As a speaker, I really like to interact with my audience. I prepare to be able to establish a connection that leads to a good two-way discussion that makes it easier for the audience to relate my ideas and insights to their own issues.

My main topics are people driving innovation, open innovation, intrapreneurship and networking. You can read further below:

Are you ready for open innovation?

Companies worldwide have embraced open innovation and more collaborative forms of innovation. Instead of assuming they can create everything on their own, companies are seeking external partners to co-create future products and services. This move toward open innovation requires a new mindset and a new set of skills; it is no longer enough to just be a good project manager, researcher,engineer — or leader.

Do you have what it takes to succeed with open innovation? Find out in this talk, where I get into issues such as:
 
- What is open innovation and why is it relevant for your company?
- Why leaders and managers fail on innovation and what they can do about it?
- Who are the people who drive innovation?

This talk challenges leaders, managers and employees. Some might feel provoked, but everyone will be inspired.

The Why, How and Who of Intrapreneurship

Many companies focus on the concepts and processes of innovation and largely ignore the extremely important people factor. They set up corporate governance structures and establish processes aimed to create lots of ideas. But what does it matter if they do not manage to identify and develop the people needed to turn ideas into revenues and profits?

Danfoss, an industrial giant within clean-tech, did not make that mistake. I helped them pioneer a corporate version of the business plan competition designed to identify and develop intrapreneurs as well as new business ideas. The program was named “Man on the Moon” and it succeeded so well that it inspired other world-class companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Novozymes to undertake similar programs.

In this talk, I share my experiences from my work with these and other companies as I explain why intrapreneurship is important, how to set up such activities and which kind of people you need for this.

Innovation & People
- how to identify and develop the people who drive innovation

The race for innovation has never been more competitive or more crucial to win. To outperform the competition in this critical area, companies must develop a core competency in identifying and developing the people who drive innovation.

Companies need two kinds of people to make innovation initiatives successful. They need innovation leaders who focus on building the internal platform required to develop organizational innovation capabilities. This is work on the strategic and tactical level. Innovation leaders are often also involved as coaches and facilitators for the second group required for innovation; the intrapreneurs who turn ideas and research into new products and services. Intrapreneurs are much more operational minded, and they are rare within most companies.

In this talk, we get into the big question of how you identify and develop the innovation leaders and intrapreneurs within your company.

Only network if you have a purpose

In today’s business world, networking is a critical tool for becoming the best innovation leader or intrapreneur you can be. In this talk, I will offer you seven tips on how you can maximize your networking efforts. They are:

1. Only network if you have a purpose
2. Learn to “turn on the switch” – even if you are an introvert
3. Leverage the power of “six degrees of separation” to reach anyone in the world
4. Use virtual tools
5. Understand informal versus formal network leadership
6. Provide reasons for others to help you
7. Speak-write-meet to connect

This talk will make you think and reflect on your relationships and you will be given insights and tools that helps you become a strong innovation leader or intrapreneur.