Key ideas

This page provides a primer on how we approach innovation, key ideas, and concepts we've been working on and with since 2007. If you're unfamiliar with who we are and how we operate, this is a good place to start.

Photo by Justin Veenema / Unsplash

6 Key ideas to begin with

Risk - Risk is not a bad word. Innovation doesn't mitigate business risk; it's fueled by it.
Predictions - Predictions don't work, but they are needed. Only not as you'd expect.
No method - The innovation field is not a smooth continuum, and no single method can help you navigate it.
No pipeline - Although it's a pervasive mindset, innovation doesn't fit in a pipeline.
Puzzles and Mysteries - Innovation is not a zero-sum game or a puzzle you can crack by being smart about or foreseeing what to do better than competitors.

The counterintuitive reality of innovation

Customers - Typically, customers are unaware of their needs, which explains why most customer-driven discovery methods fail.
Culture - Corporate culture vastly dictates how your innovation strategy should be shaped, yet it's rarely addressed–if ever.
Unpredictable markets – They are proper innovation tools for when markets become unpredictable; however, they are often forgotten between crises.
Portfolio - At the core of any effective global innovation strategy, there's a portfolio approach.
Explore/Exploit – It doesn't work (sorry).

Challenging market reality

AI - The core issue of Artificial Intelligence is rarely framed and properly considered: its lack of reliability.
Kodak - No, Kodak is not the poster child of inventing and yet completely missing out on the next big wave of innovation.
Luxury - There's a misconception that technology and luxury do not blend well.
Defense - The defense market has always been rumoured as the slowest to innovate, with decades and billions of dollars invested to get anywhere. Not anymore.
Metaverse - In 2022, I was deconstructing the metaverse hype. Now that everyone has caught up, you can still use this template to understand any current tech trend sold as the future of <insert your market>.

No nonsense tools...

Technology - Understanding how technology transitions from R&D to market dominance is anything but straightforward; here's how to approach it.
Business models - The way business models are explained is too generic for innovators; mostly, we need to focus on connecting a customer problem to value creation.
Culture framework - Our straightforward framework to lay out and understand your corporate culture.
4 Problems - Innovators can only solve four problems, but they require vastly different mindsets and teams.
Startup - How to run a startup, a quick and dirty guide.
Pitch - Pitching for innovators is way more strategic than having a good deck of slides.

Beyond this, the main topics we're currently addressing weekly are:

AI - Disruptions - Strategy - Culture - Technology - Tools - Weak signals

Not to forget our...

Hot takes

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And Lastly?

Books - Most innovation books do not work in the field.