framework.

Credit: David Rowan

Note: This post was drafted with the support of ChatGPT on 10 June 2025.

Summary:

David Rowan’s No Bullsh*t Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds is a practical and provocative guide for leaders seeking to drive real, meaningful innovation—not just lip service, hackathons, or inflated promises.  The book explores how leading companies around the world are embedding innovation deeply into their culture, teams, and processes. Rowan argues that the biggest risk to modern organisations isn’t failure—it’s irrelevance, and that innovation must be authentic, customer-focused, and action-driven, not shrouded in jargon or corporate theatre.  Bullsh*t Innovation is a call for leaders to ditch the jargon, empower people, and focus on solving real problems. Innovation isn’t a department—it’s a mindset woven into the culture, structure, and everyday behaviours of the organisation.

Concept detail

• Innovation is about action, not theatre. Real innovation comes from solving real problems—not from labs, buzzwords, or slide decks.
• Start with the customer’s unmet need. True innovation emerges from deep empathy and insight into what people actually need—not what companies want to sell.
• Build, test, learn — fast. Adopt startup principles: prototype quickly, gather feedback, iterate. Speed and learning matter more than perfection.
• Culture eats strategy (again). No amount of strategy will work if the culture punishes risk, dissent, or creativity.
• Leadership must get out of the way. Innovation can’t be commanded from the top. It must be enabled, supported, and protected from bureaucracy.
• Diversity drives better ideas. Break silos. Bring in diverse teams—disciplinary, demographic, and cognitive—to fuel novel solutions.
• Intrapreneurs are the new power source. The best innovations often come from insiders who challenge assumptions. Nurture and protect them.
• Partnerships > empires. Collaborate with startups, universities, and even competitors to move faster and smarter.
• Fail smart, not big. Small, controlled experiments reduce risk while increasing learning. Kill bad ideas quickly and without shame.
• Kill your sacred cows. Be ready to abandon legacy products, processes, or beliefs that no longer serve your future.

Real world application:

Lessons for leaders includes:

• Stop Rewarding Busyness Over Boldness. Create systems that incentivise experimentation, not just compliance or output.
• Create Safe Spaces for Smart Risk-Taking. Innovation only flourishes when people can try new things without fear of failure or humiliation.
• Spend Time Where the Problems Are. Get leaders out of boardrooms and into the lives of customers, frontline staff, and ecosystems.
• Let Teams Break the Rules (With a Purpose). Give teams permission to work around bureaucracy if it means delivering faster, better results.
• Don’t Just Talk Culture—Design It. Innovation needs rituals, language, heroes, and habits. Culture isn’t a slogan—it’s what you tolerate and reward.
• Invest in Learning and Cross-Pollination. Send teams to different industries, roles, and countries to gain fresh perspectives and avoid echo chambers.
• Prototype Your Way Forward. Push teams to build “version 1” of ideas fast. Use prototypes to test, not to impress.
• Find and Back Your Intrapreneurs. Look for the restless problem-solvers in your organisation and give them space, funding, and protection.
• Beware the Innovation Theatre Trap. Hackathons, labs, and idea walls mean nothing without follow-through and real decision-making power.
• Lead by Doing, Not Declaring. Be the first to model openness to new ideas, willingness to kill outdated practices, and courage to experiment.