Beyond Brainstorming the Power of Idea Management

Last week, I had the privilege of taking another enlightening journey through the realm of scenario planning and future strategy with a group of high-flyers from different disciplines. It was the first time this group subjected their carefully prepared scenarios to a stress test. This moment, brimming with a delightful mix of joy, anticipation, and a touch of nervousness, was a milestone for all involved.

The way we think about and organise mobility is dramatically changing. Over the past decades, transportation and urban development have been centred around owning a combustion engine vehicle and driver comfort. Today, policymakers, technology developers, manufacturers, and urban planners are increasingly focusing on smart mobility. Various modes of transportation, urban redesign, and changing business models seek to integrate sustainability, safety and efficiency in smart mobility.

Change is a constant within the realm of innovation. Navigating your team, organisation and stakeholders throughout the development or implementation of new products or services, a new process approach or a new organisational structure. It often creates resistance for multiple reasons. There's no quick fix in helping people throughout this change, but with the help of these 5 pivotal questions, you can embark on crafting a comprehensive change strategy.

In the age of rapid technological advancements, AI has become a household name. But what exactly is AI? At its core, Artificial Intelligence is the ability of a computer to think and learn. We see its manifestations in various forms - from DeepL's impressive translations to Netflix's uncanny ability to recommend shows, and Tesla's autopilot driving feature. However, the spotlight today is on a specific subset of AI: Generative AI.

The rapid advancements in technology have unlocked exciting possibilities for the future of transportation. Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), which encompasses technologies like electric propulsion, battery technology, sensors, autonomous flight, and 5G communication networks, holds great promise for transforming passenger transport and parcel delivery.

Idea management: every innovation manager knows its importance, but applying it is not always easy. During our webinar idea management, we took a closer look at some critical aspects. We are happy to share some more learnings!

Imagine a world where transportation takes to the skies, effortlessly bypassing traffic jams and transforming the way we move. Advanced Air Mobility is unlocking a new dimension of speed, efficiency, and convenience.

The rise of advanced air mobility has paved the way for exciting innovations in the field of passenger and parcel drones. As the demand for efficient and sustainable transportation solutions grows, numerous companies around the world are actively developing cutting-edge technologies in this domain. Here are some of the key players shaping the future of passenger and parcel drone systems.

That the way we look at work is going to change significantly in the future is a certainty. But which evolutions are really going to determine how we shape our work? Discover it in this infographic!

Businesses around the world are struggling to prepare for a sustainable future, especially in times where all well-known paradigms seem to be shifting. There is much uncertainty, little confidence, but most commonly little practice in cross company cooperation. That is where TomorrowLab comes in. Building bridges and guiding with domain expertise, consultants show the way forward.

PM Rishi Sunak recently announced the UK's intention to launch a Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) as a competitor to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But what exactly are CBDCs and what are their potential implications?

Since 1 January 2023, Marijke Verhavert has taken up the role of director at Tomorrowlab, company of the Living Tomorrow Group.

Say what? Well, that is how the future of communication and media presents itself. It’s about creators, technology and Generation Z. Time to put prejudices and misconceptions aside and look at the bigger picture of the creator economy.

Is your organisation fit for its future purpose? For a large part, that depends on how you deal with external drivers. In this blogpost we share with you 4 guiding questions and supporting tips to help you transform your organisation from what it is today to what it should/could be in the future.

They prefer texting over talking. They were the first to grow up with access to the internet, smartphones, and social media. They are a generation of digitally connected individuals, using technology to communicate, to stay informed, and to participate in online communities.

Mike Tyson once said: “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. In other words, it's good to have a strategic plan, but it's better to be prepared when a crisis hits. Also, strategy is never a finished product. It must constantly adapt to unexpected events and new trends. In this article, we open our toolbox and share some of our techniques for future-proofing your strategy.

Since 2019 Living Tomorrow organised 3 Innovation Missions with the support of TomorrowLab. The first one was in Europe, the second one was to Dubai and we just returned for the last one to Silicon Valley in Palo Alto.

Since they were founded, Living Tomorrow and TomorrowLab have been defining companies in the Belgian innovation landscape. This impressive growth path and ambitious plans have led to a few shifts in management. Yin Oei becomes CEO of Living Tomorrow and Joachim De Vos, as managing partner, becomes more than ever the driving innovation force of Living Tomorrow Group.

Strategyzer’s Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a great tool to map out the crucial elements of your business strategy. Here at TomorrowLab, we use it a lot in customer workshops. Unfortunately, stubborn misconceptions or a lack of knowledge often prevent organisations to get good results with this tool. To make this easier for you, here are six ways to get more out of your BMC sessions.

The digital twin has become one of the pillars of Industry 4.0. This digital representation of a physical process or service has become standard practice in modern engineering to drive innovation and improve performance. But the digital twin is gaining attention in other sectors as well, such as healthcare and smart cities.

Smart mobility requires – amongst many other factors – a dense network of ‘mobility hubs’, where people can easily switch between transportation modes. How do we design hubs in line with needs of both users and neighbours?

Are we soon saying goodbye to cash currency or even the bank card? Following a roundtable with industry insiders, TomorrowLab sums up: what are the opportunities, threats, and challenges in the field of finance with 2030 as horizon? The conclusion for our future wallet is as fascinating as it is unpredictable.

Maybe more than any other business, communication, press and media are transforming rapidly as a result of technological advancement, such as Artificial Intelligence. How do professionals cope with this changing context? What is the impact on their role? And how will skills be shifting in the future? TomorrowLab and BelgaClub (Network of Belgian Spokespersons) yielded some interesting insights from a survey into the matter.

Recent global developments such as the pandemic, extreme weather and growing polarization will definitively change the playing field for sports. How and why we play sports is determined by these external factors which, at first glance, have nothing to do with sports.

After months on our virtual island, we are stepping out of our cocoons again, still somewhat cautiously. Teams find each other again at the office, at the coffee machine (never underestimate the breeding ground power of the coffee machine!).

In the first blog of this series, we talked about how to build understanding of the challenges with which your organisation is dealing today. This phase is crucial to define a joint ambition. In the second blog, we had a look at the next step: how to shape choices. And now, it’s time to take action! Let’s have a look at some examples and how to do this.

In our previous blog, we talked about how building understanding is key in succesful innovation projects. It’s a first and crucial step to understand your company’s challenges and to keep your eyes and ears open for signals from the outside. When that’s clear it’s time to shape choices within your organisation!

We’ve seen that we can innovate quickly when we’re faced with a major existential crisis, but how do organisations create a sense of urgency during day-to-day business? For day-to-day innovations like systems introductions, new product rollouts, major process shifts…. Because the truth is that most of these initiatives are urgent and existential; it’s just that they don’t always feel that way. In this article, we will share some experiences that you can apply to your business to create that sense of urgency.

Nowadays, many companies are suffering from the crisis. According to the economists of Euler Hermes, a credit insurance company, the number of bankruptcies will increase to 26% in 2021 vs 2019. The prognosis worldwide is even +35%

Many organisations struggle with a shortage of resources for their innovation projects. So how do you ensure that your innovation engine runs as efficiently as possible with as little fuel as possible (people, financial resources, ...)? Should you rather speed up or slow down? And where should you put your efforts? If there is one magic answer, it’s “focus”!

Keeping the innovation engine running at all times is key for your business survival in the long run. That might be challenging nowadays, since we’ve all been focused on keeping our business up and running in the short term. We’ve asked companies about their main challenges and we’ll give you an overview about how to tackle them.

How do you decide on the right direction for 2021 if everything can be different tomorrow? Does it make sense to plan when everything is uncertain? Not knowing what tomorrow will bring creates unrest and can even paralyze some organizations. Navigating and setting a course for your organization is more challenging than ever before.

In order to innovate successfully within your company, it is crucial that employees are assigned an involved role. In a previous blog, we underlined the importance of an organisational network analysis (ONA). An analysis in which we identify different key network roles. But what exactly do those roles look like? And why are they important for the success rate of your business innovation?

As unbelievable as it sounds, the Corona crisis that has been holding court for over half a year now hasn’t been exclusively negative. Sure, the amount of uncertainty it has created for citizens, business leaders, parents, and employees, is incredibly high. And, of course, the sports industry is no exception.

Veel bedrijven zijn door COVID-19 in een reorganisatie beland. Crisismanagement was noodzakelijk en een businesscontinuïtsplan werd ingevoerd.

The mobility & transportation sector has undergone several evolutions which had a significant impact on the organisations and companies operating in it. The speed of these changes increases dramatically.

Bedrijven zitten vaak vast in een operationele context, waarbij de bedrijfsstrategie niet meer is dan een extrapolatie van het verleden. Dit werkt niet meer. Om vandaag de dag succesvol te zijn, moet je de vinger aan de pols houden.

Great opportunities and potential threats are rarely obvious from the beginning. And yet, failing to see early signs of change can make your company irrelevant in time. How can you make sure you identify those blind spots early on? And how can you install a culture of continuous vigilance?

Do you find it hard to get your innovation projects off the ground? You’re not alone. According to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, about 95 percent of newly introduced products fail every year. So, how do you make innovation work? TomorrowLab reveals some of the secret ingredients.

Successful innovators always have a long-term strategy that helps them stay focused. At the same time, they need to be able to react fast to unexpected events and changing market conditions. How do they manage to reconcile both?

Last week we organized an online round table with Herman Van Rompuy, President emeritus European Council and President of the Advisory Board of TomorrowLab. You can read his speech over here.

Great things happen when people work together. This also applies to innovation. For greater innovation success, it pays to analyse what you’re good at and what not, and then look for partners with complementary capabilities.

Local authorities and governments have to keep up with technological and digital developments in public space. By adopting innovative and digital technologies, our cities remain liveable and we make them smarter. But how do we get there, cities and municipalities of the future?

Covid-19 has most of us confined to our homes, with a significant impact on our economy. Like in any other crisis, this has an immediate impact on our electricity consumption. E-mobility is strongly related to the availability and pricing of our energy. So let’s start there.

Niemand kon zich in januari inbeelden dat enkele weken later de voetbalcompetitie zou worden stopgezet, het klassieke wielervoorjaar weg zou vallen, dat EK’s, WK’s en Olympische Spelen zouden worden uitgesteld… Plots blijkt sport langs de ene kant heel relatief, maar langs de andere kant ook broodnodig voor ons fysiek en mentaal welbevinden. Wat betekent de huidige coronacrisis voor de sportwereld? Onze innovation designer Griet, gespecialiseerd in sportinnovatie, geeft haar visie.

Je leest het overal. De presentatie van de Veiligheidsraad kon op zijn minst beter, toch qua vorm. Maar het meest wordt er gelachen met de keuze van contact tracing via call-center met 1.000 operatoren. Volgens vele commentaren is dit terug naar de 19de eeuw met bakeliet telefoons, kleitabeletten en faxtoestellen. Niks is minder waar.

The main driver to take advantage of AI in business processes is to optimize a certain activity. But did you realise the implementation of these new technologies affects your life more than you can imagine?

With most of us working at home, interaction and relations with colleagues change. Both employees and managers are facing serious challenges in staying connected, engaged and productive. There’s a major role for formal and informal relations in tackling those challenges.

Scenario planning allows you to deal with uncertain futures and outcomes. How will our world and business environment look like in 10-20 years? And how do we, as an organisation or corporation, prepare for these unknown and uncertain outcomes?

Een duim voor de overheid en haar expertteam. In een mum van tijd organiseerden zij zich bijzonder efficiënt en namen ze doortastende maatregelen. Via een ongeziene stroom van onderbouwde informatie en aanbevelingen houden ze ons op de hoogte, én in het gareel. Dit is wat jij hieruit kan meenemen.

In the coming weeks and months, our businesses will be challenged to show their resilience as an organisation. Now more than ever, we can do things that will have an impact on our future. 3 burning questions we hear a lot nowadays.

How do you position yourself as a leader in a scenario planning process? How do you and your team come up with a shared vision of the future or strategy?

In order to help your organisation to get a grip on innovation and achieve short-term tangible results, we develop your future strategy. This is how we do it!

According to a recent study nearly 50% of the current S&P 500 companies will be replaced over the next decade. How can a business stand up against this evolution?

Responding to trends is no longer enough to stay afloat in this rapidly changing society, as trends are facts, they are visible.

Understandably, business leaders have become obsessed with moving fast in a world that changes at increasing speed. But when you go fast without knowing where you are going, you could end up getting lost.