Posts by Jesse Nieminen
Building an Agile & Innovative Organization
In recent years, more and more companies have realized the need for innovation as they’ve seen businesses all around them, and perhaps even their own business, being disrupted. According to McKinsey research, 96% of executives have made innovation a strategic priority, yet only 6% are satisfied with their innovation performance. There’s a huge discrepancy between…
Read More21 Common Innovation Myths & Misconceptions Debunked
As all of us working on innovation know, it’s quite an opaque topic that many innovators and organizations don’t talk about openly. As a result, innovation is an area that’s fraught with many common myths and misconceptions. That’s unfortunate, because those less experienced in innovation often end up going about it all wrong, and as…
Read MoreThe Art of Decision-making as an Innovation Leader
As we all know, innovating and creating something new is usually seen, for good reason, as an important, yet highly risky endeavor. As such, innovation leaders are constantly under a lot of pressure from many different directions. Now, when we talk about innovation, we often focus on the more practical side of things related to…
Read MoreThe Roles of Risk and Luck in Innovation
One of the most controversial, and perhaps even misunderstood topics in innovation are the roles of risk and luck for innovation success. Do you have to get lucky to innovate successfully, or can you make your own luck? Is it always inherently risky to try to innovate, or can you manage risk by making smart…
Read MoreThe Fallacy of the Aha Moment & Overnight Success in Innovation
We’ve all heard the story of Newton and the apple. According to the legend, he came up with the theory of gravity when he was sitting under a tree and an apple fell on his head, at which point it all suddenly dawned on him. We love to hear stories of these great aha moments.…
Read MorePace of Innovation – The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
When we think of a business having a competitive advantage, we still tend to think of traditional economic moats such as a low-cost structure, economies of scale, or perhaps a more intangible moat like a strong brand. While all of these are still extremely desirable assets, they no longer guarantee a sustainable competitive advantage for most companies.…
Read MoreTiming of Innovation – Getting the Odds on Your Side
When it comes to innovation, there are countless ways things might go wrong. However, one of the most prevalent ones is incorrect timing. If you manage to get the timing just right, your innovations will obviously benefit from huge tailwinds when entire industries are transitioning from the old to the new with you riding at…
Read MoreInnovation Culture – The Ultimate Guide
Innovation culture has long been one of the most challenging, and oft-discussed, topics in our conversations with business and innovation leaders. Given the extraordinary importance of innovation for businesses, and society in general, and the fact that culture has been shown to be one of the biggest barriers for innovation performance, it’s not much of a surprise. Because most…
Read MoreWhy Innovation Should Be Decentralized In Every Large Organization
I recently met with a very successful company that is seen as a highly innovative global pioneer that others in their industry, which is facing many structural headwinds and inevitable changes, look up to. They understood that even though they are seen as an extremely innovative company now, their current success is actually a result…
Read MoreHere’s how you can come up with outside the box innovations
If you’ve been working in innovation for at least some time, you’re probably sick and tired of hearing people talk about “thinking outside the box”, or the need to create “outside the box innovations”. The phrase has become one of the most overused clichés out there. However, just like so many other clichés, there’s an…
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