Do you love innovating?
Do you love innovating? If you are like most people (and me), you do. Most people feel it is a great way to contribute to their company’s and their own success. We all like that! But when you actually try to do so, frustration comes very soon. Do you know the feeling? Why is this? What is lacking?
Many innovation resources tell us to improve our creative skills (which is a different way of saying we are lacking those). My view is that most people do not lack creative skills. And there are a lot of books on the topic. I believe many people need help with innovation-specific knowledge. And that is what I focus on.
Innovation requires knowledge, not just creativity
Everybody acknowledges that domain-specific knowledge is essential when it comes other creative disciplines. Everybody would agree that to be a good cook, you should sharpen not only your knife but also your cooking skills. To be a good author, you should learn writing skills. To be an actor, you should take acting classes.
But when it comes to innovation, being creative and reading technology articles will apparently do the job. This is like saying that you can be a good musician by listening to enough music. Or that you to become a good football player by just watching enough games on TV. All that this will do is to make you an armchair coach. We don’t want to be armchair innovators.
Like any of these disciplines, innovation requires knowledge. But it is a huge field. And that is a problem. There tens of thousands of books – where do you start? Do you need to study it for years before you can be innovative?
How to get started with innovation?
Could you become a good musician by studying the theoretical background or go to a conservatoire? I bet you could! But that would take a lot of time. Most of us work and don’t have that much time.
Another way to become a good musician is by practicing one song, then another one, then another one and so on. As a cook you can learn to cook one dish, then the next and so on. You get the point.
That is my approach! Every one of my articles covers a topic from the real-world. When you study it, you can apply the elements to your own ideas.
My focus areas
I am covering things in much more depth than you will typically find. And there has been a lot of positive feedback from my readers on this approach. On the highest level, I have focussed predominantly on two business models that have made for some of the most exciting start-ups:
Who am I?
I have been (and still am) managing large portfolios and programs of over $1 billion in the recent years working in one of Australia’s most prestigious companies in the beautiful Sydney. These programs often have dozens of innovative initiates embedded within them.
But admittedly, I also had my geeky times, completing a PhD in engineering, leading very technical R&D projects for research foundations and the aerospace industry. I have been system engineer and architect within the iconic Airbus A380 project (the double deck passenger aircraft) and co-invetor of an US-patented system using satellite communication among other things. This was when I was still living in good old Germany.
I believe in continuing education and knowledge as a leading indicator of your career success. This is why I continued educating myself through a mix of formal and informal ways and would recommend the same to you. The formal ones were just to have some evidence for certain skills – the informal ones, however, were the really valuable ones.
Who are my readers
Thank you to the many hundreds of you who have connected with me on LinkedIn. Your kind feedback has been very valuable in shaping the direction that my blog has taken. Your unanimously positive feedback has been a great source of motivation!
Connect with me on LinkedIn – I always lover hearing from my readers!
From connecting with you, I know my readers are Founders, CEOs, MBA Students/Alumni, Consultants, Senior Executives and many others with great innovation ideas. A number of business school Professors have shared with me that they are using my material in their classes. This is great!
Hi Dr Uenlue,
Just finished reading some of the documents authored by you on the innovationtactics.com website and wanted to thank you for the insightful content!
Regards,
Gary F
President and CEO
You are a truly seminal thinker. You immediately understood our gaps, needs and challenges. Your insights and advice on our platform, gaining traction and search/cost efforts are invaluable at this stage.
Jay J
Founder & Owner
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Tendai
MBA alumni