The race for innovation has never been more competitive or more crucial to win. To outperform the competition in this critical area, companies must develop a core competency in identifying and developing the people who drive innovation.
I have gotten to know the people who drive innovation and I offer a range of talks that can inspire as well as help build further on a toolbox.
The talks are intended for people working with innovation, business development and new ventures in established companies. The attendees usually work with issues such as:
- making top management understand and support innovation
- organizing for innovation (internally as well as externally)
- developing innovation capabilities and new growth platforms through internal and external sources
- identifying and developing the people who drive innovation
- turning ideas into revenues and managing go-to-market strategies
A talk costs EUR 1,000 to 3,000 depending on the audience, purpose, location and length. Travel costs are not included.
* Collaboration: You have to work across business functions and with many types of innovation to turn ideas into profitable products, services or business methods. Think like a composer; not a musician.
* Relationships: In a world of open innovation, you need to be an expert at networking and building relationships.
* Stakeholder management: You do not need to have everyone on your side, but you need to generate adequate support to champion your ideas and enough leverage to overcome major hurdles.
* Communication: You need to be able to craft compelling messages to the stakeholders you want to influence and to build the necessary relationships to take your ideas forward.
Many companies focus on the concepts and processes of innovation and largely ignore the extremely important people factor. They set up corporate governance structures and establish processes that create lots of ideas. But what does it matter if they do not manage to identify and develop the people needed to turn ideas into revenues and profits?
Danfoss, an industrial giant within clean-tech and other business areas, did not make that mistake. I helped them pioneer a corporate version of the business plan competition designed to identify and develop intrapreneurs as well as new business ideas. The program was named “Man on the Moon” and it succeeded so well that it inspired other world-class companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Novozymes to undertake similar programs.
In this highly interactive talk, I share my experiences from my work with Danfoss and other companies as I explain:
- why intrapreneurship is critical to making innovation happen
- how to set up activities such as internal business plan competitions that will help build the all-important people aspect of innovation
- what traits to look for when identifying people with the potential to be successful intrapreneurs
Talk 3: Leadership+Innovation
Innovation drives companies to prosper, grow and sustain profitability. But the innovation role is changing rapidly as companies seek external partners to co-create future products and services through open innovation. In this talk, I identify the key questions this movement raises for companies and their leaders focusing on the organizational and personal impact.
* Organizational impact: Open innovation requires change on many levels. You have to transform and manage systems, processes, values and culture across the company. Furthermore, your people need a new mindset and new skills and you have to develop a leadership style that optimizes follower trust, motivation and performance. We get into the broad organizational ramifications of adopting to a world of open innovation.
* Personal impact: Setting an innovation culture is also about personal transformation, starting at the top. You have to work across business functions and with many types of innovation to synthesize ideas into profitable products, services or business methods. In a world of open innovation, you also need to be an expert at networking and building relationships, and you have to be able to identify and map stakeholders in your eco-systems and know how to get to know – and adapt – to their different agendas. We get into these and other key skills leaders must have to master an open innovation environment.
Talk 4: Relationships for Innovation Leaders and Intrapreneurs
In today’s business world, networking is a critical tool for becoming the best innovation leader or intrapreneur you can be. In this talk, I will present three types of networking – operational, personal and strategic – and I will offer you seven tips on how you can maximize your networking efforts. They are:
1. Only network if you have a purpose
2. Learn to “turn on the switch” – even if you are an introvert
3. Leverage the power of “six degrees of separation” to reach anyone in the world
4. Use virtual tools
5. Understand informal versus formal network leadership
6. Provide reasons for others to help you
7. Speak-write-meet to connect
In addition to prompting you to think and reflect on how you can maximize the productivity of your relationships, I will present tools and ideas that can enhance your ability to become a strong innovation leader and intrapreneur.
This will be an interactive session that starts with outlining your issues on networking and relationships.
Talk 5: You Always Have Something To Sell
As an innovation leader or intrapreneur, you always have something to sell. In the end it is a product or a service, but during the development of a revenue generator, you have to sell a vision to internal as well as external stakeholders.
In this talk, I will offer advice on how to communicate that vision by:
- Developing a value proposition that can be adapted for various
stakeholders and then
- Capturing the very essence of the value proposition in a short and
brief elevator pitch that focuses on the recipients of the message.
On the elevator pitch, we will get into how you introduce yourself properly, explain the big picture, make it specific to the stakeholder and then state how your offering works and how it is different from other offerings before you appropriately close the conversation and prepare the follow-up.
This talk can become highly interactive by using real-life cases.
The innovation role is changing rapidly as companies embrace the open innovation movement, seeking external partners to co-create future products and services. This requires a new mindset and new skills; it is no longer enough to just be a good project manager, researcher or engineer.
