Learning across industries: how firms share innovation practices and knowledge - 21 Apr 2026

Industry event | Learning across industries: how firms share innovation practices and knowledge - 21 Apr 2026

This event offered a practice-oriented forum for executives, practitioners, and faculty interested in how organizations learn from outside their own industry. Through a combination of research-based framing, practitioner-led discussion, and an interactive workshop, participants explored what makes cross-industry learning effective, scalable, and worth the investment. The session was designed to move beyond inspiration toward actionable insight that participants can take back to their organizations.

Many firms face constant pressure to innovate, adapt, and reinvent their ways of working in order to remain competitive, and in some cases, to survive. To meet these demands, managers increasingly look beyond their own organizations and industries for new ideas, practices, and ways of thinking. As a result, cross-industry learning is becoming a strategic imperative rather than a choice. In practice, however, such learning is rarely straightforward. Leaders often struggle to determine what is actually transferable, how learning can be organized across very different contexts, and how external inspiration can be translated into tangible business value rather than isolated experiments.

By bringing together research insights and practitioner experiences, this session equipped participants with a clearer understanding of how cross-industry learning can be translated into meaningful practice. Participants left better able to articulate what current research tells us about learning across industries and where gaps remain between theory and managerial application. They also reflected on how such learning unfolds in real organizational settings, drawing on practitioner insights and workshop discussions to assess their own initiatives more critically. Finally, participants developed a more informed view of when and how external ideas and practices may support innovation, while becoming more aware of the organizational conditions and common pitfalls that determine whether these efforts create value.

The event was structured in three consecutive steps:

We began with a concise and accessible overview of what current research tells us about Learning Across Industries, offering a shared point of departure without academic jargon or abstract theory.

This research perspective was complemented by a panel discussion with senior practitioners from different industries—estate and construction, video games, and pharmaceuticals—who reflected on their personal journeys and concrete experiences with organizational and cross-industry learning.

During the final part, participants actively connected research insights and practitioner experiences with their own challenges, collectively creating a take-home best-practices cheat sheet.