Walter Wilhelm

Biography

Walter Wilhelm currently holds the position of Vice President of Business Process at Black Diamond, Inc. With over 15 years of experience in apparel retail, and technology sales, installation & support, Walter has owned and operated two of his own retail operations in Utah and has had senior sales and key account responsibilities in two major technology companies: Animated Images (Ai) and Freeboarders. Walter has very strong expertise in business development & technology implementation and senior project management. Former positions include: Director of Sales at Freeboarders; Regional Sales Manager of Animated Images; Owner/Founder of Bike Line SLC and Owner/Co-Founder of Active Sports Recycling. Though Walter accepted his current position at Black Diamond, Inc in 2012, he continues as a strategic and marketing advisor to WWA also.

Presenting: Interactive Panel Discussion: Innovation 2.0

17 Jul 2013, 03:35

Where to Source Innovation, How to Harness Creativity and What Systems to Use to Support it's Incorporation into Development and Growth?

• Identifying opportunities to catalyse innovation across supply chains - where are the most important areas to focus attention to leverage business results through innovation?
• How is the supply chain evolving rapidly and how is technology helping that evolution?
• How does co-creation work in fashion?
• Directing diversity of investment to support innovation
• Linking employee engagement and creativity with innovation opportunities
• Overcoming the challenge of incorporating sustainability into the supply chain
• "Idea Factories": Truly inspirational, innovative products sometimes take years to develop and out of the gate cannot be assigned to a season, however, there has to be a method for tracking the idea and eventually moving it into a product pipeline.  Good use of PLM systems that have a means of capturing  inspiration, and conceptual ideas that are in their inception without a season, are key.  
• Apps: mobile apps that tie directly into a PLM system permit users to capture inspirational moments, ideas, or even product feedback.  Apps can take the whole sandbox idea to the next level.
• What is the balance/tradeoff between guidance and freedom in an open innovation process?
• What digital tools work in a distributed innovation process?