Innovation is a paradox for management. On the one hand you are well aware that you have to take new roads before you reach the end of the present dead end street. On the other hand it is risky. It takes a lot of time. And it takes a lot of resources. Research shows that only one out of seven…
Before being acquired by Facebook for US$1 billion, Instagram was just another photo-sharing app operating with insignificant infrastructure and a dozen employees. With the ever-increasing potential of modern technology, the next billion-dollar business could start from the comfort of someone’s home. To stay on top, established organisations need to stimulate innovation… and that’s our topic today. Most established organisations try…
You can invent on your own, but in an organization you can never innovate alone! You need an awful lot of colleagues and bosses to share your vision before a big change can truly take place. My first innovation job was marketing dried soups for Honig, the leading Dutch brand and market leader in the Netherlands. We sold more than…
Thinking like a designer can transform the way you approach the world when imagining and creating new solutions for the future. It’s about being aware of the world around you, believing that you play a role in shaping that world, and taking action toward a more desirable future. In my new book ‘The Innovation Expedition’ I describe the five characteristics…
Having a process for the front end of innovation is necessary but not sufficient. It also requires proper levels of funding, and a governance structure to support it. In this article, we’ll look at how these aspects tie together, and how your company can support your full innovation lifecycle. As an experienced leader of innovation or a member of an…
By: Gijs van Wulfen Last week an innovation team of G+J Publishers in Amsterdam generated 752 new business ideas in 4 hours. How did they do it? Five reasons caused the explosion of ideas during their ideation workshop. They have a real need for innovation. Print is going down and digital is going up. There’s a real need to innovate,…
By: Gijs van Wulfen In every organization you have anti-innovators. They are stuck in their habits; are ignorant the world is changing fast and think that they have nothing to fear. Actually, they are quite human. We all love our habits. Gijs van Wulfen explains how to get them motivated. There are often quite a few anti-innovators. Everybody knows this…
By: Gijs van Wulfen Innovation is essential. But it is difficult and risky. Inspired by great explorers like Columbus, Magellan, Amundsen, Hillary and Armstrong a method for ideating new concepts was developed, designed as an expedition. The life cycle of products decreased by factor 4 the last fifty years. Innovation is essential. But it is difficult, risky and it demands…
By: Rob Hoehn If you’re working in innovation there’s nothing as rewarding as making the long journey from inspiration to implementation. We love seeing the pictures of our customers alongside the aisle end cap that showcases their new product or sharing an award that an innovator received for their great suggestion… but that generally means that an innovation team is…
By: Mathieu Mottrie Kittens are ‘fuzzy’ because they’re soft and fluffy. But if someone uses the same word to describe the early stages – or ‘front-end’ – of an innovation process, the meaning is less cute. In that case, ‘fuzzy’ means ‘blurry’, ‘unclear’ or even ‘incoherent’. In many cases, innovation projects start off as chaotic and seemingly aimless ventures. In…
