Alexandre Janssen

Alexandre talks about: Why Innovation is all about people rather than bright ideas. To realize changes within a company you need to find people that are passionate and believe in something, rather than focusing on generating bright ideas.

“Innovation is all about people with passion.”

The concept of innovation fits Alexandre Janssen like a custom-made suit. He has been wearing that suit for about seven years while developing innovative methods like Business Model Canvas, Deep Dives and Design Thinking. Organizing innovation workshops for groups seems a logical sequel.

“I always strive for perfection and want things to be realized quickly. People with passion, that’s what innovation is all about for me. It’s not about competencies, processes or ideas, but pure passion.”

According to Alexandre, companies should concentrate more on the human side of their business. “Too often I come across companies that want to innovate but pay little attention to the human side of innovation. Their focus lies too much on processes and generating ideas. They forget about how hard it is to actually thrive changes and the fact that you need great, passionate people to do so.”

A book about Janssen would be entitled How, why and can we do it in another way too?, because he always wants to understand things, to figure everything out down to the last details, and examine whether it might be done differently. Innovation. Exactly. 

Résumé

Alexandre leads the Innovation program for Deloitte EMEA and is one of the cofounders of the innovation department at Deloitte Netherlands.

What is TedX?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At TEDxZwolle, live speakers will spark deep discussion and connection. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organised.