INTRODUCTION

TO THNK

NEED FOR A SCHOOL ON INNOVATION &

CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
! Innovation, the creation and application of new product market solutions & business
models, is important to capture new growth opportunities and also because current
businesses are at risk. Still hardly any corporation is satisfied with their innovation
performance and able to sustain growth.

! Businesses are facing challenges that are more often multi-dimensional and they are

realizing that a sole focus on profit maximization with one business model is no longer
sustainable. A stronger commitment to broader stakeholders, including workers, society
&planet is increasingly called for.

! Leadership in corporations is increasingly becoming an individual act. These talented

individuals avoid traditional classroom based academic instruction and dont learn from
lectures. They only find interactive and experience-based learning to be of true value.

MOST COMPANIES STRUGGLE WITH

THEIR INNOVATION PERFORMANCE
Percentage of global executives who agree (%)

Innovation is important
to our growth strategy

Our business
models are at risk

84%

80%
6%
We are satisfied with our
innovation performance

SOURCE: McKinsey Global Innovation Survey, McKinsey Innovation Practice

The largest challenges are multi-dimensional.

Commitment to people, planet and profit are warranted.
The world needs innovative solutions.
Leadership is an individual act & leadership development has to be
experiential.

The largest challenges are multi-dimensional.

Commitment to people, planet
and profit warranted
The world needs innovative solutions.
Leadership is an individuals act.
Leadership development has to be experiential.
4

AS AN EXECUTIVE WHERE DO YOU

STAND ON INNOVATION?
! How do you generate breakthrough
business concepts?

! How do you orchestrate your companys

ecosystem to nurture innovative new
ideas?

! How do you instill an innovation drive

within your organization?

! How do you cast & lead your team to

conceive & grow innovative solutions?

! How do you build disruptive business

models that impact the bottom line?

WE SET YOU UP TO LEAD INNOVATION AT

SCALE IN YOUR COMPANY
The THNK program will:

! provide you with a set of actionable frames, tools, and common language to set-up a
structured process around innovation

! strengthen your ability to lead and orchestrate innovation teams

! deliver a rich stream of intensive feedback from peers and THNK faculty to build selfawareness and leadership competencies

! offer an unrivalled network of peers and THNK's own network, from all sectors and across
the globe

! enable you to learn from commercial entrepreneurs about how to be nimble and agile in

seizing growth opportunities, and from social entrepreneurs about meaning and relevance

! support you in accelerating your own corporate innovation project within your own
organization

A NEW SCHOOL

B-school

Not management but

innovation leadership

THNK
Innovation strategy
Business design
thinking
Leadership
development
Entrepreneural
mindset
Triple bottomline

D-school

Not product design

but business design

THNK MISSION
! THNK is a leading international school of creative leadership, offering an 18-month, postgraduate program to a carefully selected group of international top talent.

! We are driven by a dual mission: support creative leaders & develop innovative solutions to
large societal challenges.

! We blend the best of 3 worlds by bringing together participants, insights, and experiences
from large corporates, commercial entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs. Corporates
bring business thinking and performance excellence at scale, commercial entrepreneurs
bring street-smart problem solving and nimble opportunity creation, and social
entrepreneurs bring passion and societal purpose for creating a better world.

! Our curriculum is truly participative, experiential, learning-by-doing, and personalized.

THNK DUAL MISSION

Find creative
solutions to
large societal
challenges
Develop
cadre of creative
leaders

HIGH CALIBER ADVISORY BOARD

DOMINIQUE
BARTON
GLOBAL MD

BEN VAN BERKEL

ARCHITECT

RAVI
NAIDOO
FOUNDER

MARCEL WANDERS ESTHER WOJCICKI

FOUNDER
VICE-CHAIR

MCKINSEY &
COMPANY

UNSTUDIO

INTERACTIVE
AFRICA DESIGN
INDABA

MARCEL WANDERS CREATIVE

COMMONS

MICHAEL JOHNSON WERNER VOGELS

MPG/MEDIA LEAD CTO

REUBEN ABRAHAM GEORGE KEMBEL

DIRECTOR CEMS
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR

PIXAR ANIMATION
STUDIOS

INDIAN SCHOOL OF STANFORD

BUSINESS
D.SCHOOL

AMAZON.COM

10

THE PROFILE WE LOOK FOR

! Working in a Corporate Environment, Creative Business Entrepreneur or Social
Innovator.

! Min. 8 years working experience, now in a leadership position. Significant strategic

responsibility, active in transformational/growth area. Preparing for breakthrough

! Visionary/ Idea Rich. Societal driven and passionate. Deep generalist (T-shaped). Affinity
with Technology. Entrepreneurial and explorative mindset

! International experience and outlook. Typically mid 30s, early 40s

11

If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we

shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires
people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a
company of giants.
- David Ogilvy

12

GLOBAL PARTICIPATION

13

COMMERCIAL ENTREPRENEURS
HERMEN HULST (NL)

JASPER VAN DRIEST (NL)

!
!

Managing Director of Guerrrilla Games

International experienced creative gaming guru

CEO and Co-owner of Ancra Systems;

worldwide market leader in fully automated
truck loading solutions

FELIX COEPER (NL/DE)

MARK TURRELL (DE/CA)

Experienced business entrepreneur in

cardiovascular medical wonders

Founder of a strategy and marketing agency

focused on the science of spread, helping
organizations design programs to scale and
spread products

JONATHAN WISLER (US)

RAND HINDI (FR)

!
!

!
!

GM EMEA at Softlayer Technologies

History of scaling innovation across borders
and in traditional industries

Internet entrepreneur in Healthcare sector

Worked as a freelance consultant in
algorithmic trading

14

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS
SHAMMY JACOB (NL/INDIA)

SHARON CHANG (USA/CN)

Leading international sustainability

entrepreneur

Creative brain behind the American Idol and

SYTYCD concepts

20+ yrs product management, previously

Director for Sustainable Ventures ad Nike

Board member on several NGOs and tech

startups

ROSHAN PAUL (KE/IN)

JON GOSIER (US)

!
!

Reshaper of the global education system

Designed a new model for graduate education

based in Narobi, the Armani instituted

Has set up multiple tech companies in US and

Africa

Award winning designer and software engineer

TOBY CHAUDHURI (US)

LEENA AL OLAIMY (BH)

Co-founder of 3BL, a social impact

consultancy and think-do-tank

Passionate about solving social problems

Co-Founder of a strategy consulting firm that

bridges the worlds of social movements, online
engagement & offline experience

15

CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURS
YRAN BARTOLUMEU DIAS (BRAZIL)

ARJAN VAN OS (NL)

!
!

Partner McKinsey & Company

Innovation Practice Leader Latin America

Head of Innovation Centre at ABN AMRO

Bank N.V

GISELE LEGIONET (GERMANY)

AMELIA HURLBUT (USA)

!
!

15+ years in UX & Design at Vodafone Group

and start-ups

Director of Operations for Disney English

13 years innovating language learning

NICK GRAHAM (NL/GB)

LAURENS V.D. VIJVER (SE/NL)

!
!

!
!

GM, EMEA for VF Corporation

Experienced in apparel, work-wear, retail, and
wholesale management

Global Marketing Director at GANT AB

12 years of international marketing experience
at Heineken, Tetrapak based all over the world

16

EXAMPLE: INNOVATION AT ABNAMRO

! ABNAMRO
One of the 3 largest
Dutch banks
Since 09 state-owned

Arjan van Os, the head of the Innovation Centre at ABNAMRO .

The THNK program helped Arjan to:
! Emphasize the importance of acting with passion and purpose in regard
to everything you do (in both professional and personal life)

! Get familiar with the THNK creation flow which stood as a model for the
! Innovation Centre at
Innovation Funnel process used in the Innovation Centre.
ABNAMRO is tasked to
develop radical innovation ! Use many concrete methods, tools, and models on a daily basis in
initiatives e.g.,:
Innovation Workshops and meetings
developing new business
! Improve his leadership skills e.g., applying new ways to influence decision
models, products,
makers (e.g. prototyping , storytelling), casting and coaching diverse
services
accelerating and
optimizing existing
businesses
creating a culture that
fosters innovation
individual pursuits.

teams and trusting your inner compass

! Adopt a different set of rules to think (e.g., reframing orthodoxies,

thinking big, taking a disruptive stance), surprising himself and others
with new thoughts and feeling self-confident when doing it
! Receive intensive and frequent coaching from acoach who really gets to
know you professionally and knows to inspire, challenge, and confront
17

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

18

CONTENT IS INTEGRATED
! The program on campus consists of 3 integrated elements:
Forum: series of authentic and courageous conversations with global creative leaders
and leading experts
Challenge: project with leading corporate partners to develop innovative solutions on
large societal themes
Quest: individual and team coaching on creative leadership

! These elements are integrated in the program

Forum discussions cover the creative leadership dimensions of Quest
Participants practice their leadership skills derived from Quest in their Challenge
projects
External experts attracted to the Forum discussions help to guide Challenge projects
and concepting process
19

FORUM USES REAL DIALOGUES

LEADING TO DISCOVERY & CONNECTION
!

Visiting expert of international leading

stature (e.g., TED Global speaker).

! Small and intimate setting. Participants

pose questions and lead the flow of the
discussion.

! Expert goes with the flow, shares hopes,

fears, insights, uncertainties, and also
poses questions to the group on their
individual mission.

20

QUEST DEVELOPS EACH DIMENSION OF

CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
! We work with a tailored leadership model oriented toward creative leadership, not general
leadership or classic management.

! We recruit participants on 2 creative leadership dimensions: acting with passion and

purpose (i.e. , contributing to a better world) and applying an explorative mindset (i.e.,
mastering ambiguity, seeking inspiration broadly).

! During the program we focus on developing 3 dimensions of creative leadership:

envisioning a better future (i.e., storytelling that moves to act), orchestrating creative
teams (i.e., casting the creative clash in diverse teams) and driving breakthrough results
(i.e., engaging the whole system for change).

! Upon entry in the program, each participant will do a 360 degree survey on the creative
leadership model. The THNK program helps to further build on strengths with a
dedicated coach for 18 months.

21

QUEST: CREATIVE LEADERSHIP MODEL

Casting the creative clash
Empowering others to create
Coaching creative teams
Unleashing the creative organization
Growing & harvesting creative
networks

Storytelling that moves to act

Thinks big societal impact
Articulating a clear vision
Finding creative solutions
Courage to be a pioneer
ENVISIONING
A BETTER
FUTURE

APPLYING AN
EXPLORATIVE
MINDSET

Seeking inspiration from different sources

Mastering ambiguity
Demanding gold
Taking a disruptive stance
Adopting a holistic perspective

ORCHESTRATING
CREATIVE
TEAMS

DRIVING
BREAKTHROUGH
CHANGE

Engaging the whole system for change

Creating a sense of urgency and
inescapability
Unleashing an accelerating change
Dealing with and benefiting from
unpredictability
Protecting bottom line viability

ACTING WITH
PASSION &
PURPOSE

Contributing to a better world

Following inner compass
Seeks continuous personal
growth
Mastering self
Mastering a profession
22

CHALLENGE: WORK ON SPECIFIC

INNOVATION PROJECTS
! Participants work on Challenge projects, business innovation projects on specific topics
that matter including:

Societal relevance (e.g., energy, food, health, aging). These pose the largest challenges
for corporations, enterprise, and institutions
Citizen technologies (e.g., digital lifestyle concepts, decentralized production). These
play an important role to empower society
Urban dynamics. This is where most of the world will be living.

! We use a standard process to go through these Challenges, offering the best of strategy
development, business development, and design thinking

! They are learning and innovation opportunities, fuelled by the large diversity and changing
pace between intensive interaction on campus and free exploration during the off-campus
period.

23

CHALLENGE: TOPICS THAT MATTER TO

SOCIETY

RESOURCES
Food
Water
Climate
Energy
Sustainability

DEMOGRAPHY &
MOBILITY

EMERGENT
TECHNOLOGY

GLOBAL
INTERACTIONS

HUMAN
WELLBEING

Population Shifts
Asia
Africa
Megacities
Communities

Nanotechnology
Robotics
Bioscience/Genetics
Neuroscience
Artificial Intelligence

Economics & Finance

Complexity
Social Networks
Virtual Worlds
Intellectual Property

ID & Authenticity
Security
Work & Business
Future Education
Future Health

24

OUR PARTNERS ON CHALLENGE

PROJECTS IN 2012 AND 2013

25

CHALLENGE: WE APPLY BEST-IN-CLASS

CONCEPTING
! The THNK concepting flow is an
iterative process to develop
breakthrough business concepts
! It includes up to a hundred tools &
frameworks that can be directly applied
in an organization

! The tools are inspired by and co-created

withStanfordd.school,
IDEO,Strategos,Philips Design, OMA,
McKinsey & Company, THNK Faculty,
and others.

26

THNK SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSES

DESIGN TO SCALE IN CONCEPTING
! Scaling is the accelerated introduction of an innovative business concept, in a complex
system with significant market uncertainty. This is increasingly the context our corporate
participants work in.
! For participants: we developed more that 50 Scaling frames - master practitioner concepts
that blend insights from leading strategy thinking and concepts rooted in complexity
theory, behavioral economics, and strategy under uncertainty.
! We apply these Scaling frames in the creation process to design new business concepts for
maximum scalability.
! All applicable in your organization.

27

SCALING FRAMES INFORM ADAPTIVE

STRATEGIES
We use various frames to include scaling in the design:

Emergence

How to deal with system level

patterns

Networks

How to act in complex systems

made up of people that interact
with each other

Waves

Where to expect and how to

take advantage of occurring
phenomena in complex
systems
28

EXCITING CHALLENGE OUTPUT CLASS 1

EMPTY OFFICE SPACE
CITY OF AMSTERDAM,
BAM, ARCADIS

BIG DATA
VODAFONE

AMSTERDAM AS A
SUSTAINABLE CITY
KLM, SCHIPHOL, CITY OF
AMSTERDAM

CTRL+N, New architecture and project

development firm to repurpose large,
empty infrastructure, in partnership with
OMA, UNStudio, ARUP

Data Institute, a data analysis company

focused on city data across prosperity, wellbeing and attractiveness in partnership
with McKinsey, Vodafone, Ipsos
Marktquest

Visiting citizen, City visitor loyalty

program in partnership with Municipality
of Amsterdam, Booking.com, and Schiphol

29

EXCITING CHALLENGE OUTPUT CLASS 2

THE FUTURE OF
EDUCATION
VAN DIJK EDUCATIE

SMART ENERGY
CARBON WAR ROOM

DNS, a new school to develop 1000 best

in class master teachers in secondary
education for the Netherlands per year, in
partnership with DEO/VDE

Sunloader, mobile payment based energy

charger as business model in developing
countries. Partnership with Text4Change,
impact investors

30

EXCITING CHALLENGE OUTPUT CLASS 3

SMART LIVEABLE CITIES
VODAFONE

FUTURE OF URBAN
MOBILITY
SHELL

KaMa, print/digital book for families &

elderly to maintain and share life stories.

WeFlow, use of mobility data for car

sharing, multi-modal connections, and
optimal infrastructure use.

Flying Angels, drone-based air bridge for

hospital and other supplies

31

EXCITING CHALLENGE OUTPUT CLASS 4

FUTURE OF PERSONAL
HEALTH
PHILIPS

Sonum a smart set of sensor-equipped

sheets that improve sleep experience
Dream a smart baby monitor for parents &
babies to sleep better
Accenter Reduces stress through the power
of journaling & connecting health
professionals with patients via an app &
simple wearable.

FUTURE OF EARLY
LEARNING
BERNARD VAN LEER

Virtuoze - Learning toy that integrates real

(LEGO car) with virtual (iPad race game)
Bio Play - An immersive XBox 720 game
experience that encourages kids to play
outside & acquire inventory to unfreeze
the earth in 2300
Verhalenhuis A movement to get kids to
experience the power & beauty of stories
32

ACCELERATOR SUPPORTS THE

PARTICIPANTS INNOVATION PROJECT
! In the 2nd phase of the program, THNK supports the participants with the acceleration of
their own innovation project.

! This could be leading to breakthrough innovations and/or accelerating growth of existing

innovation concepts, within their larger organization, own business unit or enterprise

! THNK support includes individual mentoring (12 one-hour sessions, one per month),

individual coaching (12 one-hour sessions, one per month), peer support, use of all frames
and tools, Corporate Innovation Essentials, and 2 Acceleration Festivals at the THNK
Home.

33

OUR FACULTY
Some examples
STEFANO
MARZANO
DEAN

ELLY
VAN GILS
LEADERSHIP
COACH

RAJIV BALL
LEADERSHIP
EXPERT

ROBERT
WOLFE
LEADERSHIP
COACH

KARIM
BENAMMAR
CURATOR

BEREND-JAN
HILBERTS
CHALLENGE
COORDINATOR

Inspiring, pushing the envelope and supportive. Being the glue to hold
teams in good spirit. Challenging and stimulating us in our own right .
Friendly and disciplined at the same time. Bringing fun to the process of
challenges. True master of the subject including the facts & figures. Brings
warmth and radiance. Truly inspiring and connecting well.
Love his positive energy.
34

SPECIAL THNK HOME

INAMSTERDAM
! THNK Home is a former town hall, approx. 600 sq.
!
!
!
!

meters of unique space in Amsterdam center

Open, inviting, uplifting space
Iconic architectural style called the Amsterdam School
With an interior design that is completely unlike any
traditional university
One floor, open space, stage to perform, fully flexible
arrangements, food & drink facilities in the middle, no
entry barriers, effective usage of light & music, inviting
walk-ins from the street

35

LEVERAGE THE THNK EXPERIENCE

INTO YOUR OWN ORGANIZATION
! Several corporations have engaged with THNK for in-company programs.
them on the essential dimensions of corporate innovation.

We work with

! Corporate participants bring the THNK tools into their organization and add these to the
corporate tool set. THNK poses no intellectual property limitations and stimulates this
adaptation.

! Corporations can also engage with THNK on the choice of Challenge project, sponsor
these and co-invest in the realization of resulting new enterprises.

36

HIGH FEEDBACK SCORES

FEEDBACK ON THE PROGRAM
(1 to 5 scale)

NET PROMOTER SCORE

(0-100%)

37

QUOTES FROM PARTICIPANTS

I thought I was not creative (and that this did not matter), but now I
fully realize the necessity of innovation to drive company health and I
have a structured approach for executing on this. I have implemented all
in my own organization
THNK is a high speed life-changing program that brings the best from
D-school and B-School together. As a result of THNK I changed career
path and am now building a highly innovative new business in the
Middle East
The THNK program helped me to question orthodox assumptions,
open up towards what others think and explore. My company is
becoming much more explorative as a result
38

MEASURING ROI
WE NEED
CREATIVE LEADERS

84%

Innovation is important
to our company

Having a breakthrough innovation

approach with actionable tools
Being an effective innovation leader, making
own organization more innovative and adaptive
Making real progress on own acceleration project;
a major innovation for the company
Having trust-based relationships with a
diverse cadre of top quality international
creative leaders
6%

We are satisfied with our

innovation performance
39

THNK, School of Creative Leadership

Phone: +31(0) 20 684 25 06

Haarlemmerweg 8A | 1014 BE Amsterdam

The Netherlands

info@thnk.org
www.thnk.org

40