Lars Behrendt > Quotes

“The best project management in an innovation process either does not exist or only plays a “helping role.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“This means: writing in the same way we speak. I am convinced - only when real emotions are involved can real innovation be created.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“The classic approach (specification sheets, requirement specifications, waterfall method) is completely unsuitable for innovation projects.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Innovation killer: Hierarchies”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“What appears as hierarchies regularly flattening out, is in reality, the development of employees capable of self-management, which is vital for business survival.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“From my personal experience, the biggest innovations are not profitable at all in the first phase. In fact, they generally lose money.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“My thesis on this: conventional innovation strategy is nothing more than guesswork!”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Real innovation creates fear! To give up something that still works, to do things differently, to invest hard-earned money, to “let go” - all of this creates paralyzing fear.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Ask yourself the question: What is the point of it all? Why are you doing your job? What are you doing it for? What is it that drives you? And what gives you real inner joy when you do it? The important thing is that there is no right or wrong answer to this.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“My observation is that far too often, we act out of blind love for technology and see solutions only in software or hardware. Subscription services and flat rates as the new business models?”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“We are experiencing far-reaching changes at all levels of our society. Traditional ways of thinking, values that have been accepted for years, and even institutions that seemed untouchable are losing their importance. It is clear to everyone that we have to change something on a fundamental level.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Anyone who wants innovative leadership must be prepared to be both the boss and the employee.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Many people forget the actual meaning of design: design has first and foremost a purpose to fulfill. This should always be to simplify or improve people’s lives. Design is therefore a very concrete form of solution orientation, which always has the end user in mind.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“I wanted a culture where each individual is fully engaged in what he or she is doing and as a result takes responsibility and can also achieve genuinely exceptional results. My dream: to have a team of employees who can do exactly what they really want to do, what is in their hearts, where they can blossom and create things that they are truly proud”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“In the environment of radical innovation, the conventional rules of consumer behavior, economics, profitability, and predictability are regularly broken.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“To pause for a moment, to thank the employee, and then, ideally, to inquisitively develop ideas further would be my suggestion for a pragmatic but extremely helpful approach in order to foster repeated cycles of innovation.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Let go. Forget everything you’ve learned over the years. With “old-school management,” you definitely won’t build a culture of innovation.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“But the negative reaction is often driven purely by fear. Fear that one’s know-how would no longer be useful in the future, extending to the fear that one’s person will be dispensable in the future.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“The main objective in an increasingly complex product world: to obtain tangible, validated results as quickly as possible while burning as little money as possible in the process.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“the Innovate! Friday was born. On this day, all employees are allowed to work on self-selected challenges of the future to develop executable first prototypes that might make the world a little bit better.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Culture is like a shadow of our activities. This means that culture cannot be directly influenced. Instead, I can train behavior again and again, and at some point, culture will follow naturally.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“This book is for creative lateral thinkers, hopeless optimists, and people who can no longer bear the sentence “We’ve always done it this way!” who wish to move forward or develop themselves further.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“In many companies, the path from idea to a fully implemented innovation is lined with overflowing brainstorming sessions, specifications, deep bureaucracy, regular budget cuts, eternally long project durations, lack of resources, and much more - all of which makes the path to innovation virtually impossible. In addition, countless great proposals are lying in a drawer somewhere, never to be implemented—the result: disillusioned and frustrated employees.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“While researching new techniques, we came across the Chaos Manifesto Study. This study states that more than 90% of all significant projects fail. Failure here means the collapse of the golden triangle of budget, timing, and quality.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Innovation development, as we originally knew it, has changed fundamentally. It is increasingly a question of bringing new products and services into the market as quickly as possible. To meet changes in the market today means to realize new ideas with astonishing speed. Agile methods, such as design thinking or a focus on minimum viable products (see chapter MVP), help achieve”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Innovation killer: focus on productivity”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Therefore, my recommendation, contrary to all the criteria for funding, is: if I can execute my project without funding - I do it! Only if it really cannot be done otherwise, then take a grant.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“But none of this can hide the fact that behind the fun façade, there is very often high pressure to succeed, a wealth of meaningless activities, unpaid overtime, uncreative tasks, and dishonest behavior within the team.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“today, I need a really good product AND effective, loud communication. The thin line here: communication, especially when it is loud, must never tip over into annoying advertising.”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION

“Innovation killer: pseudo-innovation spaces”
― Lars Behrendt, GET REAL INNOVATION