Radical and outstanding innovations was the focus of the 7th National Meeting of Innovation Directors hold in Paris last June. Thematic panels were a rare opportunity to discover a broad diversity of brilliant creative initiatives.

Writing in December about past lessons on innovation for the post-crisis rebound, I relayed Marc Giget’s view that crisis have proven to be a fertile ground for innovation as long as it is frugal. Cost-efficient products, whether in terms of acquisition cost or running costs or both, are the typical winners that lead the way out of the crisis.