On writing

Rasmus Sellberg
Aug 29, 2017 · 2 min read

I’ve taken up writing again.

After a few years hiatus, I’ve rediscovered writing. And I enjoy it immensely. First, 90% of the time is spent reading, learning new things — a favorite pastime of mine. Second, formulating my thoughts in writing brings clarity. I become smarter. Third, there’s the zen-like craft itself. Not only do I want to convey my astute interpretation of the subject. I want to do it with my voice. Altogether, writing is a deeply satisfying process.

So, I have decided to spend more time writing. And if I’m lucky, someone will want to read it.

To me, the writing itself is an introvert exercise. The pleasure of being read is of an entirely different kind, an inherently extrovert one. To inform and entertain. Be part of public discourse. Stick one’s neck out. Make a dent. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s exciting. I will write in English to increase the potential exposure. I apologize in advance for any errors.

I will mostly write about innovation. It’s an important topic. R&D investments are up, yet the returns from those investments are down 65% over the last 30 years. That’s on average — some successful companies have grown their returns from innovation during the same period. Why is that? How do they do it? I’m not sure that I have a definitive answer to that, but I will share some clues based on my experience.

To be specific, I will — with permission — describe the three principles for successful innovation that guide the client projects at Daytona, the agency I co-founded in 2002 and recently left. Over the years, drawing from the experience from hundreds of innovation projects, we observed some common traits of the assignments that were considered successful. We boiled these traits down and formalized them into three principles: Collaborate, Understand, and Prototype.

If you’re interested in innovation (and perhaps the odd war story from the trenches of an innovation agency), I will post some of the texts here. Soon. Hopefully, the conversations enabled by Medium will make me a better writer.

If things go well, this may eventually turn into my second book. I’m (very) humbled by the enormity of such an undertaking, so I won’t promise anything. I’d regard it a bonus.

We’ll see.

Innovation Principles

Based on experience from hundreds of innovation projects, successful ones share a few common traits. They can be boiled down to three principles: Collaborate, Understand, and Prototype.

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Rasmus Sellberg

Written by

Senior innovation advisor/manager. Board member. Author. http://www.rasmussellberg.com

Innovation Principles

Based on experience from hundreds of innovation projects, successful ones share a few common traits. They can be boiled down to three principles: Collaborate, Understand, and Prototype.

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