Infy Talk: Learning From the European Business Award’s Best & Brightest by Adrian Tripp



by Adrian Tripp, CEO European Business Awards

To outsiders, a classic European company may conjure up images of rows of craftsmen meticulously assembling wristwatches, or a burly chocolatier busily whipping up another batch. These are enduring images: European companies are known throughout the world for their well-loved, high quality products. But are these companies models of cutting-edge innovation?

The answer, is a resounding yes. One of the reasons the European Business Awards was set up was to shine a well-deserved spotlight on how the best companies in Europe are part of the backbone of global innovation. In fact, Europe’s corporations actually sustain centuries of tradition and knowledge through adaptable and forward-looking strategies.

It is this fascinating combination of tradition and inventiveness that makes the typical European company a force to be reckoned with on the global stage. The European market has some amazing innovation success stories, and these stories must be told. This is is why I’m excited about our research work with Infosys. The collaboration has shown that the common thread running through many of Europe’s most successful enterprises is innovation.

In our work together to gauge the elements of business success emerging from five years of economic hardship, the No. 1 ingredient was the ability to be open to new ideas and paradigms. In many of the largest of Europe’s most successful companies, executive boards act as though they are small start-ups, questioning strategy at every turn and coming to rely on the newest technology as a means of disrupting their markets.

Think of the way European corporations view technology against the backdrop of efficiency. There used to be a commonly held view that you could have one or the other, but now we’re well aware of how technology and the parsing of Big Data makes organizations more efficient by focusing their strategy and cutting excess spending.

There was also the recent announcement that pharmaceutical companies large and small would begin collaborating on coming up with cures for an agreed upon set of diseases. This would have been unthinkable even a few years ago – arch rivals pooling research and talent in order to find solutions for all humanity. But Big Pharma was essentially inspired by what they saw in another competitive industry: software. It is software that has helped encourage innovation and collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry and we expect to see other industries follow suit.

So we see that technology has become the enabler within an effective organization. Enterprises are now embracing it – and more importantly – using it to their advantage; both from within their own businesses or with a third party vendor. Now that technology investment has become quantifiable, a return on investment can be demonstrated and stakeholders are more easily getting onboard for the innovation journey.


It is good story to tell. The ability to embrace innovative change is what keeps European leaders at the top of their game.

The European Business Awards has long championed the best and brightest in one of the world’s most diverse and competitive markets. And now we’re drilling down further to showcase the shared traits of the technology trailblazers – the companies that will set the standard for the decades to come.



Management teams across Europe know that by committing to an integrated innovation program, a company can master its current market and define new and exciting ones as well. The one constant that we see among the winning companies of the European Business Awards is change.