Innovation Frontrunner of the Month: Tor Rauden K?llstigen, All Ears

Innovation Frontrunner of the Month is an initiative by NoA Consulting, where we ask some of the most progressive Nordic business innovation leaders about their view on key success factors, pitfalls and what inspires them in their innovation endeavours. This month we put the spotlight on Tor Rauden K?llstigen , founder and ex-CEO of All Ears

Could you give us an example of an innovation that you are proud of?

With All Ears, we've built a world-leading search engine for audio, attracting US headquarters for Fortune 500 companies like Walmart to become our customers.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

I love research and the process of understanding the characteristics of a certain industry, scene, or cultural sphere.?Inspiration, for me, is finding and learning from clever people in areas that I had no clue about when waking up that morning.

What are three concrete success factors for “winning at innovation” inside an organization?

• Play around, get excited, and share your learnings. Experiment with new technologies driven by your own genuine enthusiasm and interests. Share what you learn. Personally, I strive to create prototypes that effectively convey an idea.?
• Build prototypes. Coming from a communications background, I acknowledge that technical skills may not be my strongest area. So, I try to piece together my experiments with a bit of improvisation and copy-paste, and design polish, which suffices in nearly all scenarios.
• Show your commitment, and others will follow. By adding a bit of personality – your excitement will shine and inspire others, boosting your chances of success.

What are the most common pitfall in innovation work?

Assumptions that a venture would be too hard to undertake. It's all about breaking it down to the core of what's most important, thus making really complicated goals achievable.

When in an innovation journey can external support add value, as you see it?

From day one. I always strive to find people who've conquered similar challenges at the same company stage. That way, feedback tends to get genuinely useful.?

What is top of mind in your innovation headspace right now? Anything you can share?

After building machine learning products for more than a decade, I try to learn about exciting technical developments outside the middle lane. Such an overlooked area today is how generative audio can be applied to solve real problems.

Previous Innovation Frontrunners

Berfin Mert, Co-founder, Bower

Henrik Hemmingsson, Product & Concept Manager, SJ

Therese R?berg, Innovation Manager, Health at Innovation Sk?ne

Paqui Lizana, Head of Technology Strategy, IKEA

Christian Lundén, VP Strategic Growth, Strawberry

Alex Macleod, Design Director Digital Products, Electrolux

Henrik Jacobson, Head of Business Development, Max

Ariella Rotstein Gille, Co-lead, ICAx

Claus Berthou Madsen, VP Prototyping, Telia Company

Dear reader, do you have suggestions for other Nordic innovation professionals we should pay attention to? Nominate in the comments field or reach out to Petter Hanberger

30 years of scientific research proves that mastering innovation is the second-most critical capability for bottom-line growth - beaten only by market orientation. And yet, in too many corporations, innovation gets stuck in limbo and fails to produce real results.

At NoA Consulting, we offer concrete tools that help businesses across the Nordics avoid innovation traps, get ideas out of the lab and into the real world, and dramatically increase chances of innovation success. Learn more.