Introduction and Welcome

Dear KIN Colleagues,

Welcome to Kellogg, and welcome to the KIN.

While all KIN events are unique, the present confab sets a new standard for quality and impact. We could not have moved our program forward so effectively without the intensified commitment of Dean Dipak Jain and our KIN Senior Fellow and friend, Betsy Holden. Betsy has motivated a stellar CEO Panel, as well as elevated the KIN’s profile throughout Kellogg.

This evening, we will join Dean Dipak Jain’s Dean’s Advisory Board (DAB) to highlight the KIN program and consider how the KIN helps Kellogg position itself as the leading educational and research institution in the realm of innovation management and strategy.

This KIN Dialogue, Leadership, Innovation & the Global Firm, explores the role of leadership in making innovation happen, and what ‘leadership’ means at all levels of the corporation and throughout the ecosystem. We invite you to be part of helping define and examine this emerging area. We will put you to work, but we will all gain in the process.

Many thanks to our top-flight CEO Panel, and our keynoters, Dr. (Daru) Darukhanavala and Brian Ralphs of BP. Please also join me in thanking Geoffrey Fushi and Mary Galvin, co-founders of the Stradivarius Society, and Caroline Goulding, a truly special talent, for sharing their music and inspiration with the KIN and DAB. On a fundamental level, great leadership, innovation and the arts all begin with inspiration.

Much remains to be accomplished. Together, our horizons are broader, our opportunities more numerous. I look forward to productive outcomes and emergent wisdom.

To the Future,

Robert C. Wolcott, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor & Co-Founder
Kellogg Innovation Network