Aligning Circular Economy & Stage-Gate Innovation
A Workshop for Researchers & Practitioners Most organizations manage innovation through a StageGate process designed to reduce risk and improve decision quality. At the same time, the shift toward a Circular Economy requires fundamentally different design choices - many of which must be made very early in the innovation process. The two logics are often misaligned. Circular opportunities are frequently assessed too late, evaluated with the wrong criteria, or deprioritized in favor of shortterm cost and predictability. The result is lost value, late rework, or circularity becoming an "add-on" rather than a driver of innovation.
This workshop demonstrates how to better align Circular Economy and Stage-Gate through making better decisions earlier, using the right evidence at each gate, and ensuring circularity is embedded as a core part of innovation governance.
Key questions for managers:
• Where do Circular Economy principles create the most value across our current Stage-Gate process? • What Circular Economy criteria should inform gate decisions - and how early? • How must governance, incentives, and decision rules evolve to enable circular innovation?
Facilitator: Prof. Dr. Cornelius Herstatt of Leuphana University (Lueneburg, Germany) and The University of Auckland.
