Looking Outside Innovation BS: Lars Behrendt, Innovation Engineer

Jun 13, 2023

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Lars Behrendt joins us for this episode of Looking Outside, discussing the bureaucracy, ego and over-perfection that gets in the way of great innovating … in other words, Innovation Bullshit.

Now a voice of influence in the innovation space, particularly in his home country of Germany where he gets 10 million content views weekly, Lars shares how he ‘engineered’ a voice of authority in order to break through the clutter of innovation nonsense; with a few cuss words, a ton of humor and big hit of straight talk.

Believing innovation shouldn’t take years and cost a fortune, and most definitely shouldn’t be designed to death, Lars shares how he orchestrated a new way of innovating in just one week (through his company Granny&Smith) that allows real customers to make a decision on what’s a good idea, based on the most important metric of success: real sales.

Jo and Lars discuss why innovation without execution is bullshit, and why no one but the customer is the real expert in what a good idea is. Besides, as Lars says, real market feedback is the fun part of innovating. He makes this shift in process successful only by getting absolute commitment upfront in a fast, iterative process where skepticism is left at the door and a safe bubble is erected with risk-averse people unwelcome. Why? Ultimately, people in the process who are ‘trying to find a problem, will create a problem.’

Lars also discusses the plight of engineers, product designers and innovators who invest heart and soul into a system that often fails them; through roadblocks in getting a product to market, or a poor process of pre-testing that relegates the idea to failure. And how lowering the bar is a pivotal change that must happen in the innovation system.

To look outside, Lars goes deep on one single topic, completely blocking out all other distractions. He says only in this zone of intensive focus, while often exhausting and high pressure, can you discover new ways to approach old problems.

Lars Behrendt is considered one of the leading international innovation developers because he has been gaining real practical experience for more than 15 years, which makes him a true innovation expert. As a managing partner of the Granny&Smith Innovation Lab, which he founded in 2006, Lars has gathered profound expertise while working with numerous Dax corporations and Fortune 500 companies.

Born in Northern Germany, he started his company as a creative engineering firm and quickly became an innovation insider to major corporations.

Today, he works for 7 out of 9 of the most innovative German companies. He is also a co-developer and driver of numerous groundbreaking innovations and supported companies like IBM, Telekom, BMW or Volkswagen in their innovation processes.

Together with his team he co-developed more than 50 startups and launched countless innovations with the world's most renowned companies.

Learn more about the innovation process run by Granny&Smith: www.grannyandsmith.com & Lars
Listen to the Boiler Room podcast (in German).
Buy Lars' book Get Real Innovation.
Follow Lars on LinkedIn

Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.

Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.

OBOY and Neon Beach music features in Episode 37.