Innovation Copilots (Page 3)

Innovation Copilots

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🦊 The value of (clever) expedient for innovators

🦊 The value of (clever) expedient for innovators

Many (many) years ago, I learned that most branches of Hinduism, and later Buddhism, were using precise tools to teach concepts or notions that essentially cannot be explained. There are called upāya kauśalya (उपाय कौशल्य) in Sanskrit or fāngbiàn (方便) in Chinese. It translates as skillful means

🧐 Gauging a market innovation dynamism

🧐 Gauging a market innovation dynamism

A recent article from Horace Dediu (analyst extraordinaire) caught my eye recently. It crunched the numbers on what is the enterprise value of automotive companies worldwide in terms of 25 new entrants (<20 years old) and 31 incumbents, as reported by the OICA (International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers). The enterprise value is an interesting indicator as it is the company's market capitalization minus cash plus debt. As a sector that relies heavily on debt financing, it's a bet

🐰 Patagonia and the mythology of doing good

🐰 Patagonia and the mythology of doing good

I dutifully avoided the subject a few weeks ago when everyone was head over heels as Patagonia's founder, Yvon Chouinard, announced he would "give away" his company to fight the climate crisis. Yvon Chouinard Donates Patagonia to Fight Climate CrisisEarth is now our only shareholder. Patagonia is giving away all

💎 About Twitter's blue mark...

💎 About Twitter's blue mark...

If you're trying to make sense of how much Twitter should cost, it's rapidly obvious that a flat $8 fee doesn't make sense as it doesn't bring enough money, but most importantly, it's not tied to a clear value proposition. Efficient pricing should be linked to the value you transfer

🫥 EU automakers are officially giving up on tech

🫥 EU automakers are officially giving up on tech

Google’s Android Automotive is now the official software layer of Renault vehicles. This is not an overnight breakthrough but was actually quite long in the making. But we are now there. We want to make the car an intelligent object that learns and one that can be upgraded over

😱 Nobody knew content moderation was so complicated?

😱 Nobody knew content moderation was so complicated?

Today I wanted to share an amusingly refreshing take on content moderation on the web. Something that we all have been confronted with, we understand as a hot mess, and we still probably think it's not that complicated. Imagine now you're the richest person in the world and on a

😵 Big Tech is not dying, ad-supported platforms are

😵 Big Tech is not dying, ad-supported platforms are

Well, you probably read quite a few alarming news about how Big Tech is hit hard by inflation. No surprise, as you have to remember, so much of U.S. Big Tech is plain consumer businesses massively scaled by digital network effects, and as such, its Achille's heel is inflation.

⚡️ What is leapfrog innovation and why you should care

⚡️ What is leapfrog innovation and why you should care

Leapfrog innovation is at the center of our practice; I thought it'd be nice to explain why. To my knowledge, the term leapfrogging was first coined in 1983 in an article in the European Economic Review called Preemption, Leapfrogging, and Competition in Patent Races and later reused by economist extraordinaire

💶 Pareto on pricing

💶 Pareto on pricing

Vilfredo Federico Damaso PARETO (1848 - 1923) was probably one of the last humanists. With a life bridging the XIXth and the XXth century, he contributed to a vast array of fields ranging from engineering to philosophy, sociology, and, of course, economics. If he's well-known for discussing power law distributions

💎 China is officially reinventing luxury on its own terms

💎 China is officially reinventing luxury on its own terms

As an echo of last February's article on cracking the luxury market in China and other signals indicating that China was starting to get branding right, we now have many little big bangs confirming European brands are officially in trouble. While selling Western taste and glamour for decades was an

🐭 Disney is now thinking as a tech platform

🐭 Disney is now thinking as a tech platform

Launched 2 years ago, Disney+ 152 million subscribers are now creeping up on Netflix's 223 subscribers. And while it would an endless debate to compare both streaming services' features, catalog content, brand value, or pricing, let's say that from now on, the future of Netflix is anything but guaranteed. Not

⚡️ Meta is not shedding value because their metaverse sucks

/ Business models and Strategy

⚡️ Meta is not shedding value because their metaverse sucks

Startups are all about one big, hyper-focused core bet on the future. The lack of resources and time when you're starting a tech venture from scratch means you can only have this one bet. It works, or you crash. For multinationals? The innovation logic is vastly different. It's all about

👋 It's time we stop trusting that startups can disrupt multinationals

👋 It's time we stop trusting that startups can disrupt multinationals

When I pause and look back at these last decade of startups vs. big corp debate, something starts to bug me more and more. We are at a point where we collectively underestimate the extent to which large groups are the only ones in a real position to trigger disruptive

🍑 How sex changed the internet...

🍑 How sex changed the internet...

I wrote about sex and the creator economy only a few days ago, and I wanted to go back today to a promising book about this topic. On November 15, Samantha Cole (senior editor for Motherboard) will be released a collection of stories from the billboard age to the current

😴 Most startups are wholefully unaware we're in a 2008 moment

😴 Most startups are wholefully unaware we're in a 2008 moment

I have recently realized that most startups are still in innovation-as-usual mode. Day in, and day out, they keep on trucking with technology, apps, business services, consumer platforms, and new business models as if it was 2018. That's cute. How many of them are aware we've entered an irreversible 2008

🐥 About Twitter being a superapp...

🐥 About Twitter being a superapp...

With all Elon Musk's circus around buying Twitter like you and I would do grocery shopping, a little music about Twitter's potential as a superapp has started playing. I'll try to explain why it's probably a dumb proposition. What's a superapp? Essentially, it's WeChat or Alipay. Apps that centralize social,

📦 So, we now have an office

📦 So, we now have an office

I've been gently teasing the news for a few weeks now, but I guess it's time to make it official now: yes, we have an office. Sign o'the times First off, this is a weird transition for Stéphanie and me. Since 2008 we have had little use of an office

😱 First they ignore the Chinese EV, then they laugh at it, then they say it's unfair...

😱 First they ignore the Chinese EV, then they laugh at it, then they say it's unfair...

The Paris Motor Show is in full swing, and for the first years, Chinese automakers such as BYD are front and central. The full capabilities of China as a technology leader are now on full display, and incumbents in the West are starting to feel queasy. It's disturbing, I root

🎯 Obsidian, a perfect 'magic spot' case study

/ Tools and Frameworks

🎯 Obsidian, a perfect 'magic spot' case study

Pitching innovation is hard. It gets harder when you don't have a clear business model to explain. If you do, though, things get straightforward as you just have to explain what is your added value and core offer. Take Obsidian, for instance. Just another note-taking app in a market where

🍆 Sex and the creator economy

🍆 Sex and the creator economy

A basic rule of the internet is that sex is embedded in its social nature. Online sex sells more than combined education, investigation, science, technology, or market analysis. The foundational issue of the creator economy is that most creators aren’t great at what they do. It’s a power