‘Fail faster than your competitors’

What is a Jan Buijs lecture like?

“I always of course try to be prepared. But the most important thing is that I try to somehow get my students involved, by making the subject I want to talk about contemporary and relevant for them. By asking them questions I try to involve them in the subject and in the meantime convey the message I want to get across. I always provoke my students to react on the issues I put forward.”

What does it take to be a good teacher?

“You should, of course, be on the leading edge of your field and always be prepared. But the most important thing is to have a passion for the subject you’re studying and be able to convey that to your students and your colleagues.”

Do you approach Dutch and foreign students differently in your classes?

“There are indeed differences between Dutch and foreign students. Many foreign students have the tendency to see me like ‘the professor’ or the guru or the wise old man, somebody with whom you should never dispute. Forcing them to ask questions or disagree will therefore not help. That’s why I challenge them, by asking them for instance what they are going to do next in their assignments. Or by asking them how they are going to approach a certain design problem. And by letting them explain what they are going to do, I can discern if they understood me.”

So you have to put much more effort into educating foreign students?

“In the more collective or more authoritarian or macho types of culture you have to communicate indirectly. Is this a more intensive way of educating? No it’s not, because foreign students invest a lot in their studies. Emotionally as well as financially. They therefore work like hell! So although I am approaching them more intensively, I don’t dedicate more time to them than to Dutch students. Because, on average, most foreign students work harder.”

Your research is focused on creativity and innovation and you lecture on these subjects. What’s the purpose of classes on creativity and innovation, given that innovative or groundbreaking ideas are often the result of coincidence?

“Coincidence is not the cause of innovation. Innovation is the result of the fact that one deliberately creates a climate and culture of creativity. The manager structures and orchestrates his organization in such a way that the people that work there challenge things, are curious and are not happy with the first answer. For example, by hiring good and a diverse set of people, by mixing them and by sending them away to Japan or New York for inspiration. By deliberately undertaking all these activities the manager creates a climate of innovation. From the outside the result of these people working together, which is a new product, looks like a coincidence or serendipity. But it’s not, because he has intentionally put that group of people together.”

So innovation is all about managing the social process in the workplace?

“Yes. Management of innovation is concerned with managing the working process of a set of people. A process of which the result should be new products. The problem in the public and private sector is that most managers and politicians steer on content. They steer on product design itself, which is rather stupid. You cannot steer on new content, because you do not know yet what it is. You should steer on an innovative culture and climate.”

What are the characteristics of such a group of people?

“I call such innovative teams ‘Multi-X’ teams, which are teams that are diverse in every sense. Teams that consist of people with different cultural backgrounds, from different countries, from different age groups, with different technological specialties and with different genders. And very importantly, people that are more comfortable with out of the box thinking than other people. But although Multi-X teams are the basis for innovation, it’s important to have a leader that understands how to run the innovation process. A leader that I call the servant leader, because it’s the team that’s doing the work. A leader that helps them to score, even if he is very good in his field. Many leaders have the tendency to prove to the team that they are the best.”

So innovations often fail, because the teams that are working on product innovation are not Multi-X teams?

“Yes, but the majority of innovation efforts also fail because the teams are working on the edge of their fields. They are taking risks. If you want to become the world champion Formula 1 driver, you should crash into the barrier sometimes to find out where the limits are, and if you never do that you will never become world champion. The same applies to the innovation process: you have to take risks! Innovation and failure are two sides of the same coin. Accordingly, one of our messages is: fail faster than your competitors and learn from it. Making the same mistake twice is stupid, but making a lot of different mistakes and learning from them in order to improve, that’s perfect.”

The number of international students at the TU is steadily increasing. Does the latter contribute positively to creativity and innovation in the classroom?

“I hope so, because we have in fact Multi-X classes. By mixing students from different nationalities, we hope that they don’t quarrel about different viewpoints, but instead think: ‘hey, that’s interesting!’ And from the combination of different viewpoints you get a good result. It’s fun having students with many different nationalities. They are challenging me and challenging each other, and I enjoy teaching much more.”

Buijs, the first IDE professor to win this award, was honored for his contributions to the field of innovation management, for his guidance of undergraduate and doctoral students, and for his inspiring lectures.

What is a Jan Buijs lecture like?



“I always of course try to be prepared. But the most important thing is that I try to somehow get my students involved, by making the subject I want to talk about contemporary and relevant for them. By asking them questions I try to involve them in the subject and in the meantime convey the message I want to get across. I always provoke my students to react on the issues I put forward.”



What does it take to be a good teacher?



“You should, of course, be on the leading edge of your field and always be prepared. But the most important thing is to have a passion for the subject you’re studying and be able to convey that to your students and your colleagues.”



Do you approach Dutch and foreign students differently in your classes?



“There are indeed differences between Dutch and foreign students. Many foreign students have the tendency to see me like ‘the professor’ or the guru or the wise old man, somebody with whom you should never dispute. Forcing them to ask questions or disagree will therefore not help. That’s why I challenge them, by asking them for instance what they are going to do next in their assignments. Or by asking them how they are going to approach a certain design problem. And by letting them explain what they are going to do, I can discern if they understood me.”



So you have to put much more effort into educating foreign students?



“In the more collective or more authoritarian or macho types of culture you have to communicate indirectly. Is this a more intensive way of educating? No it’s not, because foreign students invest a lot in their studies. Emotionally as well as financially. They therefore work like hell! So although I am approaching them more intensively, I don’t dedicate more time to them than to Dutch students. Because, on average, most foreign students work harder.”



Your research is focused on creativity and innovation and you lecture on these subjects. What’s the purpose of classes on creativity and innovation, given that innovative or groundbreaking ideas are often the result of coincidence?



“Coincidence is not the cause of innovation. Innovation is the result of the fact that one deliberately creates a climate and culture of creativity. The manager structures and orchestrates his organization in such a way that the people that work there challenge things, are curious and are not happy with the first answer. For example, by hiring good and a diverse set of people, by mixing them and by sending them away to Japan or New York for inspiration. By deliberately undertaking all these activities the manager creates a climate of innovation. From the outside the result of these people working together, which is a new product, looks like a coincidence or serendipity. But it’s not, because he has intentionally put that group of people together.”



So innovation is all about managing the social process in the workplace?



“Yes. Management of innovation is concerned with managing the working process of a set of people. A process of which the result should be new products. The problem in the public and private sector is that most managers and politicians steer on content. They steer on product design itself, which is rather stupid. You cannot steer on new content, because you do not know yet what it is. You should steer on an innovative culture and climate.”



What are the characteristics of such a group of people?



“I call such innovative teams ‘Multi-X’ teams, which are teams that are diverse in every sense. Teams that consist of people with different cultural backgrounds, from different countries, from different age groups, with different technological specialties and with different genders. And very importantly, people that are more comfortable with out of the box thinking than other people. But although Multi-X teams are the basis for innovation, it’s important to have a leader that understands how to run the innovation process. A leader that I call the servant leader, because it’s the team that’s doing the work. A leader that helps them to score, even if he is very good in his field. Many leaders have the tendency to prove to the team that they are the best.”



So innovations often fail, because the teams that are working on product innovation are not Multi-X teams?



“Yes, but the majority of innovation efforts also fail because the teams are working on the edge of their fields. They are taking risks. If you want to become the world champion Formula 1 driver, you should crash into the barrier sometimes to find out where the limits are, and if you never do that you will never become world champion. The same applies to the innovation process: you have to take risks! Innovation and failure are two sides of the same coin. Accordingly, one of our messages is: fail faster than your competitors and learn from it. Making the same mistake twice is stupid, but making a lot of different mistakes and learning from them in order to improve, that’s perfect.”



The number of international students at the TU is steadily increasing. Does the latter contribute positively to creativity and innovation in the classroom?



“I hope so, because we have in fact Multi-X classes. By mixing students from different nationalities, we hope that they don’t quarrel about different viewpoints, but instead think: ‘hey, that’s interesting!’ And from the combination of different viewpoints you get a good result. It’s fun having students with many different nationalities. They are challenging me and challenging each other, and I enjoy teaching much more.”