In The Innovation Expedition, Gijus van Wulfen identifies and discusses lessons to be learned from great explorers such as Roald Amundsen, Neil Armstrong, Christopher Columbus, Yuri Gagarin, Edmund Hillary, David Livingston, Ferdinand Magellan, and Ernest Shackleton.

All of these them were members of a team or crew, of course, but that fact in no way calls into question the significance of their achievements.

 

1. Passion will give you confidence and the courage to proceed.

2. Urgency will create momentum for your innovation project.

3. Challenge will serve as a guide during your innovation journey.

4. Teamwork will lead to better results and greater support.

5. Plan will support your leadership and give you confidence.

6. Preparation: “Victory awaits him who has everything in order.” Roald Amundsen

7. Focus will maintain speed and shorten the time to market (i.e. objective, destination).

8. Perseverance will take you to where no one has gone before.

9. New technology will make your new solution feasible.

10. Empathy will provide you with relevant customer (or a colleague’s) insights.

*     *     *

Gijs van Wulfen studied business economics and worked as a marketer in the fast moving consumer goods sector and switched to consulting at Ernst & Young Consulting and Boer & Croon Strategy & Management Group.

At the end of 2002 he started his own innovation organization to spread, train and facilitate the FORTH innovation method to ideate new products and services. In 2006 Gijs wrote the practical innovation best seller in Dutch, Creating New Products, in which he presents the FORTH innovation method. He has written several books since on this effective method to start innovation.

I urge you to check out his most recent, The Innovation Expedition: A Visual Toolkit to Start Innovation (BIS Publishers, May 2013). Gijs is based in Utrecht, The Netherlands.