Wellesley, Mass… Babson Executive Education announces the Center for Business Innovation and appoints industry veteran and Delphi Group founder Thomas Koulopoulos as Executive Director.
According to Susan Foley, Executive Director, Research Centers at Babson Executive Education, “We are excited to have an industry veteran of Tom’s caliber take on the role of leading the Center. He is an innovative thinker and brings a wealth of experience acquired through his association and collaboration with major international organizations and governments over the past twenty years. Under Tom’s leadership the Center for Business Innovation will deliver world class thought leadership, research, events, and best practices to help organizations focusing on the growing interest in innovation as a core competitive differentiator.”
Koulopoulos describes the Center as, “A center of gravity for organizations that are serious about building their ability to innovate in today’s global markets. Innovation must happen in every part of an organization, but for too long we have focused on engineering and science. It’s time to look at how innovation impacts business.” According to Koulopoulos, “The greatest increases in productivity and economic growth will come from a greater discipline and understanding of innovation. Members of the Center are companies who are leading the charge and are at the heart of that critical shift.”
The Center for Business Innovation has already embarked on an aggressive schedule of case studies that illustrate leading edge best practices in innovation and is planning a summit on innovation leadership at the Babson College Executive Conference Center this November. The Center’s mission is to advance the practice of business innovation among organizations that are already investing in leading edge approaches, tools, and methods.
About the Center for Business Innovation: Located at Babson College Executive Education, the Center for Business Innovation conducts ground-breaking research on innovation practices and trends for corporate members. Current members of the center include Air Products, Bank of America, Herman Miller, NASA, and Schneider Associates.
About Thomas Koulopoulos: Koulopoulos is the founder and president of Delphi Group, a widely respected advisory services firm which he grew to be an INC 500 global player with offices on five continents and a client base of 20,000. Delphi Group focused on consulting, advisory services, research and market analysis, and education across a variety of industries. Koulopoulos sold Delphi Group to Perot Systems in 2003. At Perot he established the Innovation Lab of Perot Systems in the US and India, which was one of the first innovation labs of its kinds in the service industry.
Koulopoulos has written seven books on business, economic and technology strategy and has been a consultant and advisor to hundreds of global organizations, government agencies and corporate leaders. He has been praised by such management icons as Peter Drucker, who said of Tom’s work, “It not only makes you question the way you run your business but also the way you run yourself.” Koulopoulos’ most recent book, Smartsourcing: How to Drive Innovation, Jobs, and Growth in the Age of Globalization looks at the core drivers and broad implications of outsourcing and globalization.
Koulopoulos has been an adjunct professor at the Boston College Wallace E. Carroll Graduate School of Management and a guest lecturer and advisor at the Boston University Graduate School and an advisor to the Bentley College McCallum Graduate School.
