Gijs van Wulfen
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Keynote

Double Innovation Effectiveness

The proven FORTH roadmap for customer-driven innovation

Double Innovation Effectiveness keynote by Gijs van Wulfen, on the FORTH innovation method

Many organisations invest heavily in innovation, yet too few promising ideas become successful new products, services or business models.

The problem is rarely a lack of creativity. Innovation efforts often lose focus, customer needs remain unclear, teams work in silos and ideas become trapped in lengthy decision-making processes.

In this practical and inspiring keynote, Gijs van Wulfen introduces the proven FORTH Innovation Methodology: a structured, customer-driven approach that combines design thinking and business thinking. Scientific research comparing FORTH with a traditional Stage-Gate process showed that applying FORTH can double innovation output.

FORTH brings people from different disciplines together in a collaborative WE-nnovation process. Instead of relying on individual creativity, the methodology mobilises a diverse team to discover opportunities, create strong concepts, test them with customers and develop persuasive business cases.

The journey

The five islands of FORTH

The FORTH innovation journey takes teams across five clearly structured islands:

F
Full Steam Ahead
Create the right assignment, build the team and establish commitment among decision-makers.
O
Observe & Learn
Explore trends, technology, markets and customer frustrations to discover relevant opportunities.
R
Raise Ideas
Turn insights into a large number of original ideas and develop the most promising ones into concepts.
T
Test Ideas
Validate concepts with customers, improve them and collect evidence of their potential.
H
Homecoming
Transform the strongest concepts into mini business cases and present them for decision-making.

This structure provides direction without removing creativity. It gives teams the freedom to explore while ensuring that innovation remains commercially relevant and moves towards implementation.

Takeaways

What your audience will learn

Your audience will learn how to:

  • Understand what customers truly value
  • Discover breakthrough opportunities
  • Combine design thinking with business thinking
  • Use the five islands of FORTH to structure innovation
  • Align people from different functions around one shared challenge
  • Turn promising ideas into tested concepts and viable business cases
  • Increase the innovation output of an existing Stage-Gate process

Participants leave with a clear understanding of why innovation initiatives so often lose momentum—and how a structured WE-nnovation approach can turn ambition into meaningful results.

Practical

Ideal for

This keynote is especially relevant for executives, innovation leaders, product leaders, strategy teams, senior management and transformation leaders.

It is well suited to leadership conferences, strategy meetings, innovation summits, management events and corporate kick-offs.

Style
Practical, visual and inspiring. Gijs combines scientific evidence, real-world innovation cases, powerful visuals, audience interaction and humour. Every keynote is tailored to the organisation, sector and challenges of the audience.
Format
30–60 minutes · Live · English or Dutch · Tailored to your organisation · Can be combined with an interactive workshop
Evidence

The research behind the claim

The claim that FORTH can double innovation output comes from independent research, not from us.

How to Reduce the Failure Rate of Innovation: Outcomes of Research on the Efficacy of the FORTH Innovation Method
Prof. Dr Herman van den Bosch · Open University of the Netherlands · 2015
Independent empirical research report · FORTH projects in ten organisations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4443.0886
Questions

Frequently asked

Why do so many innovation efforts fail to deliver results?

The problem is rarely a lack of creativity. Innovation efforts often lose focus, customer needs remain unclear, teams work in silos and ideas become trapped in lengthy decision-making processes.

Does a structured innovation method actually increase output?

Scientific research comparing FORTH with a traditional Stage-Gate process showed that applying FORTH can double innovation output.

How do you get a team to innovate together instead of relying on individuals?

Instead of relying on individual creativity, the methodology mobilises a diverse team to discover opportunities, create strong concepts, test them with customers and develop persuasive business cases.

Who is this innovation keynote for?

This keynote is especially relevant for executives, innovation leaders, product leaders, strategy teams, senior management and transformation leaders.

Audiences

What audiences say

Gijs has spoken in more than thirty countries. A selection of what organisers and audiences said afterwards.

What sets Gijs apart is his unique combination of deep expertise, practical experience, and engaging storytelling.
Iffat AlRowaithy
Innovation Centre and Corporate Innovation Unit Head, SAB Bank, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
He gave a brilliantly articulated presentation full of passion, emotion and metaphors.
Ignacio Villoch
Innovation Events & Activities Manager, BBVA Innovation Center, Spain
He creates an innovative mindset at the audience.
Anne-Laure Pardijon
Airbus Group, France
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Give your leaders and teams a proven roadmap for turning customer insights into innovations that create real impact.

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Other keynotes: Inspire to Innovate · Breaking Innovation Barriers · The Innovation Maze

Read more about the FORTH innovation method