Because companies do not integrate the innovation strategy into their everyday life, they prefer to play “innovation theater”, says Alexander Osterwalder. He is one of the world’s most sought-after innovation consultants, author and entrepreneur, best known for his work on business modeling and developing the business model canvas. “Brainstorming sessions, creativity workshops and hackathons are all nice and good, but ultimately do not help if the employees have no room for experiments and their ideas are not adequately tested. Creativity needs structure. Of course, not everyone is equally talented, but you can encourage an appetite for new things,” says Osterwalder in Wirtschaftswoche. His clear statement: Innovation can be planned! In most companies there is no shortage of innovative employees. In order for these to express themselves and to exchange ideas, leadership is required to determine which spaces must be created in which new ideas can be developed.

The bigger problem, however, is that many people have given up sharing their innovations because their ideas are not being heard. The culture in most companies has still not arrived in the working world of the future. However, a corporate culture that is open to innovation is of central importance for the effective management of change processes. And how serious a company is with innovation can be seen relatively easily from the CEO’s calendar. Osterwalder sums up: “If he does not spend 20 to 40 percent of his working time on innovations, everything is in vain.”

Two interviews with Alexander Osterwalder have just appeared, read the current articles at https://diepresse.com and https://www.wiwo.de.

Like Osterwalder, the kickworkx experts believe in the innovation potential of employees and, in addition to a plannable innovation structure, also offer space for experiments, access to the community and a large network of practical experts. Everything with minimal internal resources and without costly innovation programs. Decision-makers just have to want to!