Thoughts from a grumpy innovator

Costas Papaikonomou is one of the founders of Happen.com, one of the fastest growing creative innovation agencies of the 21st century. A career in innovation – studying, dreaming, creating, researching and realizing new products. It’s been an amazing journey, playing in the birth chambers of mass market multinationals. Nevertheless he’s quite grumpy. Why are so many brilliant ideas culled before they’ve had a chance to shine in the real world? Why are so many awful ideas pushed through the system and launched, only to fail miserably, ruining careers and bankrupting businesses? Why are so many blatantly obvious market opportunities ignored and not fulfilled with the right products, helping people lead happier lives and bringing prosperity to the companies that could have introduced them? This little book is my attempt at understanding why so many innovations fail, why that is often wholly unnecessary and what may help tilt the balance more favorably.