Martin Gunnarsson

Martin is Product Director and ERP Evangelist at IFS R&D, with two decades experience of working with ERP software, and a passion for product strategies, innovations, marketing and sales. Martin has gained a broad experience of global business thanks to years spent abroad in Germany and Japan, involvement in company acquisitions, and customer and partner activities all over the world. Martin is also a frequent speaker at conferences and events. Martin is Product Director for Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Global Extensions, and a member of the IFS R&D Management Team.

| | Estimated reading time: 4 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
The Formula for Successful Innovation (2 of 3)

Targeting a healthy balance of core, adjacent, and transformational innovation is a vital step toward managing a complete innovation portfolio. The challenge is that a company must be able to execute at all three levels of ambition. However, few companies are good at all three, and not entirely surprising, companies struggle the most with transformational innovation.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
The Formula for Successful Innovation (1 of 3)

Many times I have asked myself what the best-in-class innovation portfolio would look like. How should you balance the different innovation ambition levels such as incremental innovations with transformational (breaking news) innovations? Are there any numbers you can benchmark against and what ratio will have the most impact on your financial results and share price? What areas of management will boost the different levels of ambition?

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Business Technology, Creativity & Innovation
IFS is Paving the Way to Market Leadership in Service Management & Mobility

Now, IFS takes another leap forward by acquiring Metrix. With Metrix’s portfolio of mobile solutions for field service management on smartphones and tablets, IFS can now boast one of the world’s broadest solutions for the mobile workforce, including….

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| | Estimated reading time: 3 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Imitation is Better than Innovation

My advice is to always have your copycat glasses on and think how you can refine and evolve existing solutions on the market. Please bear in mind that many profitable innovations that have evolved from an existing technology or user behavior.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
How Can a + Make the Difference?

In my role at IFS, formulating and communicating product visions and strategies for IFS Applications, I am constantly on the…

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Shaping an Innovation Culture Includes Rewarding Failure

We discussed whether your fear of failure is due to the fear of losing your job or damaging your career. I asked if anyone has really lost their job due to that kind of failure, but the answer was ‘no’. So maybe the fear is just a perception? …. and they nodded in agreement.

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Creativity & Innovation
What Innovation is All About—In only 4 minutes

Have a look at the movie (only 4 minutes) and then ask yourself the following two questions.

– Does my company have a space where ideas can mingle and swap?
– What makes me share my hunches with others’ hunches to get them to collide?

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Today I Will Boost Innovation by Encouraging Someone

When I read through this post just after finishing it, I thought it might be a bit too silly, or at least too basic and obvious. No academic statistics or processes at all, just common sense. But after giving it a second thought, I actually think I hit the mark, i.e. that most people forget the simple trick of using common sense in the innovation process. So let today…. and the next day, and the next… be ‘encouragement’ days.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
No thanks, I’m too busy to listen to you

Too often I feel I am too busy with day-to-day stuff, like customer presentations and back-to-back meetings. It might be a question of keeping pace with the mailbox that tends to overflow from time to time, or finalizing a product positioning document. But I have a technique for reminding myself to lift my nose from the grindstone every now and then and think a bit ahead.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Innovation is an Epic Battle Between Passion and Patience

“I quit school and recruited the professor,” Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify.

Just over twenty years old, sitting in his apartment with his friend (in their underpants because it is 30 degrees thanks to the servers everywhere), his dream had just begun. Now he is friends with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he rides shotgun in vintage cars with Neil Young and exchanges texts with Bono. My simple conclusion is that all great ideas start small.

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Creativity & Innovation
Run to the hills….or better, to IFS World Conference 2012

I am in full preparation for my biggest physical challenge for at least the last decade and after IFS announced that Bruce Dickinson, lead singer in Iron Maiden, is keynote speaker at IFS World Conference 2012 October 15 – 17, I have a new source of inspiration; “Run to the hills…”

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Market Share vs. Innovation Share—What drives the share price?

If you were about to invest in a company that had about 85% market share for one of the main products in its portfolio, and nearly had market monopoly for another main product, wouldn´t that investment be recognized as safe and profitable in the long term, rewarded by a share price that rises over time? The answer is no….

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