2007).                                              Extracting key messages from complex knowledge with
                                                                                      less effort.

                                                                                      ––––––
                                                                                      Source: La gestion des experts en entreprise, Olga Lelebina (2014).

                                                                                                                                                                © Presans 2010 – 2020
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EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
TEN YEARS
Ten year is the typical amount of time required for the making of a
high-level expert1. And since Presans is 10 years old in 2020, we
can officially declare that Presans is an expert on experts. Ten years
is not the end of the expert’s development, but rather the moment
where the expert has reached a sufficiently deep level of
knowledge. When the expert has reached this deep level, her
efforts are not over: permanent updating, enlargement, and
refinement are the key to maintaining her level of expertise.
Applying expertise in daily practice is not sufficient for this.
Research has shown that an estimated two hours per day are
required to maintain expertise.
––––––
1
 Estimation based on Presans’ experience and confirmed through a number of scientific
analyses.

                                                                                            © Presans 2010 – 2020
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EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
WHAT SPECIES OF
                   Even though reality is slightly more complex (as expertise is actually a spectrum), at Presans, we like to
                   consider that experts fall into two distinct categories: silo diggers and chipmunks(*).

EXPERT ARE YOU?
A SILO DIGGER OR                                                                                  SILO DIGGERS dig deeply in their field of expertise.

A CHIPMUNK?                                                                                       Deep diggers are usually among the best experts in
                                                                                                  the world in their field of expertise.

                                                                                                  CHIPMUNKS build a network of interconnected
                                                                                                  burrows, each burrow being a field of expertise.
                                                                                                  Chipmunks’ expertise may not be as deep as that of
                                                                                                  the silo diggers, but it covers a much larger territory.

                   Both species of experts are extremely useful for a company. In innovation projects, chipmunk experts will be
                   highly valuable and creative as they will leverage and assemble together knowledge from silo digger experts.

                                                                                                                                                                 © Presans 2010 – 2020
                    ––––––
                    (*) Chipmunks (or tamias) are cute little animals, part of the squirrel family.                                                          8
EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
“
An expert is someone who knows more and more
 about less and less, until eventually she knows
            everything about nothing.
              ANONYMOUS QUOTATION

                                                       © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                   9
EXPERTS CREATE PROBLEMS - WHITEPAPER Learn about the three main species of experts - web
HOW CERTAIN
EXPERTS MUTATE
INTO POLYMATHS!

The polymath is the
ultimate chipmunk – the
one your company should
definitely consider involving
in innovation projects

                                The word polymath, of Greek origin, is not found in all English dictionaries. Even less common is the
                                equivalent word polyhistor. Both words designate a person who has superior knowledge in a multiplicity of
                                domains. Polymaths, able to switch easily from one domain to another, have built up expertise in several
                                fields. In fact, they represent the highest level of what we called chipmunk experts.

                                Nowadays, some call polymaths multipotential or Renaissance persons. At Presans, we call them
                                Fellows. This type of expert is a partner of choice in innovation teams. Unfortunately while silo diggers
                                are generally present in companies, chipmunks are rarer and polymaths are almost inexistent – the main

                                                                                                                                                  © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                reasons are that (1) the population in itself is smaller, (2) they are often scary for human resources and
                                (3) they tend to end up in managerial positions.

                                ––––––
                                Source: How much multipotentiality does innovation need?, Jacques Knight, open-organization.com (2016).      10
Architecture is a very interesting indicator of how Research & Innovation is organized. A significant number
of our clients are currently re-thinking their research & innovation centers, such as Danone, Total, Air
Liquide, etc. These projects exhibit one invariant trait: they are designed for collaboration and sustainability.
They are open to the world. It’s important to realize this was not always so. Back in the 1950s, research
centers looked very differently. And they looked differently because R&I was organized differently.

In this second section of the whitepaper, we briefly
describe:

Three different research &                                        Zoom in on modern
innovation eras                                                   experts
•   Concentration & focusing                                      We describe a set of 3 essential skills that
                                                                  modern experts need:
•   Cross-fertilization
                                                                  •   Abstracting
•   Connection
                                                                  •   Screening & Modeling
We illustrate each of these eras with an
emblematic research center and we                                 •   Connecting
describe the archetype of the
corresponding expert.

                                                                                                                         © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                                                    11
ERA #1: CONCENTRATION & FOCUSING
50S TO MID-70S
EXPERTS ARE STRONG SILO DIGGERS
•       Researchers push their own research.
•       Very little collaboration between researchers.
•       The organization fishes in its own thinking tank and innovations pop up.
•       Big corporations have plenty of time for deploying industrially their basic discoveries.

                                                                                                                              2020
                                                                                                                      2010 –– 2020
                                                                                                              Presans 2010
––––––

                                                                                                            © Presans
Emblematic research center of the concentration & focusing era: Bell Labs (Murray Hill – New Jersey)
                                                                                                       12

                                                                                                            ©
ERA #2: CROSS-FERTILIZATION
MID-70S TO LATE 90S
THE RISE OF CHIPMUNK EXPERTS
What’s new? Getting to the bottom of the silo takes too much time and industrial systems are
more and more complex. The consequences are:
•        In addition to the still very useful silo digger experts, we observe the rise of chipmunk
         experts who are more system-oriented.
•        The best experts track novelties through their networks.
•        Fertility arises from collaborative interactions between various fields.

                                                                                                            Presans2010
                                                                                                          ©Presans         2020
                                                                                                                    2010––2020
––––––
Emblematic research center of the cross-fertilization era: Xerox Parc (Palo Alto – California)       13

                                                                                                          ©
ERA #3: CONNECTION
BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY

EXPERTS ARE KNOWLEDGE SCOUTS WHO CAN SHIFT BETWEEN NEW FIELDS WITH SPEED AND TALENT
What’s new? Knowledge inflation and the Internet. The world of industry has discovered that it is cheaper and faster to
acquire new knowledge coming from outside the walls of the company. The consequences are:
•       Knowledge is out there and it circulates in a fluid way.
•       The new added value of research in companies is to scout and organize knowledge.

                                                                                                                                                 2020
        Experts are experienced in changing topics (and therefore can more swiftly enter novel areas).

                                                                                                                                          2010––2020
•

                                                                                                                                  Presans2010
                                                                                                                               ©©Presans
––––––
Emblematic campus of the connection era: Apple Park (Palo Alto – California)
                                                                                                                          14
THE LONGITUDE PRIZE… RE-INTERPRETED BY PRESANS
                  Although ships exploring the world during the XVII and XVIII centuries could easily measure their latitude, nobody
                  knew how to measure longitude. To measure longitude, one needs to keep track of time while on board. No clock
                  was able to keep the proper time throughout the hazards of a transoceanic journey. England, the dominant maritime
                  nation, was eager to maintain its leadership. In 1714, the British Parliament passed the Longitude Act, establishing the
                  Board of Longitude and offering a Prize of £20,000 (more than EUR 3.5 million in today’s terms) to whoever could find
                  a practical method of measuring longitude to within 30 nautical miles (56 kilometers). Among the initiators of the
                  project were astronomy experts, including Isaac Newton. These experts were convinced that only celestial mechanics
                  was sufficiently precise and delocalized to provide a solution. But another expert, the clock master John Harrison,
                  worked from 1730 to 1761 at refining a series of improved chronometers. In 1761, although Harrison’s timepiece was
                  demonstrated by real navigation tests to provide a sufficiently accurate measurement of longitude, the Board of
                  Longitude continued to delay recognition of a solution developed by a mere ironsmith. Harrison had to go to court
                  and enlist the support of the King George III to finally get credit and be awarded a fraction of the prize in 1773. The
                  official prize was never awarded to anyone.

                  Why did Newton fail to identify John Harrison as an expert in relation to the longitude
                  problem? With the famous longitude prize story we want to introduce what we
                  consider to be the 3 essential skills of experts:
                                                                                                             Equipped with better operational
                  Despite being a polymathic genius,                                                         knowledge     about     navigation,
                  Newton was reluctant to abstract from                                                      Newton’s screening process would
                  the details of celestial mechanics and                                                     have picked up the fact that John
                  reconsider other aspects of the big                                                        Harrison had achieved a greater
                                                                                                             level of expertise in the field of
                  picture beyond that silo, such as             SKILL #1                         SKILL #2    clockwork design, and that this fact
                  improvements in another area of
                  knowledge (clockwork design). Instead,      ABSTRACTING                      SCREENING &   was very relevant to solving the
                                                                                                             longitude problem.
                  he ruled out the possibility such
                  improvements would be able to make a
                                                                                                MODELING
                  difference.
                                                                                                             Newton’s expert network (scientists)
                                                                                                             was far removed from John
                                                                                                             Harrison’s expert network (people
                                                                                                             relevant to clock building). The lack
                                                                                                             of hubs connecting these networks
                                  META-EXPERTISE                                SKILL #3                     eliminated opportunities for them
                                                                                                             to trade knowledge between each
                                                                              CONNECTING                     other. Nobody was there to

                                                                                                                                                      © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                                             reformulate the longitude problem

EVEN NEWTON                                                                                                  in a way that would have made it
                                                                                                             easier for John Harrison to obtain
                                                                                                             full recognition for his contribution.

COULD BE WRONG!   ––––––
                  Source: Even Newton Could be Wrong, Albert Meige, open-organization.com (2009)                                               15
SKILL #1:                      In just a few decades, we have gone from a world
                               in which knowledge – the fuel of innovation – was
                               rare and in the hands of a few very big players
                                                                                     MODERN EXPERTS OPERATE ON A MORE
                                                                                     ABSTRACT LEVEL

ABSTRACTING                    (major companies or universities) to today's world    As a result, modern experts are more conceptual
                               in which new knowledge has become a                   than their predecessors were. They use
                               commodity produced by a multitude of players          sophisticated tools, whether theoretical concepts,
                               whose mean size is decreasing. From the 1950s         computer modeling, or equipment, but they set
The ability to remain at the   to the 1970s, the best experts knew all of the
                               theoretical foundations of their fields and all of
                                                                                     aside the details of how the tools work until they
                                                                                     have pushed a tool beyond its limits. Expertise
frontier of knowledge and      the basic properties of the objects they were
                               manipulating. Mathematicians knew how to prove
                                                                                     today probably requires a greater capacity for
                                                                                     abstract thinking than did expertise in the past.
seeing the big picture         the theorems they were using, experimentalists
                               could open and repair the sophisticated
                                                                                     The knowledge required today is itself more
                                                                                     abstract than knowledge in the past. Imagine

beyond the silos.              measurement systems they were using, chemists
                               knew how the compounds they were using had
                                                                                     using a theorem that you know is valid but whose
                                                                                     proof you learned in college and have forgotten.
                                                                                     This theorem is more abstract than the solid chain
                               been prepared. In other words, experts were able
                               to go all the way down to the bottom of the           of proof that backs it. Experts must be skilled at
                               pyramid of knowledge.                                 and comfortable with using black boxes.

                                                                                     MODERN   EXPERTS   STILL NEED   TO
                               MODERN EXPERTS OPERATE ON                     THE
                               LATEST FRONTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE                         UNDERSTAND THE LIMITS OF THE TOOLS
                                                                                     THEY USE
                               In the years since, this deep basic knowledge has
                               gradually eroded. Experts may have been taught        The best experts remain conscious that whatever
                                                                                     tool they use has limits and that, if operating in
                               those basic elements when they were at school,
                                                                                     non-standard conditions, they must double-check
                               but they are no longer part of the operational
                                                                                     its basics, at the cost of significant intellectual
                               knowledge of experts. Today’s experts are too
                                                                                     effort. Experts must be able to understand the
                               busy dealing with the latest layer of knowledge to
                                                                                     black boxes they use.
                               make sure they can explain in detail the principles
                               of their phase contrast microscope or the exact
                               logic of a convergence algorithm. Experts must
                               remain at the frontier of knowledge and see
                               the big picture.

                                                                                                                                                © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                                                                           16
“NANI GIGANTUM HUMERIS
INSIDENTES”
This Latin metaphor of dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants expresses
the fact that new discoveries are always built on the foundation of previous
discoveries. The metaphor is generally attributed to Bernard of Chartres. It is
also found in a letter written by Isaac Newton in 1676: “If I have seen further
it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

                                                                                       © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                  17
SKILL #2:                Louis Pasteur said that “fortune favors the prepared
                         mind”. An expert is not only at the frontier of
                         knowledge, she must be able to screen relevant
                                                                                             MODERN EXPERTS
                                                                                             KNOWLEDGE
                                                                                                                     MASTER      OPERATIONAL

SCREENING &              knowledge for her organization. She must be able to
                         systematize serendipity. The word serendipity is an old
                                                                                             Another key skill of modern experts is to quickly
                                                                                             screen many pieces of knowledge and determine
                                                                                             which ones of them match present or future needs

MODELING
                         neologism; coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole, it was
                         inspired by an old Persian tale, The Three Princes of               of the company (hence the notion of modeling).
                         Serendip, in which the heroes make discoveries by                   This process is serendipity at work. Most brilliant
                         observing their environment and             making shrewd           inventions and innovations were, after analysis, no
                                                                                             more than joining two pieces of knowledge
The ability to screen
                         deductions based on their observations. The word is
                         applied to unexpected and accidental discoveries,                   together. To be able to efficiently perform this
                                                                                             screening, an expert, in addition to mastering the
relevant knowledge and
                         such as Fleming discovering penicillin by examining an
                                                                                             theoretical state of the art, must master what we
                         old Petri dish that was contaminated by mold. Even
                                                                                             call operational knowledge. Knowledge based on
expertise for the
                         though serendipity of course requires luck, it is
                                                                                             her experience of her industry and her company (in
                         unfortunately increasingly being used to mean just the
                                                                                             terms of science & technology, but also in terms of
organization.
                         luck aspect. In fact, serendipity is a manifestation of
                         creativity: it is the ability to see relevant connections —         organization, business, competitive landscape etc.),
                         even among needs not on today’s agenda.                             while avoiding various cognitive biases. Mastering
                                                                                             operational knowledge requires spending sufficient
                                                                                             time in a given industry and company.
                         MODERN EXPERTS MASTER THE THEORETICAL
                         STATE OF THE ART
                                                                                             MODERN EXPERTS ARE ARTISTS
                         In a world flooded by knowledge production, one of
                         the key skills for an expert is the ability to master the           Presans’ Fellows are, we hope, the incarnation of
                                                                                             modern experts – actually they are meta-experts
                         state of the art. What are the most recent scientific
                                                                                             (i.e. experts on expertise). We have noticed that
                         discoveries and technological bricks? What is their
                                                                                             most of our Fellows have a very developed artistic
                         maturity level? What are the associated trends? What
                                                                                             fiber. We originally thought it was a coincidence,
                         are the main hurdle to overcome before these bricks
                                                                                             but we are now convinced that it is a key skill.
                         are available in an industrial context? How long is it
                         likely to take? Who are the main players? Mastering                 Artists see connections that most people don’t see.
                         the state of the art requires dedicating sufficient time            This is why they are creative. We are now
                         to read publications, participate in conferences, visit             convinced that modern experts must have a strong
                         labs, startups etc.                                                 artistic fiber to favor serendipity and the screening
                                                                                             & modeling process described above.

                                                                                                                                                          © Presans 2010 – 2020
                         –––––
                         Sources:
                         Innovation Intelligence, A. Meige & J. Schmitt, absans publishing
                         (2015).
                         Private discussions with Presans’ Fellows.
                                                                                                                                                     18
“
Fortune favors the prepared mind.
           LOUIS PASTEUR
      CHEMIST & MICROBIOLOGIST

                                         © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                    19
SKILL #3:
                           Graph theory, a branch of mathematics, is the study         MODERN EXPERTS ARE TRADERS
                           of graphs, collections of nodes or vertices possibly
                           attached in pairs by links or edges. The degree of a        Whether activating the network by contacting

CONNECTING                 node is the number of links attached to it. A path is a     another expert or having a beer nearby a conference
                           way to connect two nodes via links. The distance            with a new, interesting contact, an expert will, one
                           between two nodes is the number of hops on the              way or another, have to enter into a give and take
                           shortest path linking the nodes. Graph theory is often      ritual. Experts love knowledge and will be happy to
                           applied to the study of human networks. A surprising        share a piece of their knowledge with another
                                                                                       expert, but the quality and durability of the
The ability to create      fact about real-world human networks is that they
                           often contain highly interconnected subgroups (often        relationship will depend on how well the taker pays
                                                                                       back the giver by sharing her own knowledge.
relevant weak ties with    named cliques or small worlds). Most humans belong
                           to several cliques, such as their family, neighbors,
                                                                                       Modern experts should also have a well-developed
                                                                                       capacity to reformulate questions from their
other small worlds of      colleagues, tennis club, catacomb explorer group and
                           so forth. Any two cliques are, at least, weakly
                                                                                       companies, to avoid cognitive biases and to extract
                                                                                       the right insights from peer experts.
knowledge and expertise.   connected to each other thanks to the few nodes they
                           share. Nodes of a high degree are critical in creating
                           network connectivity; they are called hubs and play a       MODERN EXPERTS ARE HUBS AT THE
                           major role in connecting cliques; which is essential        INTERFACE OF SEVERAL SMALL WORLDS
                           when it comes to innovation.
                                                                                       In any expert network the key players are hubs,
                                                                                       experts who have far more contacts than the average
                           MODERN EXPERTS HAVE A WIDE NETWORK                          expert. The best experts are these hubs, in particular
                           An expert’s network provides access to a far wider          hubs connected to hubs. In our global environment,
                           base of knowledge than the one based on her field           experts in the same field tend to know each other
                                                                                       and to form cliques. The most valuable connections
                           alone. Networks are common among experts and
                                                                                       for extending knowledge coverage beyond this field
                           contribute significantly to raise the value of an expert:
                                                                                       are the nodes that connect this field, or silo, to other
                           experts in the same field know each other, they read
                                                                                       fields. Chipmunk experts are often such nodes,
                           each other’s papers, they meet at conferences, and
                                                                                       connecting different cliques – which is key for
                           they often visit each other when traveling. Based on
                           our experience, the network distance for information        systemic innovation.
                           access is in practice not much longer than two. The
                           value of a recommendation decays rapidly with               –––––
                                                                                       Sources:
                           distance.                                                   Innovation Intelligence, A. Meige & J. Schmitt, absans publishing

                                                                                                                                                                © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                       (2015).
                                                                                       Private discussions with Presans’ Fellows.

                                                                                                                                                           20
“
  The success of any kind of social epidemic is
heavily dependent on the involvement of people
  with a particular and rare set of social gifts.
                 MALCOLM GLADWELL
     NON-FICTION WRITER, JOURNALIST, PUBLIC SPEAKER

                                                           © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                      21
We have seen that several types of experts exist and that modern experts share 3 essential skills. Any
company absolutely need both silo diggers and chipmunk experts. Chipmunks – and their ultimate
form, polymaths – are particularly useful for innovation and are very often rare in companies due to the
following reasons:
• Short-term pressure: experts tend not to get enough time for exploration to become and remain
     chipmunks;
• No dedicated box: potential chipmunk experts don’t fit the usual “boxes” of the company, i.e. neither
     the management path, nor the expert ladder;
• Management: experts with the potential to become good chipmunks more often end up in managerial
     position – the company hence looses good experts and risks getting bad managers.
There are three distinct levels at which experts can make decisive contributions within a company’s innovation
process:

•   Intelligence: technology watch and broadly speaking innovation intelligence;
•   Strategy: contribution to the definition of the innovation strategy and roadmaps;
•   Implementation: contribution to the implementation of the innovation roadmaps and problem solving.

Although potentially extremely rewarding, this task often generates a lot of frustrations within an organization.

In this third section of the whitepaper, we provide 3
managerial recommendations to better leverage experts and
minimize frustrations:

    Ask for confirmed                    Ask for anticipation                     Open yourself to
       knowledge                                                                   chipmunks and

                                                                                                                         © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                  leverage external
                                                                                       experts                      22
“
    The long-term vision should reconcile and
integrate possible disruptions, from which short-
  term knowledge strategies may be deduced.
                    ERICK LANSARD
           THALES, DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION

                                                         © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                    23
ASK FOR
                             ASK FOR CONTEXTUALIZED STATE-OF-THE-ART                                   ASK FOR MISSING KNOWLEDGE
                             PAPERS (1)
                                                                                                       As well described in the so-called C/K theory, innovating

CONFIRMED
                             The company should ask its experts to produce a                           requires creating new concepts (C) leveraging
                             contextualized state-of-the-art paper for each of the                     knowledge (K). This knowledge can already exist – in
                             key domains. The paper should be a document that                          which case it should be covered in the state-of-the-art

KNOWLEDGE                    will serve as a reference within the company on a
                             given key domain; a way to get some sort of common
                             operating system. On a given key domain, the state-
                                                                                                       papers. If the knowledge is not readily available, the
                                                                                                       expert should identify a way to either acquire this
                                                                                                       knowledge outside of the company if it exists or develop
                             of-the-art paper should:                                                  it in-house if it does not exist.

In order to efficiently      •    Provide an exhaustive, detailed and comparative
                                                                                                       ASK FOR RAPID SOLUTIONS
solve problems and
                                  list of the sciences and technologies;
                             •    Analyze which of them are the most appropriate                       Experts, although very knowledgeable, do not have the

contribute to roadmaps,
                                  to the company’s business;                                           answers to all the questions. However, thanks to both her
                             •    Evaluate the maturity level of these technologies;                   theoretical & confirmed knowledge (science &

the company should
                             •    Describe the associated trends;                                      technology) and her operational knowledge (modes of
                             •    Define the vocabulary;                                               operation, tools, processes etc.) an expert should be
                                  Provide orders of magnitudes;
consider that the primary
                             •                                                                         able to extract relevant elements from her brain and
                             •    Map key players related to the domain.                               build an ad hoc method to deliver answers rapidly to any

and immediate function       Answering such questions is bread-and-butter type
                             work for experts. The answers should be
                                                                                                       problem in her field of expertise – avoiding blind spots
                                                                                                       (which can be tricky for experts).

of an expert is to provide   documented. In addition, the contextualized state-of-
                             the-art paper should take into account the strategic                      –––

confirmed knowledge.
                                                                                                       Source:
                             and operational business context of the company.                          C-K design theory, A. Hatchuel & B. Weil, Research Engineering (2009).
                             Such reference state-of-the-art papers will facilitate
                             decision     making,       communication       between
                             collaborators, or the integration of new collaborators.

                             –––
                             (1)
                                 In French we would call such a document a “référentiel de
                             connaissance” rather than “état de l’art” to stress the fact that it is
                             customized for the considered industry, company and business context.

                                                                                                                                                                                     © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                                                                                                                24
ASK FOR
                             GO BEYOND CONFIRMED KNOWLEDGE AND                        INVOLVE EXPERTS IN YOUR INNOVATION AND
                             ASK FOR INSIGHTS AND OPINIONS                            STRATEGIC ROADMAPPING

ANTICIPATION
                             Experts’ inputs also include insights and opinions.      Involving experts   in   innovation       and    strategic
                             These may touch on the unstable frontier of              roadmapping has a dual benefit:
                             knowledge, particularly during the early phase of an
                                                                                      First, insights from experts remove some of the fog that
                             innovation. Both the questions and the answers are
                                                                                      surrounds the always uncertain path of innovation. Of
In order to put together
                             about the future. Given a field of science and
                                                                                      course, when discussing innovation with an executive, a
                             technology, in addition to the questions listed in the
                                                                                      project manager, or other team members, the expert
technological roadmaps,
                             previous page:
                                                                                      should outline the contours of the future based on her
                             •   What are the main hurdles to overcome to make        expertise, including any speculative insights (which may
companies need experts       •
                                 theses fields usable in an industrial context?
                                 What is the corresponding time horizon?
                                                                                      be contrary to the expert’s training and natural
                                                                                      inclination). The expert is expected to do such
to be able to state          •   How to make a technology compatible with the
                                 targeted application?
                                                                                      extrapolations, provided she also describes under what
                                                                                      conditions the extrapolations would be confirmed, and

technological opinions       •
                             •
                                 What are the most probable scenarios?
                                 What signals are we likely to observe in the
                                                                                      elaborates on the uncertainty that needs to be
                                                                                      eliminated, or lists alternative scenarios.

even if these opinions       •
                                 future if such or such scenario becomes true?
                                 What issues are we likely to face during the
                                                                                      Secondly, by involving experts in the process of

aren’t yet fully confirmed
                                                                                      roadmap definition, a company in return sharpens the
                                 scale up and industrialization phase?
                             •   Etc.                                                 ability of these experts to screen the global flows of new

by a solid set of
                                                                                      knowledge, ideas, tools, results and discoveries.
                             Only high-level experts who regularly visit

experimental facts.
                             international conferences in their fields can provide
                             thoughtful answers to forward-looking questions
                             such as these.

                                                                                                                                                        © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                                                                                   25
WHY VERSATILITY IS ESSENTIAL

OPEN YOURSELF
                                   WHY YOUR COMPANY SHOULD OPEN ITSELF TO
                                   CHIPMUNK EXPERTS                                             Experts have made the choice to cherish knowledge, and
                                                                                                they are consistent in that behavior. In most cases, this

TO CHIPMUNKS
                                   Any company needs both types of experts (silo diggers
                                   and chipmunks). Chipmunk are rarer and companies             choice is not compatible with managerial responsibilities.
                                   should open themselves to them because:                      Human Resource (HR) management experts have addressed

AND LEVERAGE
                                                                                                this problem. Among the many solutions proposed, the dual
                                   •    Versatility: chipmunks can change their field of        ladder, a system introduced in the United States in the late
                                        expertise when the environment of the company           1970s, has had some success and provides experts with a

EXTERNAL EXPERTS
                                        evolves;                                                career path. However, the results of such a system range
                                                                                                from fair to disappointing. Managing experts is difficult: it is
                                   •    Innovation:     chipmunks    efficiently   connect      straightforward and rewarding when their assigned tasks are
                                        knowledge and communities that are far apart, they      within their expertise, but it may become very difficult when
In order to remain versatile            are creative and they know how to interact with silo
                                        diggers.
                                                                                                the company’s priorities are only marginally related to those
                                                                                                of the experts.
and agile, your company
should hire experts who show   HIRE POTENTIAL CHIPMUNKS AND PROVIDE THE
                               RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
                                                                                                LEVERAGE ON-DEMAND EXTERNAL EXPERTS

                                                                                                The knowledge distribution among the experts in a company
signs of being or becoming     At the time of hiring, select experts who show signs of
                               being or of becoming chipmunks. This can be done as part
                                                                                                always reflects the history of the company. Companies
                                                                                                should cultivate an awareness of the future relevance of
chipmunks and should           of the interview: discuss the expert’s fields of interest, and
                               gauge her response when presented with a challenge that
                                                                                                fields of knowledge that currently are not part of their
                                                                                                knowledge base.
leverage on-demand external    lies outside those fields.
                                                                                                In a world of continuous and accelerating change,

experts.                       The company should then provide the right environment
                               allowing chipmunk experts to develop:
                                                                                                mismatches arise between the pool of in-house experts and
                                                                                                the strategic avenues the company may need to consider.
                                                                                                Such mismatches are frustrating both for experts and
                               •       Identify internal experts with the right potential;      managers, but relatively normal.
                               •       Nurture internal experts by allowing them to spend
                                                                                                Strategic anticipation alone may not be sufficient to ensure
                                       enough time outside of the company and to interact       that companies will be able to integrate new knowledge fast
                                       with external seasoned chipmunk experts;                 enough. Most companies today, particularly the front-
                               •       Release these experts from excessive short-term          runners in the innovation race, are solving the problem—at
                                                                                                least in part—by relying on external experts.

                                                                                                                                                                                    © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                       pressure.

                               Needless to say that the company should maintain a real-         –––––
                               time mapping of its internal experts.                            Source: Innovation Intelligence, A. Meige & J. Schmitt, absans publishing (2015).

                                                                                                                                                                            26
CONCLUSION: MODERN EXPERTS
HAVE A CHIPMUNK MINDSET
A NEW ERA FOR                              MODERN EXPERTS                              RECOMMENDATIONS                           LEVERAGE EXTERNAL
INNOVATION                                 ARE CHIPMUNKS                               FOR COMPANIES                             EXPERTISE
The present era retains the legacies of    We have seen that various species of        Experts in a company can have a strong    Meta-expertise is of course an attribute
open innovation and entrepreneurship       experts co-exist: silo diggers who          impact at three        distinct levels:   of chipmunk type experts. Once your
that were so central to the early 2010s.   master a very narrow and deep field of      intelligence,      strategy        and    organization starts to cultivate the
But it combines these approaches with      knowledge and chipmunks who cover a         implementation. To maximize their         chipmunk mindset, it is ready to
a strong drive to advance technological    wider and more diversified field of         impact, the company should make sure      leverage external expertise of any kind.
innovation      within    a     business   knowledge. Ultimate modern experts          to:                                       Tap into the deeply specialized
environment that is more and more          (especially     for   innovation)    are                                              knowledge of silo diggers, or expand
                                                                                       1.   Ask for confirmed knowledge;
complex. Companies are increasing          polymaths (cross breeds between silo                                                  your big picture vision and networks
                                                                                       2.   Ask for anticipation;
their investments in scientific and        diggers and chipmunks). Polymaths are                                                 with chipmunks. By using the services
                                                                                       3.   Open yourself to chipmunks and
technological knowledge to create          generally also experts in expertise, i.e.                                             of an intermediary with robust
                                                                                            leverage external experts.
unassailable competitive positions and     meta-experts. At Presans, we call them                                                processes, such as Presans, you
                                                                                       Your company may also want to asses
are adopting more and more a systemic      Fellows. Modern experts share 3                                                       combine the advantages of speed and
                                                                                       in-house expertise leveraging the
approach.                                  essential skills: abstracting, screening                                              risk management with the added
                                                                                       essential skills we have described and
                                           and connecting.                                                                       benefit of confidentiality. Openness
                                                                                       use them as a framework or as a
                                                                                                                                 and secrecy can very well be used
                                                                                       barometer.
                                                                                                                                 together.

                                                                                                                                                                            © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                                                                                                                      27
ABOUT THE
 AUTHOR

            ALBERT MEIGE, PhD
            Albert Meige has been an entrepreneur since his teenage years, when he began by
            selling magic! He currently is the founder and CEO of Presans and an Academic
            Director at HEC Paris. Trained as a Telecom Engineer, he holds an MBA from HEC
            Paris Business School and a PhD in Physics from the Australian National University. In
            2008, the École Polytechnique awarded him its Innovation Prize. He has authored
            multiple works on innovation and digitization, over a dozen peer-reviewed academic
            publications, two patents, as well as the “Formation de l’Esprit Entrepreneur“ report
            for the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (2018). Albert
            is an ultra-trail runner and a seasoned photographer. He can solve the Rubik's Cube
            in less than fifty seconds and loves underground urban exploration…

                                                                                                                        © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                          PRODUCTION
            authors: Albert Meige – photographers: Albert Meige and CC0 – bullet proof readers: Jacques Knight,
              Kristine Martirosyan, Pascaline Le Berre, Hervé Arribart and Bernard Favre – acknowledgements: our
                         beloved clients and Fellows we interviewed to prepare the present whitepaper              28
TOWARDS                         Founded in 2010, Presans is the number one on-demand

      OPEN
                                         consulting platform in France for industrial open
                                        innovation. We inject scientific and technological
                                      expertise into innovation projects for global industrial
                                              clients, via six main service use cases:
                                                      Open Problem Solving
      ORGANIZATIONS                               Strategic Innovation Guidance
                                                       Open State of the Art
           Presans' vision is to                     Talent & Partner Sourcing
              accelerate the                              Synergy Factory                                   For more information, be sure to
            transformation of                       Lateral Expertise Approach                                     visit our website at
        companies worldwide into                                                                                      presans.com
         Open Organizations that       To do so, Presans uses both its proprietary big data                       and to visit our blog
          leverage on-demand          technology to map expertise worldwide, a network of                       open-organization.com
            teams of talents.        over 6 millions experts and its team of Fellows (industrial
                                                       innovation veterans).

                                                                                                                                                    © Presans 2010 – 2020
                                                                    PRESANS
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRESANS 2020      contact@presans.com • www.presans.com • www.open-organization.com                                      29
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