Theoretical cosmologist professor Stephen Hawking says if organisations want to drive change, aspects of university culture need to be embraced.
He was the keynote speaker at the opening of the Mastercard Innovation Forum taking place in Budapest, Hungary this week.
Hawking was asked how companies can create a culture of innovation.
He said during a live-stream: "I have noticed a trend for large companies to behave more like universities, instead of requiring their staff to behave in traditionally corporate ways.
"Some enlightened employers are now encouraging their workers to adopt the kind of practices which have long been common in academic circles ? with campus-style offices, onsite libraries, dedicated thought areas and a greater emphasis on individuality and creativity.
"I think these companies will encourage innovation because they are freeing individuals from deadening routine and prescribed attitudes."
Hawking said he would encourage any company interested in innovation to adopt these models and "see the results flourish".
The professor defined innovation as creating something new and extraordinary by refusing to accept limitations to thought and invention.
"It takes a certain type of courage to pursue ideas which others might call absurd, which seems deeply counter-intuitive to what people refer to as common sense, or go against a prevailing wisdom of the time.
"Some of the greatest innovations of humanity have come from a stubborn insistence on reimagining and re-examining concepts of texts of ideas that other people take for granted."
It takes a certain type of courage to pursue ideas which others might call absurd.
Stephen Hawking
He gave the example of NicolausCopernicus, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun in the middle and not the Earth.
"His work triggered a scientific revolution, changing as it did, all the fundamental assumptions that people on earth had about their place in the universe."
He said to innovate is to reject boundaries to human endeavour.
"Instead of saying it can't be done, innovators seek ways in which the impossible can be achieved and then they make it happen."
Hawking said while innovation is one of humanity's most important and creative talents, it should be used wisely.
"Innovations must show that they benefit humanity rather than damage it. We must not fall into the trap of celebrating progress merely for the sake of novelty."
Hawking was asked what innovation he would like to see in his lifetime: "On a practical side, nuclear fusion to provide an inexhaustible supply of clean energy. On the theoretical side, I want to understand quantum gravity and why the universe is the way it is; could it be different?"
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