Sample Chapters

ALIGNMENT

Alignment is the foundation of effective growth. It is about an honest assessment of who you are. (CULTURE) It is about finding what is important (MISSION) and matching this with what the market wants (NEEDS) and plans to deliver value (fit with SKILL and BUSINESS MODELS).

Lana Merged - Thecyclesbook

LANA KRISTINE JELENJEV

CO AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Lana Jelenjev is a community alchemist and learning design specialist with a solid background in training and education. She is the author of Community Builder: Designing Communities for Change and the 90 Day Action Planner, a Kickstarter-backed planner for creative entrepreneurs. Lana provides support in various areas related to the ideation, curriculum design, community building, and personal development. Lana is also the Director for Learning Design and Community for Dream See Do, an online learning and community-building platform for transformational leaders, NGOs, and community cultivators. Lana is also active in non-profit work, spearheading the educational campaigns for Neurodiversity Foundation, Shift Foundation and She Dares.

CHAPTER 1

an honest introduction

BRYAN CASSADY

LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

Bryan has taught at the KU Leuven, The Solvay business school, EDHEC, ESCLA, and been a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago, INSEAD, Cornell, Berkeley, and many other schools. He has also led programs like Founder Institute Brussels and the European Innovation Academy. This book results from 4 years of research with over 400 companies on what really drives innovation success.

CHAPTER 2

Knowing What Ain't so: The Three Big Myths of Innovation

The Power of Theory: If You Want Your Innovation To Fly, Theory Is the Wind Beneath Your Wings

BRYAN CASSADY

LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 4

Alignment Introduction

YURI KRUMAN

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Yuri is the CEO of HR, Talent & Systems Consulting, an award-winning HR consultancy. A certified SHRM-SCP, he is likewise a sought-after speaker and expert on HR, Digital Transformation, and Employee Experience (EX). Yuri is a Forbes Coaches Council member and contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business. com, Influencive, and a number of other top platforms. He had consulted and spoken at numerous Fortune 500 and Inc. 5000 companies, VC-backed startups, and top universities, including EY, Google, Columbia, and UPenn, likewise appearing on network TV and top podcasts, including NBC’s Tipping Point, Leadership and Loyalty Podcast, Entrepreneur on Fire and Wharton Business Radio. In addition, his executive leadership coaching practice has impacted thousands of top executives. He is the author of What Millennials Really Want From Work and Life (Business Expert Press, March 2019) and the forthcoming, Be Your Own Commander-in-Chief (Ideapress Publishing, 2021)

CHAPTER 5

Finding Your Mission: Innovation Magic Happens at the Intersection of Significance, Skills and Value.

CHARLES UMEH

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Born in the cosmopolitan city of Lagos, Nigeria with over a decade of learning and working with entrepreneurs and youth-based organizations around Africa under the personal development and media; Space. Charles Umeh is your go-to business and people’s connector for the generation next. He is a Global Speaker, teacher, and author with a niche in business and personal development. As an International Author, his trademark first book Breaking the coconut tells an African story of Grit, perseverance, and inspiration while his TED Talk ‘Think like a change maker’ is a clarion call to young people around Africa to be more responsible. He hosts the BTC show, one of Africa’s top knowledge vaults on business lessons for Africa’s upward and mobile entrepreneurs and change maker broadcast around Africa’s top media platforms in Africa and the Caribbean. He leads the team at Breaking The Coconut INC. Charles’ mission through his work is to inspire the African narrative of Ubuntu with his work. He believes young people’s viewpoints should be clear, heard, pursued by them

BRYAN CASSADY

LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 6

Finding the Jobs To Be Done: Aligning Your Business with Customer Value

Julio

JULIO CARAZO

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Julio provides services to corporations as a Team Mentor, Trainer, Interim Manager, specializing in Business Creation and Innovation, and Strategy Execution. International speaker on Innovation and Project Management. Awarded Entrepreneur and recognized innovator. Past President of the Project Management Institute Madrid. Julio teaches executive education courses at the IE Business School, where he has received excellence. He has supported more than 50 entrepreneurial teams and collaborated at Spain Startup & Investor Summit with several awards for academic Expert Committee Member. He started his professional career as an engineer at Hewlett Packard, where he received the HP Quality Award. He has provided professional services to corporations in various countries and sectors such as industrial, banking, insurance, logistics, pharma- 344 ceutical, and airlines (Banco Santander, DKV Seguros, Cegelec, Jiménez Maña, Air Nostrum, Vinci Energies Corporation, and subsidiaries in other countries). Rather than pretending to provide “the solution” he works mentoring executive teams to design customized solutions and successfully implement them.

CHAPTER 7

Looking at the Big Picture: Delivering and Capturing More Value Through Business Model Innovation

Simon

SIMON VANHOUCKE

CO AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Simon has extensive experience in strategy and innovation across different industries such as (postal and last mile) logistics, banking, retail, and wholesale. Combining an Msc. in physics with a legal education and a keen interest in technology he believes in the power of curiosity and lifelong learning. He is convinced any successful transformation requires a holistic approach focusing both on the processes and the people to truly catalyze change within an organization while creating value for it. When not working or enjoying family time, he is learning, advising startups and corporates on their growth, or pondering about the next crazy idea that could change the world.

CHAPTER 8

The Value of Culture: How Supportive Cultures Can Reverse the Innovation Slope

BRYAN CASSADY

LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 9

Alignment: Conclusion

Download a Mural Toolkit for the Alignment Section.

BUILD

Once you know what you want to do it is time to build ideas that have a chance to deliver on your objectives. Contrary to the belief that the ability to build ideas is limited to a select few, there are tools, techniques that can help any team build better ideas. These tools are:

1. Effectuation (looking for ideas at home with the resources you have)
2.Systematic search for stimulus (get out of the building)
3. Diversity and willingness to bring in new people/resources.

BRYAN CASSADY

LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 10

Build Introduction

FRITZ

FRITZ SEIDEL
(Zürich, Switzerland)

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Fritz loves structuring, leading, and advising change to build up high–performance teams and increase the innovation performance of businesses based on a future-proof strategy. Exploiting the full potential from both, staff and the company itself is what he burns for. With 15 plus years as Leader, Internal Consultant, and Interim Manager in FMCG & ICT, he is still in a constant beta phase of learning and experimenting for the better.

Realizing that constant change within a trusted environment is the best way to win the hearts of peers, customers and shareholders lead him to more agile work methods and a passion for behavioral psychology and ethics. Throughout his career, he first and foremost worked in transformation projects, building up or reshaping departments or areas to succeed more in the everchanging business world. Remodeling areas like Customer excellence, Classic & data-driven Marketing, Sales (Retail, B2C & B2B), Training & Coaching, Category- & Product Mgmt. within the corporate world made him feel he is ready to enter the even more agile Startup universe. He launched a learning project (www.Zwitch.app) and finally brought www.Day8.io to life to help other startups and corporates to fully live up to their potential when it comes to innovation performance and staff engagement.

CHAPTER 11

Defining Your Innovation Challenge: What Is the Problem You Need To Solve?

Lucas

LUCAS SAUBERSCHWARZ

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

As director of the Center for Corporate Innovation at the SGMI Management Institute St. Gallen, CEO of the management consultancy Venture Idea, best-selling author and keynote speaker, Lucas Sauberschwarz is considered one of the leading experts in the fields of strategy, innovation, and new work. In his keynote speeches, he inspires his audience with his experience from working together with more than half of the DAX companies and SMEs in over 60 projects in more than 20 industries. For their research and consulting work, the WirtschaftsWoche named Lucas Sauberschwarz and Venture Idea “Best of Consulting 2018” in the category Innovation & Growth. In 2019, Sauberschwarz won the “Best of Consulting 2019” Award in the category “strategy”, followed by the nomination “Best Consultants in Germany 2020” by BrandEins Magazine and the statistica platform statista.

CHAPTER 12

Starting with What You Have: Effectuation and the Power of Action

Lynsder

LYSANDER WEISS

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

As a partner at the award-winning management consultancy Venture Idea, a doctoral candidate at the leading German business school HHL, bestselling author and keynote speaker, Lysander Weiss offers forward-thinking research and advisory for strategic renewal in established companies. As part of the HHL strategic entrepreneurship research group, he focuses on current management challenges in strategy & innovation, such as organizational ambidexterity, corporate venturing, and innovative strategy development. In his work, he builds on academic research and practical experience to advise established companies in their strategy, innovation, and transformation challenges with proprietary management methods and models. In his keynote speeches, he inspires his audience with new impulses for the future based on his research and his experience from working together with more than half of the DAX companies and SMEs in over 60 projects in more than 20 industries. In his bestselling books, he offers new insights and practical guidance to innovate successfully with established companies, and advocates for new work approaches. The leading German business magazine “WirtschaftsWoche” named Lysander Weiss and Venture Idea “Best of Consulting 2018” in the category Innovation & Growth. Additionally, Venture Idea won the “Best of Consulting 2019” Award in the category “Strategy”, followed by the nomination “Best Consultants in Germany 2020” by BrandEins Magazine. Lysander Weiss lives in Paris, France with regular work appointments in Germany and abroad.

Martin

MARTIN GAEDT

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Martin Gaedt is an innovator from Berlin. He believes in human creativity. His favorite saying: “Don’t criticize, improve!” Martin has been practicing ideal fitness for 20 years. His books Rock Your Idea and the myth of shortage of talents are bestselling in Germany. Martin has founded a couple of companies like Jobjackpot, Share Trust, Provotainment, Cleverheads, and Younect. Most yummy were his gummi bears showing the sights of Berlin.

CHAPTER 13

No More Brain Drains. It's Time to Start Building Ideas. If You Want More High-Quality Ideas, Look for Stimulus and Diversity

Wade

WADE MILEK

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

An experienced technology and business development leader with a passion for innovation and a career centered on the development and execution of business strategy that produces highly sought–after CAGR business value. Growth strategies that include:

• Organic product development

• Business product line alignment including the creation of new business product lines

• New customer business development

• Business improvements

• Merger/acquisition integration and recommendations

All of which use innovation techniques as a fundamental means for how success is realized. Significant experience with Government and specifically military contracting.

Stoyan

STOYAN YANKOV

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Stoyan has 9 years of experience as an entrepreneur with a background in video and movie production, premium event experiences, and building business networks. Currently, Stoyan is a productivity and performance coach, and a global speaker. He has personally worked with over 200 entrepreneurial teams in 20 plus countries, helping them to boost their performance by applying The PERFORM Methodology. Stoyan is also a co-author of the book: “PERFORM: The Unsexy Truth about (Startup) Success”, managing partner at Samodiva Masterminds, and a host of Productivity Mastery podcast.

CHAPTER 14

The Power of Persistence: Why You Must Keep Moving Forward While Being Prepared to Change Direction

Sergio
SERGIO PEREIRA (Lisbon, Portugal)

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Sergio Pereira is a Tech Entrepreneur, Consultant, and International Public Speaker. Sergio’s fields of expertise are Technology, Innovation, and Software Development, with a strong passion for Education. Throughout his career, Sergio has built and launched innovative tech products across industries and geographies and has brought that knowledge to clients and audiences around the world.

BRYAN CASSADY
LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 15

Build Conclusion

Download a Mural Toolkit for the Build Section.

COMMUNICATE AND CHECK

If you’re looking to build bigger and better ideas, you need to get feedback.

To get effective feedback you need to be able to explain your ideas clearly, really listen (listening is not just hearing!), slow down to make sure you are on the right path, and most importantly be ready to kill bad ideas.

BRYAN CASSADY
LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 16

Communicate/ Check Introduction

Franck

FRANCK VINCHON

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Franck has been handling positions in strategy and management in major creative networks around the world for 20 years. He accompanied over 200 brands in their communication and innovation efforts; he was largely awarded – Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clios, Epicas, Effies, and about 80 local/regional accolades. Franck created his consultancy Neon42, a unique model that develops a very valuable edge to any business: to bring back brands into people’s conversations and turn consumers into hardcore fans. The methodologies developed are deeply inspired by the demanding industries of entertainment and sports – each collaboration being a mix of motivation, experience, team spirit, and breakthrough strategic solutions. Neon42 actively accompanies big corporations, startups, and NGOs in all regions. Franck is also a writer, a screenwriter, and a musician.

CHAPTER 17

The Power of Clarity: Understanding, Humility, and the Curse of Knowledge

Arjan

ARJAN GROEN

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Arjan Groen is a startup consultant and has been a coach and mentor for StartupBootCamp, Europe’s biggest accelerator, since 2016. Next to that, he runs his own IT consultancy company where he advises both corporates and SME’s on best practices on how to use the Internet to make business processes more efficient. He has done so for big eCommerce companies like bol.com and several other more traditional businesses like Vodafone Ziggo or Athlon car lease

CHAPTER 18

What You See Isn't Always What You Get! Good Research, Bad Research and the Art of Really Listening to Feedback

Filip

FILIP HENDRICKX

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Filip is convinced established organizations can, and should, become corporate startups. To help them achieve this, he follows a structured yet pragmatic approach, by bridging business analysis, product management, design thinking, lean startup, and innovation techniques. His background of 10 years in business consulting and a prior 10 years in software engineering and research enable Filip to connect strategy and portfolio management with project execution and product development. As president of the IIBA Brussels Chapter, Filip helps support the BA profession and grow the BA community in and around Belgium.

CHAPTER 19

Will They Pay? The Question Too Many People Forget to Ask

REINHARD

REINHARD EMATINGER

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Dr. Reinhard Ematinger invites executives to set and achieve daring goals and to “think” products and services from customers’ point of view by applying tools from business model innovation and customer value creation, lego serious play® and playmobil®pro, service design thinking, and objectives and key results. He has 25 years of industry experience in consulting and training, business development, and corporate universities plus more than 140 terms of university lectures and several books that care for the relevance of his work.

CHAPTER 20

Shoot Your Puppies and Move On: Why Killing Ideas Is as Important as Building New Ideas and How To Do It

URS ROTHMAYR

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Urs is a Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Consultant, recognized Startup Expert, Serial Entrepreneur, and Investor, who helps Corporations like Bayer, Allianz, HP, Toyota, B. Braun, Suez, Clariant, or Migros launch successful new products and services using Lean Startup Methodology and Mentorship. He has specialized in accompanying corporations in open innovation processes through the identification, evaluation, and integration of external opportunities with startups and scaleups, to accelerate their innovation processes and increase their competitiveness. He has become an expert on Intrapreneurship as well as Startup Innovation Strategies, specifically on the changes big corporations need to make to allow for new ventures to be built in corporate settings. As a Director of the Founder Institute, the world’s largest acceleration program for early-stage entrepreneurs, he initiated and leads the chapters in Barcelona and Andalusia, where he has trained and accompanied dozens of entrepreneurs from the idea stage to the launch phase of their ventures.

BRYAN CASSADY
LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 21

Communicate / Check Conclusion. Make It Clear: See if They Want It and Will Pay. Then Decide To Kill or Continue

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Systematically Improve

A lot of research has shown that systems are the key to innovation success. Systems are made up of interrelated components of people and processes with a clearly defined, shared destination or goal. The foundations are clarity and a commitment to learning and improvement. Great companies have 3 characteristics that set them apart from the rest. These characteristics are:

1. An ability to see and build on strengths
2. A commitment to building innovation eco-systems and
3. A commitment to ongoing action

BRYAN CASSADY

LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 22

Systems Introduction

Dennis

DENNIS VAN DER SPOEL

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Dennis van der Spoel; trainer and coach; consultant and leader; business owner and investor; author and speaker. He is passionate about leadership & coaching in innovative environments where elevated levels of uncertainty make continuous change key to strategic success. He believes that conscious leadership and an agile and inclusive mindset whilst balancing the interests of all stakeholders is the only path to sustainable competitive advantage. As a multipotentialite, he uses idea synthesis, rapid learning, adaptability, and interpersonal skills to coach leaders who are willing to challenge the status quo, so they can make more impact. He also helps individuals, teams, and organizations to thrive in times of extreme uncertainty. In other words; he helps organizations to unleash innovation. His expertise and/or interest is in: Startups, scale-ups & exponential organizations; The transition to a lean-agile way of working; Lean-agile portfolio management; Facilitating strategic dialogues & large-scale interventions.

CHAPTER 23

Uncertainty and the Fear of Losing: How to Change Your Mindset To Focus on Winning

Nicolas

NICOLAS DETURCK
(Belgium – Luxembourg)

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Nicolas is a genuine passionate about innovation, change, and business transformation. His backpack comes from 22 years of professional experience including 10 years in the automotive industry. He acts as a facilitator and catalyst for transformation projects and operational optimization. Nicolas is an advocate for best practice, lean methodologies, and a driver of excellence in creative thinking and execution. His focus is to deliver measurable business success, operational efficiencies, and increased brand equity by making people’s life choices easier and more stress-free.

CHAPTER 24

Systems Thinking and Profound Innovation: Getting to the Heart of Innovation

BRYAN CASSADY
LEAD AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Bryan is a passionate believer in anyone’s ability to innovate and build new businesses. He has personally built 11 companies in 6 countries, with 8 of these making money. For the last 8 years, Bryan has been coaching startups and scale-ups and trying to help larger companies regain the spirit of startups.

CHAPTER 25

One Thing at a Time: Using Focus and Sequentiality To Avoid "Monkey Brain" Innovation

CHAPTER 26

Bullets First, Then Cannonballs: The Secrets of a Learning Organization

CHAPTER 27

Systems Conclusion

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HABIT BUILDING

Use behavioral science and habit-building to deliver sustainable innovation.

Most new initiatives begin by focusing on motivating people by announcing new strategies in a big launch and expecting change to follow.

Unfortunately, this approach generally fails. The reason is simple; behavioral science tells us that motivation and incentives are not the most effective ways to get people to change what they do. The best approach is quite simple; first, new behaviors are facilitated, and then controlled repetition of these behaviors creates habits. Habits become the foundation of real and lasting change.

Agnis

AGNIS STIBE

CO-AUTHOR OF THE BOOK CYCLES

Agnis is a 3x TEDx speaker on core transformation and founder of TRANSFORMS.ME, providing disruptive methodology and tools for designing lasting change. He is a globally recognized corporate consultant and scientific advisor, a Professor of Transformation, and Academic Director on Artificial Intelligence at EM Normandie Business School. He is the Paris Lead of Silicon Valley founded Transformative Technology community and Adjunct Professor at the University of Oulu. His work is aimed at activating transformation gene, empowering human energetic intelligence, integral investment leadership, sustainable behavior design, demystifying artificial intelligence, social psychology, and neuroscience. At the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Media Lab), he established research on Transforming Cities for human flourishing. In his vision, business acceleration and societal wellbeing can be achieved through purposefully designed innovations that successfully blend technological advancements with human nature.

CHAPTER 28

Bringing It All Together: Using Behavioral Science and a Habit-Building Approach To Deliver Sustainable Innovation

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