top of page
Blog/podcast stories
You can find audio, video and transcripts here
Search
John Bessant
5 days ago2 min read
Dear Santa...
A seasonal innovation song... Image: Dall-E via Chat GPT Dear Santa… A seasonal innovation song It’s the time of year when letters are...
John Bessant
Dec 62 min read
AI through the rear-view mirror
What we can learn from the past to help navigate the AI storm… There’s a technology out there that’s coming for you. You can’t escape it,...
John Bessant
Nov 151 min read
Flying the flag for innovation
A standard is an old word for a flag. Back in the days of sailing ships you could see a forest of them fluttering at the stern of ships...
John Bessant
Oct 222 min read
Bridging different worlds...
How to unlock the power of recombinant innovation Wandering around Chicago in 1912 William Klann was a man on a mission. He was part of a...
John Bessant
Oct 42 min read
Continuing continuous improvement
Why high involvement innovation matters more than ever — and how to make it happen Autumn. Season of mists, mellow fruitfulness — and...
John Bessant
Sep 122 min read
irresponsible innovation anyone?
Why we need to rethink the story around responsible innovation High on mountain above Oslo you can see the strange angular shape of...
John Bessant
Aug 202 min read
Hitching a ride to productivity
How one man’s innovation provided the missing link for 20th century agricultural revolution There’s a lot of good stuff which comes out...
John Bessant
Jul 241 min read
Why innovation needs mapping skills
It’s easy to take maps for granted — but we’d be pretty stuck without them. Maps have been one of the most important human inventions for...
John Bessant
Jul 92 min read
Impact intrapreneurship
Leveraging the power of large organizations for social innovation We’ve got a huge challenge around social innovation. If we’re serious...
John Bessant
May 242 min read
AI is a no-brainer for innovation
Long fuse, big bang. A great descriptor which Andrew Hargadon uses to describe the way some major innovations arrive and have impact. For...
John Bessant
May 93 min read
scaling value
How to navigate the long winding road to high impact innovation What do you get when you’ve successfully developed and launched your...
John Bessant
Apr 271 min read
Irrelevant innovation
Why change isn't always a good thing.... We spend so much of our time thinking about important innovation but maybe we should spare a...
John Bessant
Apr 22 min read
It's not (Only)what you know....
Innovation is a multi-player game. The image of the lone hero innovator is a myth. Even celebrated soloists like Thomas Edison or James...
John Bessant
Mar 142 min read
Beating the innovation scaling blues...
Another innovation song.... Last week I was helping run a series of workshops supporting social innovators from across the United Nations...
John Bessant
Feb 152 min read
Innovation lessons from a skateboard...
What have ollies, decks, trucks, popsicles, cruisers and kicktails got in common? If you’d asked me that back in December I would have...
John Bessant
Jan 151 min read
Innovation is rubbish!
One of our family traditions at this time of year is the big clear-up. There’s a time limit on our tolerance for the accumulated junk,...
John Bessant
Nov 25, 20231 min read
Pathways to scale
Why planning your innovation expedition helps avoid a lot of windswept trouble on the journey… Taking an innovation from a small-sized...
John Bessant
Nov 20, 20231 min read
Grow up fast!
We talk a lot about learning by doing in the agile innovation process, especially in the context of start-ups. But it’s hard to capture...
John Bessant
Oct 31, 20232 min read
Tell 'em a story
Innovation is all about trying to convince others — people to help develop your idea, sponsors to back you, markets to buy in to your...
John Bessant
Oct 16, 20231 min read
Prove it to me!
Why evidence is so important for scaling innovation A good idea will sell itself, right? Unfortunately not – Emerson was spectacularly...
bottom of page