How Innovators Think is a project to identify the peculiar thinking patterns of the world's leading innovators. Over the course of conversations with innovation practitioners, by way of remarkable stories drawn from the history of innovation, and through my own experience as an entrepreneur, I observe the same core beliefs guiding the actions of those who strive to make a difference.
Innovation is an imperative in today's world, yet few people or organizations are getting it right. Why? Because innovation is not about money: wealthy organizations routinely struggle to innovate. Innovation is not about talent: many faltering companies are filled with smart people. Innovation is not about knowledge: most CEOs know what they should be doing. So what gives innovators their power to break through?
Wrong. Human beings are wired to minimize change and maximize routine.
Wrong. Innovation is hard because it is not a process or a project; it's a culture.
Wrong. From an innovator's perspective, change is painfully slow.
Wrong. Facebook isn't the first social network, but it hopes to be the last.
Wrong. Nokia had three times the R&D budget of Apple, but look who released the iPhone.
Wrong. Innovation takes the form of business models, processes, policies, products, services, and more.
Wrong. Believe the hype and you may be that guy on the Segway wearing Google Glass.
Wrong. Ideas are commodities. The challenge is to focus on the right idea.
Wrong. First time innovators routinely succeed.
Success means you have something to lose, and it makes you complacent and risk-averse.
The time to change is when investment in the future is still possible.
Carve out your place in the new order so you can be in a position to dictate new terms.
You must choose between protecting the future from the past or protecting the past from the future.
Are you doing something that's eating into your existing business? Do more of that!
A truly flexible mind constitutes basic literacy for the 21st century.
You can measure an organization's level of innovation by its capacity to bear uncertainties.
Innovators always listen, but never do what people say.
You can’t fight digital attackers if you don’t speak their language.
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Laurent Haug's job is to search for the emerging ideas, people and organizations that will make a meaningful impact in the coming years. Using my experience, resources and network, I nurture those pockets of positive change through guidance, investments, connections, events, speaking and writing. Good futures are already here, my goal is to make them more evenly distributed.
You can contact him on hello at laurenthaug dot com