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Strategy

How to get from insight to market in a complex, sometimes chaotic, fast-moving world.

🛒 Alibaba, the Retail Operating System

🛒 Alibaba, the Retail Operating System

Even more aggressively than Amazon, Alibaba positions itself from an e-commerce platform to a full-fledged retail operating system. This is not so much about the shiny tech toys embedded in flagship automated stores but absorbing every mom-and-pop store with a fully integrated OS. This paints a future where the smallest

mcrib strategy

How to build a McRib Strategy (Not)

I try to avoid talking mathematics when I address innovation strategy. As soon as I do it I’m victim of a very personal impostor syndrome (I’m not a mathematician) while realizing I’m going down deep, deep rabbit holes. As a matter of fact, when writing about Monthy

new mobility - innovation copilots - icopilots

On new mobility business models

When we arrived in the Netherlands two years ago, we adjusted our mode of life immediately. The key thing was to get rid of our cars. Who needs one if you live in Amsterdam? But this mobility paradise didn’t happen just because « Dutch love bikes ». There were actually many

china - innovation copilots

Demystifying China Social Scoring System

I’ve seen and read a lot of nonsense lately on how China is building a global surveillance network of its citizens through social scoring. Truth be told, it is not a simple issue, and I was glad to get myself a better perspective on what it means through Rogier

If you’re selling mattresses online, are you a startup?

If you’re selling mattresses online, are you a startup?

We idealize startups as young (start-), fast-growing companies (-up) that innovate with new technology. In Europe, most of the startups you meet don’t grow fast. And to be clear, fast would ‘just’ mean reaching the first million euros in sales within a year or two. Such speed usually requires

microsoft original surface table

Innovation doesn’t fit in a pipeline

Most of the innovation programs that I encounter are still organized as R&D programs. We often call that the innovation pipeline fallacy. It's primarily due to the fact that most organizations don't get that innovation is not R&D and that consecutively innovation

has you estée lauder weibo

Western brands still misjudge Chinese market

I’m still in the ongoing process of waking up a few of my customers (and the readers of this blog) on why the Chinese market is such a specific and fast one. Three years ago, I was pointing the inexorable move of the Chinese government toward clean energies, and