Crain’s Most Innovative Companies – Patent Powerhouses Breakfast
This morning Ocean Tomo CEO Jim Malackowski and I attended Crain’s Most Innovative Companies Patent Powerhouses Breakfast where editor Michael Arndt revealed our ranking of the most innovative local companies. Since 2012 Ocean Tomo has partnered with Crain’s to recognize innovation in Chicago as revealed through patent data.
Over breakfast we had the opportunity to catch up with friends from Brinks Gilson & Lione, presenting sponsor of the event, including Gus Siller, president of the firm, and many of the Crain’s Most Innovative Companies.
Gus moderated a panel discussion among three very different Crain’s Most Innovative companies: an artificial-intelligence powered data science company, a drug discovery company and a legacy sporting goods company. Nick Beil, Chief Operating Officer of Narrative Science, Ashish Khanna, CFO and Chief Business Officer of Aptinyx and Bob Thurman, VP Innovation for Wilson Sporting Goods shared more commonality than differences as they each described their companies’ innovative process. All three shared the belief that collaboration between groups – consumer facing team members, external partners and the traditional R&D team drives exceptional innovative performance.
It is our sincere pleasure to work with John Pletz and his team at Crain’s to produce this revealing look inside innovation here in Chicago.