News &
Insights
5 Ways to Avoid Office Politics
Everyone who has ever worked in an office knows the dynamics that develop when the actual work is sabotaged by the interests and personal career goals of individuals or peer groups. Internal office politics arise when people start putting their own...
The room where it happens
How (and why) to democratize decision making in your dev team.If the musical Hamilton is to be believed, there were only 3 men in the room when the decision about where the federal capital and national bank for the fledgling United States would be...
A Product Manager is a coach
Software development insights from the world of sports.Numerous attempts have been made at comparing the Product Manager role to jobs in more established industries. I’ve heard ‘architect’, I’ve heard ‘chef’, and (of course) ‘project manager’. I...
The case against Corporate Venture Capital
Should Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) be one of the methods in your corporate innovation strategy? Let me start by giving my honest opinion right away: no. While I am not alone with this opinion — for instance, venture capitalists such as Fred...
The great myths of corporate innovation
Recently, I have written about ‘why’ your company should invest heavily in innovation, even in recession times. Now, the obvious next question is ‘how’. Let’s start with some lessons learned on ‘how not to’. In my career, I have seen some very...
Why heavily invest in corporate innovation in a recession?
It is really funny: in good times, executives don’t really see the need to innovate (“Why take risk? Everything is fine!”) and in bad times, they are too scared to touch what is left to pay out as dividends in order to keep the shareholders...
Navigating Corporate Innovation
As new business models hit more and more industries in an increasing pace, incumbents are challenged to respond. And they do respond. However, from an outsider’s point of view, this can often look a bit funny. Steve Blank, adjunct professor at...
Stryber Rebranding Insights
A logo is more than a graphic representation of your company because it connects people’s minds to the business. That’s why we believe our logo has to speak for us. It represents who we are and the things we believe in. That is why work in...
Why Thomas Cook failed (the Digital Transformation)
At 2:00 a.m. on Monday the 23rd of September, our 178 year old employer, travel advisor, hotelier, airliner and frenemy -Thomas Cook- passed away after 20 years of terminal illness. Here is why.The name of the illness: DisruptionI really think that...
Why Kuoni failed (the digital transformation)
Due to high demand I created a keynote speech based on this story. Read more at the end of this page. The ultimate confession of failureOn the 5th of November 2015 the Kuoni group announced that it would lay off 350 people and also replace CEO...