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How to see markets beyond the curve, from a pure innovation perspective to leverage change and disruptions

🟢 🟧 [ Dutch week ] Technology and the 'doe normaal' mindset

🟢 🟧 [ Dutch week ] Technology and the 'doe normaal' mindset

The 'doe noormal' Dutch mindset has had a lot of impact on the way this culture deals with technology and innovation. In many cases, this can be an interesting point of view for you too...

🛫 Airports are morphing for a pandemic world

🛫 Airports are morphing for a pandemic world

Two years ago, while working with executives from one of the top luxury brands worldwide, we discussed how the world would adapt post-pandemic. The concern was mainly at the time for travel retail which accounts for quite a surprisingly high share of international luxury sales. Without anyone traveling anymore in

😱 Who are your competitors?

😱 Who are your competitors?

Imagine you're the Mars company and your best-seller product is the iconic candy bar with nougat and caramel, coated with milk chocolate. Now answer this question: Who are your most *direct* competitors? Can you list as quickly as possible five or six of them? I give you a minute... 30

💪 And in the end, the network effect wins...

💪 And in the end, the network effect wins...

When we mistakenly think that products and features are center-stage for winning the market over, it's worth remembering what happened to Slack and why network effects are such game-breakers in business. Slack is a SaaS team collaboration software that was launched in 2013 and managed to recruit a million customers

📺 Anticipating network effects in the eighties

📺 Anticipating network effects in the eighties

As much as network effects have been the beating heart of the digital wave that submerged most markets since the early 2000s, in the eighties, they were still very much underappreciated. Michael Dertouzos on NBC’s Today Show, August 8, 1983. pic.twitter.com/EIyNprSjgX — MIT CSAIL (@MIT_CSAIL) August

📞 ROCKR E1, the forgotten iPhone

📞 ROCKR E1, the forgotten iPhone

Another summer video I wanted to dig out from the archives for quite a long time. Remember the first iPhone? No, not the 2007 one but the 2005 Motorola ROCKR E1... If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a seat and enjoy: This is maybe one of the

👩‍🚀 Why Soviet computers failed

👩‍🚀 Why Soviet computers failed

To kick off the week, let me share an 18 min video by Asianometry on why Soviet computers failed (they have an excellent newsletter that I can only recommend too): This is clearly a story of adjacency and feedback loop between science, technology, and innovation. But past the obvious struggle

🚜 What if vertical farming wasn't about food?

🚜 What if vertical farming wasn't about food?

One of the many difficulties to cope with in innovation is how it never really fits in a pipeline. While technology outputs are essentially linear and predictable (they're mostly aiming for increased performances), changing a market is always a bifurcating, twisting, and turning road. A potentially spectacular illustration of this

🟢 Cracking the code for blending technology and luxury together

/ Inspiration Featured

🟢 Cracking the code for blending technology and luxury together

For years I've been consulting and working on how to crack the code for blending technology and digital with luxury. I might just have a fair idea of how to get there now (and no, it's not easy).

✊ 5 Summer reads for innovators

✊ 5 Summer reads for innovators

As every year, last July, I shared a list of five books to boost your innovation mindset. Let's update the list with five new books that you might find interesting if you've been reading us for a while or just started. My mindset when recommending books is what I would

🔋 Tesla is not a car company

🔋 Tesla is not a car company

I've been saying for many years that Tesla is not a car company. The car is admittedly an essential moving piece (pun intended) of their business, but it's only the product. Tesla is first and foremost an energy company monetized with high-end electric cars. Their crucial differentiator with Mercedes or

💊 Dealing with exponential blindness

💊 Dealing with exponential blindness

Following up on last week's article on forecasters, I want to zoom in on the one tricky issue when you go about plotting where the future will be: exponentials. The problem(s) with exponentials Very often, exponentials are a cheap sleight-of-hands used by many forecasters like with AR/VR, blockchain,

👻 Every forecaster lives at the expense of the listener

👻 Every forecaster lives at the expense of the listener

While we are entering even more volatile times than two years ago – can you wrap your mind around this? I barely can at this point – it's worth remembering that our collective brain will seek reassuring perspectives. In the industry, the most reassuring ones are solid forecasts. How do we deal

🚘 What is the problem that MaaS solves?

🚘 What is the problem that MaaS solves?

Mobility as a service (MaaS) is one of those fabled sea serpents that many city transport authorities have seen or are actively chasing without much success. The core promise is a one-stop-shop service that allows anyone to plan, book, and pay for going from A to B in a city,

📎 Where's the crutch technology?

📎 Where's the crutch technology?

I wrote about NFT technology [https://www.icopilots.com/going-down-the-nft-rabbit-hole/] yesterday and didn't want to get too much in the weeds in an already long post. Still, I'd like to point at a key concept that startups and corporate innovators often miss: the crutch technology. When you're pushing a change

❤️ Receiving clients' public praises

❤️ Receiving clients' public praises

Last week one of my dearest clients, Erasmus Center for Women and Organisations (Rotterdam School of Management), without me having to ask for it, shared about my book on their public Linkedin profile [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/erasmus-centre-for-women-and-organisations_guidedintrospection-activity-6914588145783111681-Ufht?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=ios_app] . Beyond the

🧰 On consulting and being paid like a plumber...

🧰 On consulting and being paid like a plumber...

Today's a concise post to share an amazing business pitch that reminds you what opposability [https://www.icopilots.com/the-fundamentals-of-opposable-marketing/] means when talking about added value. It's not about AirBnB or the usual startup suspects but from a rock-star sound engineer named Steve Albini. We were in 1992, and it's

🔬10 technologies that will shape our next five years

🔬10 technologies that will shape our next five years

Last week we had one of the numerous forecasts about technology (*) that we've been reading for so many years. 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2022This list represents a glimpse into our collective future.MIT Technology ReviewThe Editors [https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/02/23/1045416/10-breakthrough-technologies-2022/#end-of-passwords] I'm not going to have

💶 ATMs as canaries in the coal mine

💶 ATMs as canaries in the coal mine

Working on innovation for so many years, you end up developing a knack at seeing weak signals before current trends eventually set in. Seeing as quickly ATMs are disappearing from our streets in the Netherlands is such a signal. Dutch banks closed nearly 1,000 ATMs last yearDutch banks closed

🚀 Starting from first principles

🚀 Starting from first principles

The core issue of multinationals trying to innovate is that they are rarely in the position of starting from first principles. They depend on legacy technology; they have factories already running, sales channels organized in a certain way, etc. All this is fine and dandy when it allows an inherent

🇨🇳 Video games are the new soft power

🇨🇳 Video games are the new soft power

Among the numerous signals China provides about becoming a global leader, it’s not only about space exploration, electric cars, and digital platforms. The video games industry and especially “AAA Games” (the equivalent of your blockbuster Hollywood production in this market) should be on your radar. Video games are certainly

📱 It's not the phone!

📱 It's not the phone!

Of all the tiring inspirational videos you find on Linkedin, Steve Jobs‘ Phone unveiling is probably one of the most tired by now (‘not three devices…’). The iPhone video, though, that not many shares are this one. The one where Jobs unveil the true groundbreaking innovation of the iPhone: the

☕️ Is Starbucks a bank?

☕️ Is Starbucks a bank?

Business models are always difficult to grasp. The core difficulty that I’ve been relentless at trying to understand myself and then explain to others for about 15 years is that often, the product is not that important. Take Starbucks; how would you define their business? It’s not coffee