Dan Toma

Author of The Corporate Startup & Innovation Accounting

Categories: Business, Creativity, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Performance, Productivity, Strategy

Dan Toma is an innovation thought leader and the co-author of two award winning books on innovation, ’The Corporate Startup’ (awarded ‘Management Book of the Year for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ by Chartered Management Institute and The British Library in 2018) and ‘Innovation Accounting’ (awarded book the year for Innovation & Business Intelligence by AXIOM in 2022).

In spite of a degree in engineering, Dan started his career in entrepreneurship.
Puzzled by the questions ‘why are innovative products mainly launched by startups?’, together with his team at the consultancy company OUTCOME, he focuses on enterprise innovation transformation. Specifically on the changes blue-chip organizations need to make to allow for new ventures to be built in a corporate setting. In this capacity he worked with companies like Deutsche Telekom, DNB, Jaguar Land Rover, Bayer, John Deere, Allianz or Roche.

A big proponent of the ecosystem approach to innovation, Dan has also worked with various government bodies, in Asia and Europe, helping developing national innovation ecosystems and implement national innovation strategies. Most noteworthy is his work in the economic aid program of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam where he helped design and manage a nationwide business acceleration program and supported the capability development activities.

The work experience gathered from the public and private sector has been translated into various experiential courses that Dan has delivered for universities such as Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) or the University of Applied Science Rhein-Main (Germany).

Dan holds a dual degree MBA from Bradford University (UK) and TiasNimbas Business School (The Netherlands) while being certified lean startup acceleration specialist by Columbia University (USA) though the Lean Launchpad program.

Dan was also featured on the Thinkers50 2020 Radar list of management thinkers to watch while also being a member of the World Economic Forum’s working group on accelerating digital transformation.

Moonshots are nice, but do you have a space program? Or how to build an innovation system
It’s an established fact that almost any company is capable of launching a successful major initiative – providing sufficient executive support, the right amount of funding and good talent. But few companies are able to have innovation as a repeatable and economically viable activity, that’s not relying on hero and heroics for success. The ones that are able to do that however, have invested in building robust innovation systems. But only by fully understanding what an innovation system is can one be successfully built.

Innovation Accounting: How not to kill your babies
Measuring innovation is proving to be one of the biggest challenges facing executives these days. In the absence of an alternative KPI system for measuring innovation executives revert to using the ‘tired and tested’ financial indicators. The only problem is that whatever a mature business can report on is impossible for nascent business to match; this will ultimately result in new ideas being discontinued. Innovation accounting is being pragmatic about measuring innovation without killing it.

Thinking like an astronaut. A practical guide for product development
Being an entrepreneur or building a product within a larger company is not that different than being an astronaut. Yes you read it right! Although the risks are different, by the nature of the work they do both groups deal with uncertainty and the unexplored. Learning from astronauts how to deal with the unexpected can help entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs take better decisions.

Grasshoppers and the cash cow. Convincing large organizations to start innovation-led growth
Today, more than ever, startup pressure is mounting on corporate portfolios. Independent of industry for almost any corporate product/service offering the clients have an alternative offered by a startup. Having been in business for decades optimizing an existing solution might not keep the company in business in the years to come. Only by fully commuting to innovation corporation can hope to stay relevant in ever changing environments where the only certainty is uncertainty.

“At our events, Dan was dynamic, on target and one with the audience. His keynote was to the point, timely, concise and, above all expertly, offered. His applicable advice is something that our audience really appreciated.”
– Oranuch (Mimee) Lerdsuwankij, Co-Founder & CEO TechSauce

“We always receive positive feedback from the audience when we get Dan on stage. His charismatic style and direct approach always clicked with our audience. It’s clear that he his experienced both on strange and in the board room.”
– Monica Zara, Head of Conference How To Web

“The thoughtfully put together keynotes Dan is delivering help the audience engage with high complex topics on a personal level. Dan’s energetic and interactive delivery make for a fully invested and involved audience. Also he is not the speaker who picks up and leaves as soon as the curtain drops – he’s more than happy to be approached by the public to answer questions and clear concerns.”
-Ola Hanø, CEO and Co-Founder Nordic Business Forum

Dan Toma

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