Innovation Mindset Development

Companies can no longer afford to rest on their laurels. The days of finding product-market fit once and then scaling from there for a long time are over. In today’s fast-paced tech market, change happens every 6 to 9 months - faster than ever. We are in an age of technology acceleration. Think about it: Microsoft took 20 years to become a household name, Google 5 years, Facebook 2 years, and ChatGPT just 3 months. With advances in hardware, open-source software, cloud infrastructure, and widespread tech adoption, the pace is only speeding up. In other words, by the time one product is scaling, it’s already time to start planning the next product strategy. Otherwise, you risk falling behind. So, companies must redefine product-market-fit on a frequent basis. That means product discovery and rediscovery is an ongoing task for the entire management team. Every leader must be living on the edge of innovation, staying ahead of market shifts and constantly adjusting. To succeed today, companies need to make strategic, high-stakes decisions on a constant basis - decisions that push the team to adapt quickly, pivot when necessary, and keep innovating. In this new era, product-market fit isn’t something you achieve and move on from. It’s something you fight for every day to stay relevant and ahead of the curve. Every year is the founding year for a tech company.

⏳ Time to retire the term “rock star” from our hiring vocabulary. I was recently asked if I could recommend a “rock star” for a high-profile executive role. It hit a nerve. Because I’ve seen what happens when we reward ego over empathy, brilliance over balance, and short-term wins over long-term impact. Yes, I’ve worked with actual rock stars. Some were deeply kind and curious. Others? All ego. Zero growth mindset. 💥The toxic rock star version. They deliver results at any cost. But often? That cost is people. Research from MIT during the Great Resignation showed toxic culture was the #1 predictor of attrition, even above compensation. At one company, turnover hit 48% in sales. Why? A top performer whose behavior bordered on bullying. But he “hit the numbers.” And here’s the trap: - We reward the results. - We ignore the wreckage. Even worse, terms like “rock star,” “ninja,” or “competitive” in job postings have been shown to deter diverse candidates, especially women. (SHRM survey results.) So what if we flipped the script? Hire for curiosity, not just charisma. Promote those who lift others, not just themselves. Build cultures where generosity, not ego, sets the tone. The real stars aren’t the loudest. They’re the ones who help others shine. ♻ Repost if you’re ready to redefine what high performance really looks like. Photo credit: Chad Gono

Watching young talent take bold risks made me think about the importance of nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset internally. Many organizations speak about innovation, yet their structures unintentionally restrict it. True entrepreneurship does not come from slogans or training sessions. It emerges when people are trusted to make decisions, take ownership, and challenge long-standing assumptions. When individuals feel responsible for outcomes rather than simply completing tasks, their entire perspective shifts. They begin to move with more confidence, think with greater ambition, and pursue ideas with the same determination you would expect from a founder. The biggest obstacle to internal entrepreneurship is unnecessary friction. Too many layers, slow approvals, and an environment that treats mistakes as failures quietly discourage initiative. In contrast, companies that allow space for calculated risk, value learning as much as results, and give teams visibility into the broader business naturally develop people who operate with a sense of ownership. The future belongs to organizations that enable this mindset. Leadership can emerge from any corner of a company when people are encouraged to question, explore, and build. Innovation becomes sustainable only when it is embedded in the culture, not imposed from above. Remember, real momentum begins when people shift from acting as employees to thinking as founders!

The holiday season isn’t just coming. It’s already here. Shoppers are buying earlier, spending smarter, and discovering brands in completely new ways. And in the middle of it all, Shopify merchants are adapting fast. 🤖 64% of shoppers are using AI tools to find deals. 🛍️ Shopping is happening across screens, stores, and socials. 🔁 And the best brands are showing up everywhere, with consistency. Shopify’s 2025 Holiday Retail Report just dropped and the data tells a story of four major shifts: 1. Consumers are spending more, but expecting more too. Discounts, bundles, shipping perks. Value matters this year. Brands like Blume are already capitalizing. 2. AI is a shopping companion now. From deal discovery to personalized product picks, AI is mainstream. Brave Little Ones is ahead of the curve, already using Shopify Sidekick. 3. Discovery is omnichannel. People are bouncing between digital and physical like never before. Glossier, Inc. nails this with seamless in-store + online touchpoints. 4. Trust is everything. Easy checkout. Local love. Strong values. Brands like Death Wish Coffee Company are proving loyalty starts with the experience. This is the new holiday playbook. And Shopify merchants are ready for it. Full report: https://lnkd.in/eEDCAGAU

Before every talk, I try to find an idea that cuts through the noise. I’ve been chasing the single insight marketers—across every category—can take from the challengers rewriting the rules. And I think I’ve found it (or at least one truth). 💡 Always-on brand tracking is their unfair advantage. #Challengerbrands are everywhere right now—and they’re winning. A fragmented media landscape, lower barriers to entry, and accessible creative tools have created the perfect storm for challengers to rise. But taking on legacy players in crowded markets is never easy. The smartest challengers don’t win by outspending. They win by out-choosing. They make deliberate calls about who to reach, where to show up, and what to measure. 📈WHAT Challengers move faster than legacy brands, and their brand data keeps pace. While many established brands still rely on quarterly or annual studies, challengers use always-on tracking to spot shifts in real time. They have dashboards that make brand health—awareness, preference, sentiment—visible every day. They know what messages are sticking and where their positioning is slipping. 📈WHY Challengers stay in constant dialogue with consumers. They turn millions of daily DMs, comments, and micro-interactions into marketing and innovation insights. That’s how they uncover pain points, gaps, and opportunities before others even see them coming. 📈WHO Challengers treat their audience as collaborators, not customers. They invest in community moderation and two-way engagement, creating a brand people build with, not just buy from. 📈WHERE They know exactly where their audience lives online and which platforms they're spending most time on. They don’t rely on intuition alone. They use tools to track where conversations are happening and whether perception matches intention. 📈WHEN While legacy brands often tire of their own campaigns long before consumers do, challengers understand that repetition builds memory. They know that creative consistency, not constant reinvention, is what drives recall and trust. You can see this play out in brands like REFY and BYOMA, both redefining what it means to grow fast, stay close to their communities, and make data beautiful. (Link in comments to a recent Tracksuit webinar with loads of examples of HOW they’re doing it.) 💬 Now it is your turn: Feel free to challenge me, please. What’s one lesson all marketers can learn from challenger brands? I'd love to hear from you in one or two sentences in the comments. ⬇️  #BrandStrategy #marketing #data #partnership

Do you tend to focus on what’s missing? Does your leadership enhance or break the confidence of your teams? Many leaders get caught up in having the perfect plan, the perfect execution, and the ideal results. This glass-half-empty approach leads to missed opportunities, stress, and burnout for themselves and their teams. In numerous feedback conversations with team members, I have heard them say, “ Nothing I do ever seems to be enough “, “ I am always made to feel like I am not good at my role”, and “ My leader has unrealistic expectations. “ Perfection is subjective, an endless trap and a lost cause Explore excellence instead. Perfection plays up as noticing and identifying what’s wrong or missing in a project. It is the need to get every detail right. While it may work with processes, it may not work with people. Pursuing excellence, on the other hand, involves consciously acknowledging progress and then focusing on areas that need to be corrected or enhanced. The difference may seem subtle. However, the impact is not. The former approach can result in frustration, fear, anxiety and stress, the latter a sense of accomplishment, clarity and purpose. Pursuing excellence is a mindset, an attitude, and a commitment to continued learning and development. Some reflections you may find helpful in shifting your approach ▷ “How do I define success for myself and my teams?” ▷ “What are my core values, and which do I need to honour for others?” ▷ “How do I show up as a leader, especially when things do not go as planned?” ▷ “ When does my feedback encourage progress, and when does it reinforce perfection?” ▷ “ What can help me stay mindful about pursuing excellence?” A key role you play as a leader is to make it safe for your teams to experiment. Be proactive in building trust and reducing fears so teams contribute actively and collaborate seamlessly. ⦿ What usually catches your eye first, the flaws or the progress? #LeadershipDevelopment #Perfectionism #ExecutiveCoaching

💡 A Paradigm Shift in Innovation: Are you ready for the compounding effects of Tech Convergence? The World Economic Forum’s latest report reinforces what Amy Webb has been proposing for years. We are no longer witnessing individual tech breakthroughs. Instead, we're in an era of deep “Tech Convergence”, where tectonic shifts in a multitude of technologies occuring in parallel begin to converge, slowly and then suddenly. This isn't just another buzzword; it's a fundamental reshaping of industries, value chains, and competitive advantage. The report introduces the powerful 3C Framework - 1️⃣ Combination: The report identifies eight key technology domains—from AI and Omni Computing to Engineering Biology and Quantum Technologies—that are not just advancing in parallel but are being actively *combined*. Think of AI enhancing next-gen energy grids or spatial intelligence revolutionizing robotics. In telecom, this means combining Edge AI with 5G/6G networks to create truly intelligent, decentralized systems. 2️⃣ Convergence: These tech combinations are dissolving traditional industry silos. For telecom, this is a pivotal moment. We are no longer just connectivity providers. By integrating AI, IoT, and spatial intelligence, we are moving into new value chains—becoming the central nervous system for autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and remote healthcare. The opportunity? To shift from providing infrastructure to enabling entire ecosystems. 3️⃣ Compounding: As these converged solutions scale, they create exponential returns. Network effects, cost reductions, and the emergence of new standards accelerate innovation in a self-reinforcing cycle. For instance, as intelligent grid systems powered by our networks become standard, the demand for more advanced connectivity and data processing will explode, fueling the next wave of investment and innovation. Key Takeaways for businesses: - Beyond Connectivity: Our future value lies in enabling the convergence of other technologies. We are the backbone upon which intelligent, autonomous systems will be built. - Ecosystem Leadership: The race is on to establish and lead new ecosystems. This requires strategic partnerships across industries—from automotive to healthcare and energy. - Strategic Investment: It's crucial to balance our portfolio between mature technologies (like cloud infrastructure) and emerging ones (like quantum communication) to capture value at every stage of the 3C cycle. The message is clear: the winners of tomorrow will be those who master the art of technology convergence. We must move beyond segmented thinking and embrace a systems-level approach to innovation. Every business will have to begin with a serious diagnostic of their level of maturity and readiness to be able to embrace these transformative platform shifts. #TechConvergence #WEF #Innovation #AI #Telecom #5G #6G #FutureOfTech #Strategy #DigitalTransformation #IoT #QuantumComputing

I tell my founder clients to leave critical problems unsolved. Deliberately. Here's why: Your brain has two distinct problem-solving modes. Focused mode: where you actively tackle issues head-on. Diffuse mode: where connections form in the background while you're doing something else. Most founders live exclusively in focused mode. Always completing. Always closing loops. Always exhausting their cognitive resources. The neuroscience is clear: Research shows our most valuable insights happen during diffuse mode thinking. But here's what no one tells you about founder psychology: The more critical the problem, the harder it is to step away. The more urgent the timeline, the more you need to. What I teach instead is strategic incompleteness: 1. Start important work ↳ Gather information ↳ Define the problem clearly ↳ Identify key constraints 2. Then deliberately walk away ↳ Before reaching resolution ↳ When you feel momentum ↳ Right at the edge of breakthrough 3. Engage in something completely different ↳ Physical activity (I use running) ↳ Creative tasks (sketching works well) ↳ Mundane activities (driving, showering) 4. Return with fresh perspective ↳ Solutions appear seemingly from nowhere ↳ Connections form between disparate ideas ↳ Breakthrough thinking emerges naturally A Series B founder I worked with was stuck on a critical pricing strategy for weeks. His team was frustrated. Their runway was shortening. The pressure was suffocating. After implementing strategic incompleteness, the solution came to him while walking his dog. Not random luck. Cognitive science. Strategic pause. The freedom you're searching for isn't in working harder. It's in trusting your brain's natural problem-solving architecture. Your team doesn't need you to have all the answers immediately. They need you to have the right answers eventually. What critical problem could you deliberately leave unfinished today, allowing your brain to work its background magic?

We need "Entrepreneurial Leaders"; not just entrepreneurs or leaders. I meet many founders & business leaders and observe one aspect, that if changed can create huge benefits for the business world. Not all entrepreneurs are leaders. Not all leaders are entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurs are often idea machines; they dream big, move fast, break things, build things. But not all of them know how to lead people, build culture, or scale sustainably. Leaders, on the other hand, are great with people, process, and progress.They inspire, align, and are expert at driving execution. But many aren’t wired to take risks, challenge norms, or act with the urgency that innovation demands. The impact we see on both sides, Startups led by entrepreneurs grow fast but burn out even faster.They crash from chaos, teams burn out or tune out. Whereas corporates led by traditional leaders may stay stable but become irrelevant. They get stuck in comfort zones, growth slows, Innovation dies. But what if we foster mindset shift that creates "Entrepreneurial Leaders." People who can: - Think like a founder - Lead like a coach - Move like a startup - Build like a strategist One can certainly see that, it's the mindset problem, not DNA and hence can be altered. In my view here's how entrepreneurs & leaders can drive the shift; in thinking & in actions- Mindset shift for entrepreneurs: From “I’ll do whatever it takes” → to “I’ll build systems that scale without me.” From “It’s my vision” → to “It’s our shared mission.” From “Speed at any cost” → to “Sustainable, repeatable growth.” Mindset shift for leaders: From “Let’s avoid risk” → to “Let’s manage risk while trying new things.” From “Here’s the plan” → to “Let’s experiment and iterate.” From “Keep the business stable” → to “Let’s challenge the status quo.” Businesses, startups or small, medium & large corporates will see higher success & sustainable future when entrepreneurs will learn to lead & leaders will learn to think like entrepreneurs. I firmly believe that the future belongs to those who can both invent and inspire, build and lead, dream and deliver. So whether you're a founder, CXO, or functional leader, ask yourself: How can I build the muscle to be an entrepreneurial leader? #entrepreneurs #leaders #mindset #growth #success

What if your talent doesn't fix your potential, but is multiplied by your perspective? In a world where professionals view abilities as static, neuroplasticity offers a revolutionary approach to personal development. Here are three ways to leverage your brain's growth potential for extraordinary results: 👉 Create a "𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻" inventory. Self-awareness of your neural adaptability enables strategic development of mental capabilities. Identify the thinking patterns where you consistently create unique insights and produce breakthrough results that others struggle to imagine. 👉 Implement "𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴." Combine complementary learning strategies to create compound cognitive capabilities beyond individual approaches. This neural pairing creates exponential rather than incremental growth in your mental performance and adaptability. 👉 Practice "𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴," not elimination. Building adaptive mental frameworks is more efficient than attempting to change fixed beliefs forcibly. Develop learning processes, seek diverse perspectives, or use cognitive tools to compensate for areas where your current thinking feels constrained. 𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀: focusing on neural plasticity activates different brain pathways than traditional fixed-mindset thinking, creating a more efficient and motivationally powerful route to personal growth. ✅ According to Stanford University's latest research, leaders with strong growth mindsets are 31% more likely to create high-performing teams and drive innovation. Your exceptional potential isn't predetermined—it's continuously created by your willingness to expand your perspective. Coaching can help; let's chat. Follow Joshua Miller Ready to discover your potential? 🚀 Download Your Free E-Book:  “𝟮𝟬 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀” ↳ https://rb.gy/37y9vi #executivecoaching #careeradvice #growthmindset