Stephen Hoover is CEO of PARC, a Xerox company, which is in “the business of breakthroughs.” He joined PARC in 2011. Practicing open innovation since being incorporated in 2002, PARC today provides custom R&D services, technology, expertise, best practices, and IP to Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, startups, and government. Stephen oversees PARC’s work in diverse areas including networking, novel electronics, cleantech, innovation services, contextual intelligence, and much more. With a track record that combines business leadership, research, and engineering⎯from fundamental R&D to commercial scale-up⎯Stephen specializes in bridging functional silos and establishing strong cultures of innovation. Previously, he was vice president of a Xerox organization that supported multi-million dollar investments in core and next-generation R&D. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, B.S. from Cornell University, and 1 of 10 national fellowships at AT&T Bell Labs. He has 7 patents.
computers
What We’ve Learned at PARC About the Business of Innovation
The business of open innovation is something PARC has been continually refining since we incorporated in 2002. Mastering the process of innovation is about far more than developing new technology; it requires a deep understanding of human behavior and context, and the ability to invent new business models to take the resulting products and services to market. We've found common themes. Three of them illustrate how we’ve been innovating at PARC over the past decade.
3D
Why Making Things Still Matters
Innovation and the desire for innovation are nationally and globally pervasive. But by any measure of geographic or economic density, most of us still see Silicon Valley as the leader and lodestar of innovation. It’s interesting to take a moment and reflect on the very name Silicon Valley. It is, after all, named after a chemical element and a technology for making things. At its roots, Silicon Valley was about making transistors, integrated circuits and chips, and, of course, the application of these for computing and software.
3D
How the U.S. Can Reinvent Manufacturing
‘Manufacturing 2.0’ is a radical shift already underway, and many key elements are taking shape. As technologies and business models evolve, we have an opportunity in the US to create and own the future of manufacturing. That means the opportunity for a resurgence of US manufacturing, creating big changes in the economy and revitalizing US cities across the country.
3D
Digitized Decision Making and the Hidden Second Economy
There’s something big happening right now. I’m not referring to any of the popular technology memes per se—big data, social, cloud, mobile, augmented reality, context, post-PC devices, consumerization, 3D printing, etc. I’m referring to something behind, and beyond, all of these technologies: the digitization of decision making.
