Stephen Parkins
Innovation strategist & Founder @ Culturedge
Haarlem, The Netherlands
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If you're comfortable with the status quo, you won't enjoy listening to Stephen Parkins.
Stephen is a seasoned innovation strategist, executive coach and business leader with over two decades of experience turning uncertainty into opportunity.
With a career spanning roles as an energy trader, global head of innovation, and startup founder, Stephen has worked with companies of all sizes—from nimble one-person ventures, to European scale-ups, to multinational corporations with over 100,000 employees.
As the founder of Culturedge, Stephen advises medium to large enterprises on building the structures and strategies they need to embed innovation, take manageable risks and achieve exponential growth.
Known for pushing boundaries and telling executives what they need to hear, Stephen has helped redesign flagship products like ABN AMRO Bank's Tikkie and established global innovation frameworks at organisations like SGS.
A polyglot and global citizen, Stephen has lived in five countries and speaks five languages, bringing an international perspective to every new challenge.
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Keine Innovation ohne Mandat
Unternehmen erwarten heute viel von ihren Innovatoren.
Wir müssen eine ganze Reihe schwieriger Aufgaben bewältigen: KI im Unternehmen einführen, die Produkte der Zukunft entwickeln, das Geschäftsmodell des Unternehmens neu erfinden und gleichzeitig eine Innovationskultur fördern.
👩🏻💻 Innovationsexperten beklagen, dass das Budget nicht ausreicht, die Risikobereitschaft ihres Unternehmens zu gering ist oder die Führungskräfte nicht ausreichend zukunftsorientiert sind.
👨🏻💼 Gleichzeitig beklagen Unternehmensführungskräfte die mangelnde Transparenz ihrer Innovationseinheit. Sie befürchten, dass viele ihrer Innovationsprojekte von der Unternehmensstrategie abgekoppelt sind.
Und niemand führt gerne schwierige Gespräche über den ROI.
Wenn Sie Unklarheiten in Ihrer Innovations-Governance tolerieren, setzen Sie Ihr Unternehmen einer Reihe schwerwiegender Probleme aus:
👌 Keine Rechenschaftspflicht
🎭 Interessenkonflikte
🥚 Schlechtes Risikomanagement
🐌 Langsame Entscheidungsfindung
🤹♀️ Inkonsistente Projektabwicklung
😔 Eine stagnierende Innovationskultur
Aber die Implementierung eines Innovationsmandats kann eine nahezu sofortige Lösung bieten.
👉 Denn es hat eine zentrale Aufgabe: Es beseitigt interne Unklarheiten.
In dieser Session erfahren Sie mehr über:
– Wie die Innovationsbemühungen der meisten Unternehmen durch unklare Governance sabotiert werden
– Warum ein Innovationsmandat unverzichtbar ist – insbesondere im Zeitalter der KI
– Wie die Umsetzung eines solchen Mandats von Führungskräften einige schwierige, aber klare Entscheidungen verlangt.
Strategy Simulations: The AI Way to Build Leaders
AI is accelerating change. But real leadership still requires human judgment under pressure. That’s where business simulations come in.
This session introduces Strategy Quest, a high-intensity simulation designed to prepare leaders for the messy, political, uncertain reality of driving growth & innovation inside a company.
Participants face AI-powered stakeholders, shifting market dynamics, and conflicting internal priorities - all modelled on the real-world complexity of corporate strategy.
You’ll be amazed to discover:
- How simulations build strategic decision-making faster than traditional training
- The role of AI agents in simulating stakeholders, tension and ambiguity
- Why simulations are being used by companies to train leaders before they’re promoted
- How this approach builds the capability to lead growth and innovation (not just talk about it)
If your company is betting on AI, don’t just train people to use the tools.
Train them to lead with confidence, especially when the future is unclear.
Can't Innovate without a Mandate
Companies expect a lot from their corporate innovators today.
We're being asked to perform a whole shopping-list of difficult tasks: introduce AI to the business, create the products of the future, re-invent the company's business model, and –at the same time– please foster a "culture of innovation".
👩🏻💻 Innovation professionals complain there's not enough budget, or their company's risk appetite is too timid, or that senior leaders aren't sufficiently future-focused.
👨🏻💼 Meanwhile, corporate execs lament the lack of transparency of their innovation unit. They worry that so many of their innovation projects are disconnected from company strategy.
And nobody enjoys difficult conversations about ROI.
When you tolerate ambiguity in your innovation governance, you expose your organisation to a whole range of serious problems:
👌 Zero accountability
🎭 Conflicts of interest
🥚 Poor risk management
🐌 Snail-paced decision-making
🤹♀️ Inconsistent project execution
😔 A stagnant Innovation Culture
But – implementing an Innovation Mandate can offer an almost-immediate solution.
👉 Because it has one core job to do: It eliminates internal ambiguity.
In this session, you'll learn about:
- How most companies' innovation efforts are sabotaged by unclear governance
- Why a 'Mandate to Innovate' is indispensable – especially in the age of AI
- How implementing such a mandate demands that leaders make a few difficult, but clear choices
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Stephen Parkins
Innovation strategist & Founder @ Culturedge
Haarlem, The Netherlands
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