Innovation meets opportunity: Universities towards nurturing future innovators

For centuries, universities have been synonymous with knowledge and learning. However, in today's rapidly evolving world, they must go beyond traditional academia and become hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship.

- ANUNAYA CHAUBEY

This transformation is not just an option—it is an imperative. Global markets are transforming at an unprecedented pace, and organizations that fail to innovate can quickly become outdated. A compelling statistic from a UK-based AI competitive intelligence platform highlights that more than half of Fortune 500 companies from 2003 no longer exist. The reasons include failure to innovate, weak strategy, slow adaptability, misaligned marketing, dysfunctional corporate culture, and compromised product or service quality. At the core of these challenges lies the absence of design thinking—a human-centered, problem-solving approach that emphasizes empathy, experimentation, and iteration.

The role of universities in innovation