ESADE joins with 11 companies to form InnovaRH

ESADE and eleven Spanish companies have set up InnovaRH, the first think tank designed to carry out research and foster innovative approaches to managing talent for companies. The project was launched by the world-renowned chef Ferran Adrià, who told business leaders gathered at ESADE for the event that, “European companies are afraid of failure, and the main challenge for innovation now is to overcome this fear.”

InnovaRH is a world-pioneering think tank, which will give Spanish firms access to innovative ideas that will enable them to stay at the forefront of human resources thinking and to get maximum returns from the talent of their employees.

The initiative is led by ESADE, Siemens and the asset consultants Villafañe & Asociados, with the CEOs of Caja Navarra, DKV, Vodafone, Microsoft, MRV, Once, 3M, Novartis, Nestlé and Puig completing the line-up.

Ferran Adrià will collaborate with the project, sharing his experience of talent management.

Francisco Belil, CEO of Siemens Spain and Chairman of InnovaRH, said, “Talent is the most valuable raw material that exists and we want to help companies and the economy in general uncover it and optimise it.”

ESADE Director General Carlos Losada said, “This project is a marvellous opportunity for Spanish companies, as it adds impetus to the development of talent innovation and, without innovation in talent management, it's impossible to be a groundbreaking company.”

InnovaRH is not intended as a meeting point for the exchange of new practices: instead the companies involved have pledged to develop innovative ideas as a first step to opening them out to the business world as a whole.

For several months now, researchers from ESADE and the InnovaRH companies have been investigating a range of talent sourcing and management techniques under the guidance of Jaime Bonache, Professor of Human Resource Management at ESADE. Bonache said, “We are carrying out a project that is cutting-edge on a global scale. Nothing similar exists in the world and we're convinced that our research findings will help companies become more competitive.”