Stefan Lindegaard

Innovators need to make decisions all the time. It’s part of the job. One thing that really impacts the decision making process is the "sunk-cost bias." This post from Stefan Lindegaard examines the link between sunk costs and mediation and how to avoid accumulating old costs and driving better, more unfettered decision making and innovation at your organization.

Anyone who has worked for both a large corporation and a small, entrepreneurial company can talk endlessly about the differences in the two cultures and mindsets. The differences can be stark. In this blog post consultant Stefan Lindegaard examines the key discrepancies between big companies and small companies when it comes to driving internal innovation.

You work hard and at some point expect/hope to be perceived as an expert or thought leader, but it does not happen. What few realize right off the bat is that there's a disparity between gaining mastery and having it recognized by others. Stefan Lindegaard lays out some key ways to earn recognition and respect.

What are the innovation trends going on in the community right now? There are actually a good number of concepts, tools and processes related to innovation management out there today and there also seems to be a great demand for this given some of my latest shout-outs and blog posts. Here you get my views based on the interactions I have had in the recent months.

We have too few processes and models that can help companies that want to embrace open innovation. There is the “Want-Find-Get-Manage” model as developed by Gene Slowinski, but that is about it.

As I am preparing for my webinar on The People Side of Innovation, I got some interesting comments on KPI’s for innovation on my blog. Here you get the highlights.

Ssometimes first-movers are rewarded with huge profit margins and a monopoly-like status. On the other hand, being a first mover might also come with disadvantages such as “free-rider affects, resolution of technological or market uncertainty, shifts in technology or customer needs, and incumbent inertia”.

Companies need to become competitively unpredictable if they want to stay relevant during these fast-paced times of business, innovation and change. Creating a strong and sustainable innovation culture is key for this to happen. Stefan Lindegaard looks at 10 companies with the potential to become competitively unpredictable.

I have the privilege of visiting many countries in my work and this has given me some insights into how countries deal differently with innovation and entrepreneurship. It also makes me wonder what really drives prosperity and the role innovation has on this. Although still thinking about this, I believe innovation-driven prosperity is based on the below four key factors.

Innovation is strategy: this article by Stefan Lindegaard explores how the need for continuous innovation should be at the heart of any meaningful long-term organizational strategy.

The pace of business and thus also innovation is faster than ever before. For innovators – corporate as well as start-ups – this means a shrinking window of opportunity, which also moves faster and more unpredictable than before. To counter this, some forward-thinking companies have adopted open innovation in which they bring together an ecosystem of partners in order to bring out better innovation faster.

I was recently asked these two questions on innovation culture: What would be your approach/steps to create an entrepreneurial and innovational culture? What are the elements, processes and tools that a large organization can typically do to become a top 100 innovation company?

There will be people within your organization who will fight against the use of social media and even against the very notion of open innovation. This article lists several potential social media roadblocks you might encounter while pursuing a social media project.

In my opinion, both the top social media tools and personal branding techniques are low-hanging fruit for corporate innovators and entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, there is not enough social activity. Now more than ever, corporate innovators and entrepreneurs need to build strong brands not only around their offerings, but also around their own capabilities.

What are the signs that innovation in a company is set up to fail? Wouldn’t it be great to have a checklist on this? Unfortunately, innovation is too complicated and company-specific for one standard rule. It is possible, however, to become better at spotting the signs of failure. Here’s a list (in no particular order) of the red flags I look for when I talk with executives and innovation leaders trying to get an understanding of their corporate innovation capabilities.

The reason for creating a networking culture is obvious once you look at the current and future direction of innovation. Let’s start by disposing of the myth of the lone genius – the Thomas Edisons and the Alexander Graham Bells of yesteryear – arriving at a breakthrough innovation on his/her own.

Radical innovation is too difficult for most companies and they should play it safer when it comes to innovation. You can read why I think so below – and you can get a few ideas how to do it should you decide to give radical innovation a try.

This is a slightly updated version of one of my first posts on this blog and when I published it in September 2009, it generated lots of comments as you can see below. Innovation has definitely developed since then as open innovation and business model innovation keep gaining momentum so I wonder how relevant the question is today.

Do we have a definition of innovation? Is it important to have a single definition? (Probably not). But it is important to have a common language for innovation. If we were to ask our employees what “innovation” means, would they know how to respond? Would they know how to distinguish between innovation and something else? One benefit of having a definition or framework around innovation is that once agreed upon, then it “kills” the resistance from the naysayers.

I was recently asked some good questions by a corporate innovator, who is looking into corporate business plan competitions and how to work with new ventures. You can read her questions below where I also give my brief responses. It would be great if you can chip in with some insights as well.