BLOG ON INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMATION

Tools and strategies to innovate, solve complex issues, and transform businesses

How to take The Guesswork Out of Innovation
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

How to take The Guesswork Out of Innovation

In innovation and exploration, it is crucial to measure whether you are reducing the risk and uncertainty of new business ideas before you invest big and scale. In this blogpost I introduce the 4 innovation metrics you need to track on very innovation project to take the guesswork out of innovation. RISK, POTENTIAL, TIME and COST.

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How to use Business Model patterns to build more resilient businesses
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

How to use Business Model patterns to build more resilient businesses

The most successful business models build on patterns, i.e. repeatable configurations of different business model building blocks to strengthen an organization’s overall business model. This is the secret formula behind their success. In this post I introduce the library of business model patterns that we developed in The Invincible Company. And I explain how understanding those patterns helps entrepreneurs and business leaders create better, more resilient businesses.

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What can we learn from Owlet on testing new business ideas?
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

What can we learn from Owlet on testing new business ideas?

In this post, I highlight some key principles related to testing new business ideas that are superbly illustrated by the Owlet video from the International Business Model Competition in 2013:

1. Trust the testing process, not your vision

2. Test desirability before feasibility

3. Evidence trumps opinion

4. You don’t need more time and money to test your business idea

5. Tell your story with the Business Model Canvas

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What would metrics for innovation truly enable?
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

What would metrics for innovation truly enable?

In 2018, I led the co-creation of Strategyzer innovation metrics with Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, three multinational companies and one Australian SME. Our client experience and research had confirmed the huge blind spot on measuring progress of innovation projects, and the many problems it creates in corporate innovation.

In this blogpost I explain why innovation needs its own metrics, and how we came up with a working prototype of innovation metrics that could be the breakthrough to make corporate innovation manageable.

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What I learnt on coaching from being part of an innovation team
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

What I learnt on coaching from being part of an innovation team

In Spring 2017 I received an invitation to join forces with a global team of designers and IMD MBA students led by my mentor and friend Greg Bernarda to turn a new business idea into a tested business model in just 5 weeks. In this blogpost I share the key learnings and innovation insights gained from joining a fascinating team adventure. And what I was reminded of by using the business model innovation toolkit as the innovator, not the coach.

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Hai Di Lao. What can a hot pot restaurant teach us about innovation?
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

Hai Di Lao. What can a hot pot restaurant teach us about innovation?

At the end of 2016 I worked with Greg Bernarda on developing a case study on Hai Di Lao, the surprising success in the world of Chinese hot pot restaurants. How did Hai Di Lao manage to climb to the very top of such a competitive and crowded market? How did it manage to scale from its humble beginnings as a single shop with one chef in the nineties?

This blogpost is a summary of key lessons from the Hai Di Lao case study.

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The three steps of my initiation into business model innovation
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

The three steps of my initiation into business model innovation

In this blogpost I share the three steps of my career transition to become an innovation advisor: 
- being introduced by Pete Cohen to the Business Model Canvas in 2014,
- working with Greg Bernarda, co-author of Value Proposition Design, for the first time in 2015,
- learning directly from Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur at the Strategyzer bootcamp in 2016.

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Just what do you mean by ‘business transformation’? 
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

Just what do you mean by ‘business transformation’? 

In this post I explain how I use the three broad categories of operating model, business model and culture to distinguish between three very different realms of business transformation in early discussions with executive teams.

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