Learn about the four key factors of brilliant innovation – and the balancing act to combine them. Here are some hands-on tips and tricks.
Sustainability goals and Circular Economy targets are a recurring theme in large corporates’ strategic priorities. But what are the most common pain points they face in the process? Read all about it.
Focusing your business model on sustainability or the circular economy should not necessarily mean making your venture non-profit. To get you started, we have listed several monetization techniques used by different businesses.
Product re-use models are on the rise in the circular economy. Check out how big brands like Ikea, Zalando, and H&M are putting in the effort.
Learn how you can digitally validate the desirability and viability of your new product or service. (📚BONUS: a downloadable sample experimentation plan)
Learn what circular impact means and how you can measure it for your business! It’s important to translate your strategy into tangible KPIs and measurable targets.
Don’t fall into the trap of calling something innovative just because it is expensive and new. Map your innovation initiatives, discuss and reflect.
As part of our series on the Circular Economy, we will look at the two most important factors to drive consumer change. (Hint: the price has nothing to do with it.)
Adaptability is key in crisis times. When looking at the different industries impacted most by the current pandemic, you will be able to spot several players that are showing more agility than others. Since the start of our Low Touch Economy series, we’ve kept a close eye on the airline business. Within this field, Emirates Airlines seems to stand out. Let’s have a closer look!
The 3 horizons model highlights and categorizes time-based future growth opportunities, helping you to organize grand innovation plans into shorter steps.
It’s been 6 months since the majority of the world came to a halt, shuttering businesses, and forcing many to move from the boardroom to the game room. But the tech world never slowed down. So why haven’t we seen any clear advancements to improve our “virtual” quality of life?
Have a look at different ways to create value in the circular economy. The examples shown in this article are based on our own client cases.
The success in adopting a circular business model (CBM) varies greatly from one business to another, as it depends on the stakeholders and customers-alike buying in, every step of the way. This article looks at factors that can potentially challenge B2C and B2B in specific use cases; of which the findings may be used to identify hangups and important areas of focus for future CBM strategies.
Sustainability shouldn’t be the only reason to redesign your business model. Here are 6 other reasons why you might pursue the circular economy.
From pre-production to post-consumption, circular business models are the future of the globalized economy. We’ve listed three principles you need to follow when creating a circular business model.
Circular economy business models come in all shapes and sizes, depending on where they occur in the value chain. This diversity is what makes a circular economy dynamic and genuinely circular. This section describes some circular business model examples we think are great.
When the Coronavirus pandemic forced many entertainment and broadcasting agencies to suspend operations, they were pushed to innovate on the fly. We spoke with Stijn Lehaen, CTO of VRT, to find out the challenges his team overcame, the limits of current technology, and the long-term impact this will have on the industry.
The last few months were not easy for any professional who, in normal times, relies on being close with their customer. E.g. Sales representatives, fundraisers, recruiters… and still are, reinventing how to do business. We collected plenty of feedback from different industries. The following list can give some inspiration on how to create more valuable interactions.
We mapped the retail pharmacy ecosystem in the US and identified opportunities new players are leveraging to challenge incumbents. We’ll discuss three trends that already have an impact.
While logistics innovations have enabled companies to build global supply chains that allow them to operate wherever and however they want, the Covid19 outbreak has exposed risks that most companies were neither aware of nor prepared for. A better trade-off between costs and risks is needed to ensure the resilience of global supply chains and with it the stability of the world economy.
The uptick in working from home is eliminating the need for long commutes, suits, and visas, says HR-tech and virtual-immigration expert Anita Lettink.
Our researchers and strategists hand-picked 50 ‘Low Touch winners’ – companies that are already flourishing in this challenging new climate.
The companies that grew the most during the 2008 financial crisis were those that invested in innovation. Is that true always? Here are some of our suggestions for your strategy based on information from previous crises.
To hunker down or branch out? We look at how large and small companies budgeted for innovation in the wake of Covid-19.
Change is always accompanied by opportunity. Take a look at a couple of insurance-industry shifts that are being accelerated by the pandemic.
How you can solve clients’ problems before they know they have them using the jobs-to-be-done framework.
Find out what more you need to do to get your business through Covid-19’s aftershocks with the Low Touch Economy scorecard.
Read about why ecosystem mapping is a critical first step in developing an ecosystem strategy and get some actionable insights on how to go about it.
Read about how to plan your launch excellence strategy in a market where changes are accelerated and customer behaviors are still being established.
All of the exit scenarios currently on the table take into account a slow and bumpy restart of the economy. Businesses of all sizes will
Plenty of companies are now shifting their focus. It’s remarkable how many entrepreneurs are already building a new Low Touch Economy to get our society
How the Covid-19 crisis of 2020 is shaping a new generation of consumer behaviors.
Thinking about a remote session? From improved efficiency and faster experimentation to introvert bravery, here are a few reasons why a digital collaboration might be a great choice.
Do you see chaos as an opportunity for growth? It’s worth a try. Here are 5 innovations that were triggered by forced experimentation.
Healthcare leaders: Are you challenging your teams to ensure they are building products that create real customer value? Find out.
Products and services don’t need to be sexy to work. Here are 40 boring yet impactful examples of innovation that prove it.
From artificial car sounds that encourage plant growth to carbon-negative Fortune 500s, here are the most exciting social responsibility trends right now.
We discuss the trends that will overhaul the healthcare industry in 2020. While data sharing, 5G, supply chain & logistics, and AI will be big, consumer behavior will make all the difference.
Learn about how VPPs are contributing to the decentralization of the energy industry and take a closer look at the business model of leading European operator, Next Kraftwerke.
The whiplash journey of Mattel’s beloved kids’ toy range perfectly sums up the fundamentals and key challenges of managing continuous, successful corporate innovation.
The decentralization of the energy industry has led to the birth of new companies with asset-light business models, such as Power2U.
Discover the challenges faced by many of the innovation managers we spoke to at Innovation Roundtable Summit 2019, and find tips for overcoming them.
The story of our first trip to Moscow for a project with GenerationS, a pioneer of cross-industry innovation acceleration in Russia.
Say no to innovation theatre! Create an actionable innovation strategy in 5 days that translates down to the operational team level and drives results.
A simple explanation (finally) of what the 3 horizons model is, what it isn’t, and how you can use it to manage your organization’s growth strategy.
Watch senior innovation consultant Kevin Shahbazi’s talk on circular business design at TU Delft’s Symposium: Impact (or skim his key points).
Former innovation consultant Zygi Krupskis talks about how he used what he learned working here to co-found the startup, Persy Booths.
Judging by what we’ve heard from many here at Innovation Roundtable Summit 2019, it seems the answer is: probably not. Find out how you can enhance your validation efforts and de-risk your business model prototype.
A list of innovative packaging solutions designed to reduce environmental impact and meet customer demand for sustainable, eco-friendly options.
Give your long-term innovation program the best chance of success by avoiding common mistakes, such as strategic misalignment and hiring uniform teams.
8 ways challenger bank Revolut makes banking seamless for customers with their UX-optimized, digital-only services. No, this post isn’t sponsored.
Why nature is an untapped resource that innovators could use to inspire the next sustainable, successful, disruptive business idea.
A list of food innovations, including examples of clever products, processes, services, and technologies, that will shape the way we eat in 2020.
For us, Agile still operates very well at the end of the innovation process – where it needs to be.
Design an innovation strategy that takes sustainability, social impact, and integrity into account using our new tool and revised innovation sweet spot.
Read about the key challenges faced by insurance innovators as we discuss 5 trends that have been impacting the industry: AI, blockchain, digitization, personalization and data, as well as hiring and retaining technically skilled talent.
For the second year running, our whole team packed up their Sharpies and Moleskines and ventured to the South of France for our temporary summer
Examples of clever things new insurance businesses are doing to overcome long-standing pain points, delight customers, and generate new revenue streams.
We’ve created two new resources to help you understand and explain what key innovation terms mean. Use our Innovation Glossary and Innovation Taboo game to interpret complicated themes and find jargon-free ways to break them down for interdisciplinary teams.
A few years ago, we published a list of 7 top-notch books on innovation. Since then, sequels have been released and our field has evolved,
Discover what startups are doing to make money. Borrow ideas and use them to challenge your revenue model and identify new revenue streams.
Learn from innovation consultant Daphne Fecheyr-Lippens’ experience. She shares 7 things you should remember when launching a startup.
How users outsmart Amazon, Spotify, Uber, and Facebook’s algorithms to increase profits and boost exposure. That’s right! The machines aren’t winning yet.
Go from gut-based to evidence-based decision making (with a little inspiration from the calculating gamblers in showbiz)! Read on to discover venture capital tools and algorithms designed to de-risk new business investments.
In early 2019, Cigna International engaged Board of Innovation to help accelerate their innovation capability by establishing a global innovation network. Not only did we recruit and build an international, cross-functional team of innovators, we kick-started their journey with a hands on, 3-month sprint. After being introduced to Design Thinking tools and encouraged to develop an innovation mindset, teams tackled one of Cigna’s critical business challenges.
In the second part of our Empathy 2.0 series we’re exploring what’s next in tech-driven methods for empathy. We look at workflow automation solutions!
Our consultants move heaven and earth to help businesses innovate in a relevant and meaningful way. But how do we keep raising the bar even
The scoping canvas is the best tool to help teams come up with a project briefing before beginning an innovation program.
In the first part of our series exploring what’s next in empathy and design-thinking methods, we look at how the latest cognitive research technologies offer new insights into users’ minds.
Curious to find out what this new buzzword “InnoTech” is? We’ll guide you through what it is, show you our favorite four InnoTech tools –
Use the ‘Value Disc’ to predict the future success of new products. Making long term predictions is hard, but we’ll teach you to make reasonable estimates.
Innovation is often associated with the creation of new products and services. However, this type of innovation fails to provide the highest return on investment. Take a look at these 5 unique business models and learn why innovating your business model is a great investment.
In a few short weeks since my arrival at Board of Innovation, I’ve learned that this is a workplace culture that is exceptionally good at nurturing the full potential of its staff.
The future of mobility is a much-discussed topic as the automotive industry races to get to Level 5 automation (no driver required). But a somewhat less-discussed issue around autonomous vehicles is how governments will shape public policy once cars become 100% hands-free.
We’ve created a new tool so that the executive panel evaluates ideas based on the best criteria, and pitching teams have a cheat sheet to prepare.
An innovation audit of your organization is the first place to start when renewing your innovation strategy. Here’s how we carry out our innovation assessment to measure your success.
From opening accounts to insurance underwriting and credit profiling, FinTech startups are piggybacking on the various services of traditional banks and flipping the conventional business models in the financial industry.
Empathy interviews and market research are all well and good. But it’s really when you walk a mile in your customer’s shoes that you strike gold. Here are some examples of how companies can and have gained from investing in more than just face time with their customer.
Prototypes are disposable. Build it just good enough to learn, frame and test user behaviours, and move on. Here’s what most people get wrong about prototyping, and our advice and tips on how to get it right.
We’re using the most cutting-edge technology to innovate innovation. Here’s how we’re embracing machine learning, one digital tool at a time.
As an innovator, you’ve learned to love — and even seek out — customer problems. But what about problems with innovation workshops themselves?
One year ago, Orange Belgium launched its first “Orange Fab” with Board of Innovation’s help. Part of an international network of customized accelerators, the 3-month program offered startups a chance to test their business on the Belgian and Luxembourgish markets.
The founder of Board of Innovation has launched a new foresight agency. Join our experiment to build the future.
We believe that the best business idea should result in stakeholder buy-in. If the pitch is right, and the solution is validated and the business case makes sense, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. But this isn’t always the way it goes. That’s why we’re sharing our know-how so that the jury’s only choice is to say yes.
I’m sharing 15 insights from the Innov8rs Miami conference based on my panel discussion with innovators from P&G, DB Schenker, the US Army, Itau Unibanco & GE.
Board of Innovation’s social initiative team travelled to Rwanda to help microinsurance companies come up with a human-centered solution for those who don’t qualify for traditional insurance plans.
Have you been thinking about running a corporate accelerator to boost innovation capabilities at your company? This might help you make your decision.
It’s time we got square. We’re expanding our international presence, one city at a time. First stop: New York City. Here’s how we plan to get down to innovation business in the City that Never Sleeps.
We recently shared an article about Board of Innovation’s journey towards working in self-governing teams. We call them circles. They operate as entrepreneurial mini-companies within
If you can’t make it work on paper, it’s going to be freaking difficult to make it work in real life. Paul Graham (start-up guru,
Learn to co-create strategic corporate partnerships to build innovative win-wins for greater B2B business impact. We’re sharing our key insights in this blog post.
Belgium is a high magnetic forcefield when it comes to attracting innovation talent. Innovation touches almost every sector of this small northern European country, from
Why we did it. When it became clear in October 2017 that the time had come for Board of Innovation to move up in the
Turning a company’s way of working upside down Proximus has a long history of starting projects this way: begin with a product or communication campaign,
What is design research? A collection of activities that seek insight into user behaviour, goals and needs. The end goal is resolving these through design.
If you go on a corporate safari, one of the hardest employee animals to find is the intrapreneur. Find out how to spot intrapreneurs at your company (and in the wild) and nourish them with creative freedom.
We’ve gazed into our innovation crystal ball and peered into the (fore)shadows to see what’s on the horizon. Here’s our 2019 Future scan tool, rolled out like a red carpet to the future.
Perhaps we’re becoming nostalgic about the past-future, or the future-past, but… We dusted off our innovation predictions from 2015 to see what we could learn
the yearly pulse of healthcare innovation Here are the results of the checkup and our prognosis of the future. Healthcare is one of the industries
Employees at Brussels Airport help passengers’ airport experience take off through a customer-centric ideas contest.
Go from the blank page on Day One to multiple innovation blueprints on Day Five.
Introducing the Innovation Strategy Sprint: a 1-week, fast, high-energy board session that helps co-design an innovation blueprint. Go from one year to one week.
You know that feeling? You talk to your friend about buying something. A few hours later you get an ad on Facebook for that product. In
Board of Innovation helps companies stay ahead of the curve. Over the past years, we’ve supported many leading organizations like GE, Philips, ING, and AB-Inbev
I just wrapped up my 21st project in the span of 21 months! And still, it’s really tricky to explain what I do.* To help answer
For those aware of design thinking, one of the most powerful aspects of this method is to come up with mini revelations about your user
How it all started … In January 2018, I walked into the office at 8 AM still recovering from an early-morning bike ride. After grabbing
Before joining Board of Innovation as a People & Culture Lead six months ago, I had already been working in the domain of ‘Human Resources’
Adventurous as the word innovation may sound, an innovation consultant’s job consists for a large part in de-risking the innovation process. In order for innovation
All innovations need to start somewhere. You might have many good ideas. However, being innovative is about taking the next step and realizing those ideas. What
If you’re here, it means that your company is probably interested in investing in one or more startups. Prior to making an investment decision, we
“You’ve got a lot of balls” – Some stranger on a plane After working at Google for 7 years, I left Silicon Valley to move
The journey of our rebranding took quite some energy and time, but we can finally implement our new identity. After 8 years with the same
‘So what do you do?’ ‘I’m an Innovation Consultant at Board of Innovation’ ‘Oh… and what does that mean?’ ‘I help corporates to innovate’ ‘Rather
A relevant problem, hundreds of (good) ideas to solve it, a prototype, a validation of the prototype through user testing. All of this in only
What’s it like to be an innovation consultant at Board of Innovation? Find out from one of our consultants who captured week-long snapshots of her
Last week we hosted our ideation webinar. During this ideation deep dive Nick Bogaert shared insights about how to organize and facilitate your own ideation
When we sketched down a list of our 10 favorite tools for digital prototyping, based on the experience of 2 years of prototyping sessions with
Today, every innovation-driven and customer-oriented organization makes use of customer journey maps to visualize several journeys and to ultimately improve the customer experience. The reason
Accelerating internal innovation involves a combination of building capabilities and mindsets as well as developing tangible outputs in the process. So, when organizations seek to
We wanted to write a blogpost about our internal culture @ Board of Innovation and the way we’ve transitioned to a self-steering organization. It looks like
Innovation transformation requires multi-faceted talents who can combine a profound understanding of big-size organizations, with a rebel spirit and a drive for change. We summarized
You may be used to customer segments based on demographics or buyer characteristics. 18-25 and 25-35, male and female, with or without a university degree.
How many 2018 trends articles have you saved for later – but not read? How many times have such articles inspired you about the future
Lean Startup theory wants you to formulate a hypothesis, and Build, Measure, Learn from it. But does the process of listening to customers “start” soon
“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” Peter Drucker While this seems simple enough, it is
Often times, information about innovation strategy is unreadable, packed into a 30-page DOC documents, or explained in such a way that it gives you a
Let me start by introducing myself: I’m Anneleen Vanhoudt. Throughout my professional career, I have repeatedly been asked: Isn’t Design Thinking just common sense? What
Definition & job description First of all, who is an innovation manager? By comparing multiple vacancies, job titles, and buzzwords, we’ve come up with the
Ugh, today. You need to fit in. You need a degree in something respectable. You need to have a good job. Also respectable. Or you
The purpose of this article is to discuss several key cognitive biases and their effects on decision making within strategic innovation management as well as
Over the past 9 years, Board of Innovation has supported many large organizations in designing and executing a wide range of innovation initiatives. Now, navigating
Design Thinking and Lean Startup have become a part of any innovation enthusiast’s jargon. These relatively new methodologies are being used by corporates as well
This post is a summary of the keynote presentation Nick De Mey did at the European Innovation Academy. Since we launched our consultancy years ago,
Most of the Corporate Innovation Programs don’t reach a breakeven. On the basis of our experience with corporate clients, we collected 9 indicators that signal
This post is written for innovation managers & corporate lean startup coaches. For basic descriptions of the terms MVP or intrapreneurship, look elsewhere. Here are
Nowadays, in order to keep track on what’s going on in the world, people go for what’s more convenient and cheap as well as for
As we all know, pursuing innovation is an incredibly fraught and risky process that frequently lays waste to vast amounts of time, effort, money and
The relevancy of loyalty programs is being challenged by a new generation of millennials who expect brands not just to deliver great products and services,
As an innovation consultant at Board of Innovation, I’ve guided my share ideation sessions by now. The results that come out of these sessions can
When meeting an investor or customer, the slides won’t present themselves, so you better learn how to communicate effectively! These great sources will help you
Our founders are awesomesauce! It’s rare to find someone you can be truly inspired by. Someone that you can learn from on a daily basis.
Let’s get the importance of innovation out of the way to start with. It’s crucial to any company. Doesn’t matter if we are talking about
The holiday season is coming, wondering which gift your boss / manager will give you this year? Or even better, you are in charge of
This article discusses the scope of an innovation capability and the perspective of top down and bottom up business model innovation. In a recent client
My personal experience Let’s start by being honest. I’m writing this article to make my own day more fun. Here at Board of Innovation, we
We want to introduce you to a corporate startup that arose from one of our hackathons: Ella. We had an interview with Bart Pollentier, project lead of
Innovation involves research, and you need to be aware of what is happening around your business. In many cases, you can learn a lot from
In the recent years, I probably discussed thousands of business assumptions with +100 corporate startup teams. In these discussions, I tend to focus on helping
Of course, you can sketch a bike. Give it a try. 2 circles, a few lines & you should be done. I often ask participants
BMI for NGO’s in Southeast Asia I recently visited Myanmar to support a group of NGO’s and corporates in healthcare to innovate at the bottom
After 2 and a half years at a Big Four consultancy (digital, strategy and customer) I decided to make the jump to a small, young
Creativity improves the process of solving problems. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about developing a new product, a strategy or an innovative way to
Last year we made a visual overview of +200 future predictions. This list is being used in our innovation workshops & training to inspire people.
Let’s assume your innovation project has a clear purpose. Example: “You want to find new sources of revenue based on the existing assets you have
Based on our experiences, we guide you through the six steps to turn new materials or technologies into first invoices. That experience grew when I joined a corporate startup in
For one of the projects we’ve been involved in lately, one of our challenges was to find the right intrapreneur to take the lead in
Intrapreneurship has become a hot topic, but who are these intrapreneurs? What makes them so special? Why are people saying that ‘intrapreneurs are the ones
On Amazon, there are over 70.000 books on ‘Innovation’. That would take a normal human being 2.397 years to read at a pace of 20
At Board of Innovation we love to share our learnings as soon as we finish an innovation project. Not so long ago we shared the
Recently I guided a 3 day ideation brainstorm for Zellis (former NGA HR) at their HQ in London. This is the first 3-day workshop of 2 sessions