- IMD Business School
 - IMD Business School
Georges Haour

Professor Emeritus of Technology and Innovation Management

Georges Haour is Professor Emeritus of Technology and Innovation Management. He specializes in management of innovation and technology commercialization. In the UK, he was associated with the Cambridge-based incubator-innovator Generics (now Sagentia) and helped launch the Ipswich-based BT incubator Brightstar. He frequently acts as an adviser to firms/organizations on effective R&D and innovation management as well as technology commercialization for growth and job creation and innovation in China. An in-demand public speaker, he frequently delivers keynotes at conferences.

He regularly travels to China, Japan, and Singapore, and has a special interest in China’s vibrant innovation scene, where the activity on mobile internet compelled him to engage in projects on the digital revolution. One project, 5G Pagoda, includes Japanese companies such as Hitachi, NEC, and KDDI alongside European ones. Another project, Digital Agora, deals with e-health, bridging Switzerland and Shanghai.

Innovation is an all-pervasive notion in our times. What we need is effective and responsible innovations. Furthermore, although technical innovation is indeed a powerful enabler in creating value, we desperately need non-technical, conceptual innovations in order to implement systemic change in dealing with the substantial issues faced by the world.

Born and raised in Lyon, France, Haour graduated from Paris’ higher engineering school ENSCP-Paristech. He has a Master of Sciences (New York) and a PhD in chemistry and materials science from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Prior to joining IMD, he spent nine years leading a business unit in Battelle, Geneva, carrying out innovation projects funded by multinational companies, many of which were in Asia. He hired professionals from six countries and significantly grew his unit’s sales above €4 million per year. Several of his eight patents, licensed to firms, resulted in new business for the client companies.

Earlier, he was a researcher at ATT’s Bell Laboratories, in Murray Hill, New Jersey. In Toronto, he worked with Marshall McLuhan – known for phrases such as “the Gutenberg galaxy”, “understanding media”, and “the global village” – at his Centre for Culture and Technology.

Author of more than 100 publications, Haour has written several books on creating new activities and jobs through effective innovation, including Resolving the Innovation Paradox: Enhancing Growth in Technology Companies (2004), and From Science to Business: How Firms Create Value by Partnering with Universities (2011) which focuses on the difficult process of effectively transferring knowledge and technology to firms.

His book Created in China: How China is Becoming a Global Innovator (2016) argues that China, the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, is diligently shifting to higher value activities. Documenting this momentous transition, the book concludes that, barring major mishaps, China will be one of the world’s major sources of innovations within 10 years or so, particularly in the area of the digital internet, where it is already a leader. The Chinese version of the book was published in 2017.

In 1989, Haour founded the annual International Forum for Technology Management (IFRM), which is held in cities such as Paris, Istanbul, Kyoto, and Shanghai (at Tongji University). For years, he was on the jury of the Innovation Award of The Economist. In Basel, in 2006, with Dr. Fritz Bühler, formerly with Roche, he founded the ECLE executive course for managers from the healthcare sector. He is on the board of several organizations, including three startups and an investment fund.

Academic publications
Insight for Executives
Article
La révolution digitale: un cheval emballé?

The digital surf transforms all sectors of activity and our lifestyles. For this global industry, we need robust and efficient regulation, with the example of what Europe is doing.

Digital Technology Management
10 October 2018
Article
La Chine nous promet un rythme d'innovation haletant

Les particularités de l'innovation en Chine fournissent des repères sur le cheminement de ce pays pour devenir un innovateur global.

Strategy China
9 February 2016
Article
Helvétie, de grâce, garde ton bon sens!

Les manifestations pro-UE en Ukraine me renforcent un peu dans ma conviction que l'Europe a tous les atouts pour être la région du monde la plus attirante, bien kieux que l'Amériquedu Nord. Pourquo...

10 December 2013
Article
Innovation: Le transfert de puissance vers l'Asie

La crise économique la plus brutale et la plus universelle de l’histoire a été déclenchée par le scandale des «subprime» de Wall Street à l’automne 2008. Alors que les bonus des «greed merchants» r...

Strategy
21 January 2011
Article
Neue Finanzierungsquelle für KMU dank Web 2.0

Das Internet begünstigt Finanzierungsvorhaben von Projekten durch die breite Masse. Das sogenannte Crowd Financing fordert durch eine höhere Rendite und Effizienz die Banken in ihrer klassischen Ro...

Finance Digital Technology Management
21 January 2011
Article
Tapping creative powers of colleges, labs

We seem to have a lot of crises on our hands at the moment: the economy, food, energy, health and, in OECD countries, an aging population. ¦On the whole, the world is muddling through the transform...

Emerging Market Strategy
23 November 2010
Article
Le défi de la Chine est celui de l'innovation

L'ubuesque tsunami déclanché par Wall Street constitue un événement aussi historique que la chute du mur de Berlin, il y a presque vingt ans. Devant ce délirant spectacle, un pays sourit: la Chine,...

Strategy China
21 October 2008
Article
Infosys: La foudroyante croissance profitable d'une entreprise globale

Technology Management Growth
13 June 2007
Article
Réformes des pays et innovation: L'Empire du Soleil-Levant met le turbo!

L'ampleur de ses investissements en recherche et développement (R & D) met le Japon en tête des pays industrialisés: chaque année, le Japon investit 3,2% de son PIB - produit intérieur brut - dans ...

Strategy Competitiveness
15 November 2006
Article
Perdons-nous pied aussi dans l'économie de la connaissance?

Dans l'innovation technologique, étant donné la désaffection de nos jeunes pour les sciences, le fait que les prochaines "trente glorieuses" seront en Asie, les investissements en R&D des multinati...

Competitiveness Technology Management Strategy
25 September 2006
Article
Comment créer de la valeur par la recherche-développement

Les entreprises technologiques ont compris la nécessité de mener des projects multifonctionnels impliquant ingénieurs, spécialistes du marketing, des achats ou de la production. Elles doivent aussi...

Competitiveness Strategy
1 June 2006
Article
L'esprit d'entreprise a cruellement besoin d'un leadership politique en Suisse

Geopolitics Leadership
5 October 2005
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