Gijs van Wulfen

Inspiration for Innovation helps you to become a successful innovator. It offers practical insights, tips and tools and teaches you how to innovate. With 101 columns, this book inspires, confronts and surprises everyone who is looking for more inspiration on this topic. Using an expedition metaphor, it reveals how to achieve a strategic mind-set: timing, breaking patterns, understanding customers, creating a culture for innovation, and implementing innovation projects successfully. Every spread is a mix of intriguing pictures, graphics and inspiring stories. It’s a wonderfully designed book to inspire yourself or to buy as a gift for other people. The 101 lessons in this book make you dream, think and act like a successful innovator.

Innovation starts with an innovative mindset. This book will help you to become innovative in your work in six simple steps, so you will be able to innovate yourself, your department and your organisation.

Do you struggle with innovation? The Innovation Maze makes innovation simple. It shows you four different routes through the wonderfully designed innovation maze to successful new business cases for new products or services. This book is your guide on HOW to solve the innovation maze.

When you innovate and generate great ideas for new products or services, you are faced with so many pitfalls. A lot of people experience innovation as a maze and get lost on the way. The fuzzy front end of innovation causes many projects to have a false start. Eighty percent of all innovation projects never even reach the market.
This book is your guide on HOW to solve the innovation maze. It shows you four different routes through the wonderfully designed innovation maze to successful new business cases for new products or services:

1. I have an idea; now what?
2. I discovered a new technology; now what?
3. I identified a relevant unsolved problem; now what?
4. I face a business challenge; now what?

For each of the four innovation routes you will get practical and visual checklists to answer vital questions like: How do I know there’s a need for it? How do I know it is technologically do-able? How do I know I can realize a profit? You will end up with a great format for a successful new business case for your innovative ideas.

It’s written for start-ups, entrepreneurs, managers and consultants.

Gijs van Wulfen is the author of innovation bestseller The Innovation Expedition and is one of LinkedIn’s first Influencers. He ranks in the top 10 of the International Top 40 Innovation Bloggers.

Innovation is highly relevant to every organization. Yet, eighty percent of innovation projects never reach the market. Many have a false start. The Innovation Expedition is written to inspire you with visual and practical tools on HOW to start innovation effectively. The remarkable stories of how great explorers overcame unexpected setbacks will inspire you. How Columbus discovered America, how Hillary reached the summit of Everest and how Neil Armstrong got to be the first man on the Moon. With 240 pages full of exploration stories, quotes, charts, cases, checklists, formats and innovation maps, ‘The Innovation Expedition’ is an inspiring visual toolkit to start innovation successfully. It’s written for

Really new products and services are scarce, yet the need for them is huge. That’s why innovation is an important – but many of us struggle with how to start it. Gijs van Wulfen’s Creating Innovative Products and Services is an essential read for anyone involved in new product or service design, brand development or new business development because it ‘unfuzzies’ the front end of innovation with practical tools, effective checklists and the inspiring innovation route map of the FORTH innovation method.

Gijs van Wulfen explains how to:
o Build a committed ideation team, compile a concrete innovation assignment and identify opportunities;
o Explore trends, technology and potential customers for customer insights;
o Develop new promising innovative products, service concepts or business models;
o Check the concepts among potential clients and improve them;
o Work the best into a tangible mini business case, and present them for decision making.

The effective 5-step FORTH innovation method presented in this book, will jump start your product and service innovations. The success of this practical approach is highlighted in a case study of the ideation of Libelle Academy and Work4Woman in The Netherlands, and is suitable for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. Creating Innovative Products and Services has been written for directors, managers, advisors and innovation specialists in organisations who are responsible for, or involved in, innovation. In it you will find practical guidance through every stage.

Really new products and services are scarce, yet the need for them is huge. That’s why Innovation is an important managerial instrument – but many of us struggle with how to approach it. Gijs van Wulfen’s Creating Innovative Products and Services is an essential read for anyone involved in new product or service design, brand development, new business development or organizational development because it ‘unfuzzies’ the front end of innovation with practical tools, effective checklists and an inspiring innovation route map. Gijs van Wulfen explains how to: ¢ Build a committed ideation team, compile a concrete innovation assignment and identify opportunities; ¢ Explore trends, technology and potential customers, then choose the most positive opportunities and customer insights to transfer to the next step – raise ideas; ¢ Develop twelve new promising innovative product or service concepts; ¢ Check the concepts in qualitative research among potential clients and improve them; ¢ Work the best into a tangible mini business case per product idea, and present them for decision making and adoption in the regular stage gate development process. The effective 5-step FORTH method presented in this book, will jump start your product and service innovations. The success of this practical approach is highlighted in a case study of one of the largest insurance companies in The Netherlands: Univé VGZ IZA Trias and is suitable for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. Creating Innovative Products and Services has been written for directors, managers, advisors and innovation specialists in organisations who are responsible for, or involved in, product innovation. In it you will find practical guidance through every stage.

Really new products and services are scarce, yet the need for them is huge. That's why Innovation is an important managerial instrument - but many of us struggle with how to approach it. Gijs van Wulfen's Creating Innovative Products and Services is an essential read for anyone involved in new product or service design, brand development, new business development or organizational development because it 'unfuzzies' the front end of innovation with practical tools, effective checklists and an inspiring innovation route map. Gijs van Wulfen explains how to: ¢ Build a committed ideation team, compile a concrete innovation assignment and identify opportunities; ¢ Explore trends, technology and potential customers, then choose the most positive opportunities and customer insights to transfer to the next step - raise ideas; ¢ Develop twelve new promising innovative product or service concepts; ¢ Check the concepts in qualitative research among potential clients and improve them; ¢ Work the best into a tangible mini business case per product idea, and present them for decision making and adoption in the regular stage gate development process. The effective 5-step FORTH method presented in this book, will jump start your product and service innovations. The success of this practical approach is highlighted in a case study of one of the largest insurance companies in The Netherlands: Univé VGZ IZA Trias and is suitable for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. Creating Innovative Products and Services has been written for directors, managers, advisors and innovation specialists in organisations who are responsible for, or involved in, product innovation. In it you will find practical guidance through every stage.

Innovation is highly relevant to every organization. Yet, eighty percent of innovation projects never reach the market. Many have a false start. The Innovation Expedition is written to inspire you with visual and practical tools on HOW to start innovation effectively. The remarkable stories of how great explorers overcame unexpected setbacks will inspire you. How Columbus discovered America, how Hillary reached the summit of Everest and how Neil Armstrong got to be the first man on the Moon. With 240 pages full of exploration stories, quotes, charts, cases, checklists, formats and innovation maps, ‘The Innovation Expedition’ is an inspiring visual toolkit to start innovation successfully. It’s written for innovators: managers, consultants, entrepreneurs and organization leaders.

Do you find innovation a maze? In creating your new business case, do you find you get stuck by what seem like insurmountable obstacles along the way? Many people experience innovation as a maze and get lost or stuck in their journey behind obstacles such as having no internal support, a lack of resources, no time, and no inspiration, meaning that statistically, eighty percent of all innovation projects never reach the market. This book is a practical guide on how to navigate the innovation maze. It shows four clear routes from different natural innovation starting points and guides you through overcoming the obstacles to successfully deliver new business cases for products, services, and business models. This much-needed hands-on guide―written by Gijs Van Wulfen, a recognised authority, author, and keynote speaker on innovation and creativity―gives clear directions on how to effectively overcome these obstacles and deliver. The Innovation Maze makes innovation simple, delivering a coherent approach to the creation of new business cases. Written for startups, entrepreneurs, managers, consultants, and those who are looking for practical real-life advice to successfully get through the innovation maze.

Inspiration for Innovation helps you to become a successful innovator. It offers practical insights, tips and tools and teaches you how to innovate. With 101 columns, this book inspires, confronts and surprises everyone who is looking for more inspiration on this topic. Using an expedition metaphor, it reveals how to achieve a strategic mind-set: timing, breaking patterns, understanding customers, creating a culture for innovation, and implementing innovation projects successfully. Every spread is a mix of intriguing pictures, graphics and inspiring stories. It’s a wonderfully designed book to inspire yourself or to buy as a gift for other people. The 101 lessons in this book make you dream, think and act like a successful innovator.