Become a Successful Innovator – Interview with Gijs van Wulfen

This is the 50th episode of the AEC Business podcast! As a special guest, I have Gijs van Wulfen, a globally renowned innovation speaker and founder of the FORTH Innovation Methodology. We talk about his new book, The Innovation Maze, and how you can become a successful innovator.

Gijs was chosen by LinkedIn as one of the first 150 influencers. On his LinkedIn page he says: “Why is innovation made complex by so many people? My mission is to make innovation simpler, and inspire you with my lectures, interactive workshops and books so you and your team can innovate yourselves successfully. Yes, everybody can be an innovator. I help people in organizations worldwide to jumpstart innovation and create new products, services and business models.”

The Innovation Maze is a great hands-on guide for everyone interested in innovation (read my review).

On this podcast episode we talk about these topics:

The four different routes to innovation
The main innovation obstacles in an established firm and how to overcome them
The right focusing questions to answer when you start an innovation assignment
The most important innovation activity for an established company
Why focusing on operational excellence alone could put your company at risk
How to be a successful innovator in a company that does not feel the urge to innovate
The two sweet spots of innovation
Why funding startups is not the best way to innovate in a large company

You can buy The Innovation Maze at Amazon.com. Gijs’s home page is at www.gijsvanwulfen.com and the FORTH Innovation Method site is at www.forth-innovation.com.