RESEARCH / INNOVATION
The Innovator Is a Deal-Maker
A real innovator is a deal-maker, constantly negotiating between business needs, emerging technology, and human experience. Business demands relevance, value, and viability. Technology offers new capabilities and possibilities.Human experience determines what people will actually enjoy, adopt, and love.
True innovation happens when someone can hold all three in balance, translate between them, and make them work together instead of competing. Most people understand one or two of these areas and over-hype the one they are most focused on. Real innovators understand all three and know how to strike “the best deal” that turns ideas into a tangible impact for the business and its customers.
If one side is over hyped:
Too much business → dull, predictable solutionsToo much tech → hype, no real user benefit
Too much creativity → unreal, not feasible nor profitable
But when all three are held equally and intentionally, you get the sweet spot of innovation where purpose, possibility, and humanity amplify each other. Where technology doesn't overwhelm, but fulfils a business need and elevates the human experience.
1. BUSINESS NEEDS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Innovation starts with business clarity. Every idea must be anchored in a real problem, a clear opportunity, and a value proposition that matters to both the organisation and the customer. Entrepreneurship is not just about building something new. It's about understanding market dynamics, customer behaviour, competitive realities, operational constraints, and the paths to commercial viability. It requires a deep sensitivity for what the business actually needs, not what's trendy or fashionable.
Key areas inside this pillar include business strategy, customer insight, market segmentation, value creation, pricing, process design, and the ability to shape a vision that is both bold and executable. When innovating, we must pay attention to feasibility, sustainability, resources, and alignment with long-term goals. A strong entrepreneurial foundation prevents innovation from drifting into gimmicks or artistic experiments with no impact.
This pillar is strengthened by the other two: Technology expands what's possible far beyond legacy assumptions, while Human Experience ensures that business goals translate into solutions people actually want, use, and enjoy. When business needs are balanced with tech capability and human desirability, strategy becomes innovation, not just planning.
Priorities
- Strategy, vision, positioning
- Market needs & customer pain points
- Business models & value creation
- Process design & organisational design
- Commercial viability & operations
- Real-world business constraints
Without Tech
When business strategy ignores the latest technology, it becomes slow, inefficient, and unable to compete with organisations that automate, scale, and innovate faster. Opportunities are missed because old processes and old tools limit what the company can deliver. Decision-making becomes constrained by outdated assumptions. Products stagnate, costs rise, and the brand falls behind as the world moves forward. Without new tech, business becomes predictable, rigid, and eventually irrelevant.Without Creativity
When business decisions lack creativity and human-centred design, solutions become dry, boring, and disconnected from real people. Products may work on paper but fail in the market because they don’t resonate emotionally or intuitively. Customers don’t adopt them, employees don’t enjoy them, and the business loses differentiation. Without creativity and UX, business becomes functional but forgettable, a commodity with no soul.2. EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
The second pillar focuses on understanding the real capabilities of modern technology from AI and automation to XR, game engines, social media platforms, data systems, and real-time graphics. Technology is the engine that unlocks new creative and commercial possibilities, but only when we truly understand its strengths, weaknesses, maturity levels, and constraints. Innovation requires an honest and practical grasp of what the current tools can do, not hype, not wishful thinking.
Key subtopics include AI systems (RAG, fine-tuning, agents), automation workflows, integration logic, XR and spatial computing, real-time rendering, social algorithms, and the rapid evolution of digital platforms. What we must pay attention to is not just the technology itself but the ecosystems around it: data, infrastructure, user expectations, privacy, ethics, and operational overhead.
This pillar is made meaningful only when balanced with the other two. Business needs keep technology grounded in real value and measurable outcomes, while Human Experience ensures that new capabilities translate into intuitive, emotional, and culturally relevant experiences. Technology alone is like a sportscar without a driver; technology placed between business and people becomes the engine of innovation.
Priorities
- Artificial Intelligence & Automation
- XR / AR / VR / Spatial computing
- Gaming technologies & real-time graphics
- Social media platforms & algorithms
- Data systems & integrations
- Tech capability evaluation (what's possible)
Without Biz
When technology is built without a clear business purpose, it turns into hype, experimentation, or innovation theatre. Teams chase trends, burn resources, and build features nobody asked for. Tech stacks become overly complex, expensive, and fragile. The organisation has cool prototypes but no real impact, no ROI, and no strategic direction. Without business needs, technology becomes noise without value.
Without Creativity
When technology has no human perspective, it becomes cold, confusing, and hard to use. Interfaces frustrate people. Features feel overwhelming. Adoption stalls. The product may be powerful, but nobody enjoys using it. Innovation turns into engineering for engineering's sake, ignoring emotion, culture, and behaviour. Without creativity and UX, technology becomes capable but unlovable.
3. HUMAN EXPERIENCE & CREATIVITY
The third pillar is the human layer: UX, emotion, culture, identity and storytelling. Innovation only succeeds when the solution fits naturally into people's lives, when it feels meaningful, intuitive, delightful or empowering. This pillar spans interaction design, behavioural motivation, flow, embodiment, creativity, multimodal design, social media dynamics, community, and how people express themselves through digital tools. It is where innovation becomes alive.
Key subtopics include UX patterns, multi-modal interfaces (voice, AR, spatial), behavioural design, gamification, cultural insight, visual storytelling, and human-centred creativity. When we innovate, we must pay attention to simplicity, usability, emotional resonance, accessibility, and how people actually behave, not how we wish they behaved. Human experience is the filter that reveals if an idea has a future or dies at first contact.
This pillar draws strength from the other two: Business provides purpose and direction, ensuring human experience translates into impact; Technology provides the canvas on which creativity and interaction can come to life. When all three are balanced, we reach the sweet spot of innovation: solutions that are desirable, viable, and technically feasible, and that people genuinely love.
Priorities
- UX / interaction design / multi-modal interfaces
- Behaviour psychology, motivation, flow
- Social dynamics, culture & identity
- Creative technology, storytelling, art
- Emotion, presence & embodied experience
- Human-centric innovation principles
Without Biz
When creativity is not grounded in business clarity, it becomes abstract, impractical, or too experimental. Ideas feel exciting but fail to solve real problems or generate commercial value. Teams lose focus, projects drift, and innovation becomes art rather than impact. Without business purpose, creativity becomes beautiful but useless.
Without Tech
When creative ideas and human-centric solutions aren't supported by modern technology, they cannot scale, evolve, or reach their full potential. Ideas stay small because the tools can't support them. The organisation misses opportunities for automation, intelligence, and richer interactions. Without new tech, creativity becomes limited and outdated, unable to deliver what the experience truly promises.