Not often do you have the opportunity to reset and re-fire your career, let alone find your purpose?
It took me several months of reflection, reading, learning, and exchanging ideas
with many friends, experts and relationships to get to the point of feeling comfortable with
my purpose.
After almost ten years, leaving a global professional services firm is never an easy decision,
but the time was right, and I would not have done it any other way. The praises and wishes
were more than expected and certainly allowed me to depart without regrets or second
thoughts. Done. Next.
In the next chapter of my career, I will focus on impacting and inspiring innovation-driven entrepreneurs and corporations.
I had the opportunity in the last five years to experience and work with passionate and talented individuals that had great ideas and sometimes even solutions. However, they could not find a proper problem/solution fit and scale their product.
So often, I have seen potential business models and MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) vanish and perish; these talented individuals often face the reality of the market for the first time.
I am optimistic that through being more resilient and better prepared, the chances of
success increase significantly. But, as in most cases, resources are limited, and therefore it
requires careful planning and bootstrapping to reach the next round of growth. My role is to advise, mentor, and invest in the most promising and innovation-driven entrepreneurs
addressing new-to-the-world problems.
But first, I had to sharpen my skills and knowledge on Startup and Scale-Ups. There are
many schools of thought and books available on Startups, and the more you read, the more
you will appreciate those entrepreneurs that were able to make it through. A lot was done
through trial and error and learning along the way. But it shouldn’t be that way. Therefore
I started my journey in becoming a Scale-Up Coach, with the ability to accelerate the
path to success for entrepreneurs.
I am convinced that this global crisis will also end and that it will lead to new opportunities,
just as before. Furthermore, we are seeing the convergence of exponential technologies that
are driving change at a stellar pace. But, this is just the beginning.
On the other side, studies conducted in my previous role as a Regional Head of Advisory and
Innovation showed the need for corporations to innovate. Therefore, a new approach to
innovation is urgently needed. In addition, Strategy needs to be driven by innovation,
particularly the more transformative or radical innovation. Corporations have been
struggling with this duality for decades, as clearly described by Anthony, Gilbert, and
Johnson in their Dual Transformation book.
The ability for corporations to anticipate industry and market shifts, re-invent themselves
and become more transient requires significant investment in innovation and emerging
technologies. The experimentation with Open Innovation is now moving toward Innovation
through Ecosystems. Once this became clear to me, I initiated and completed a six-week
short course with MIT on Corporate Innovation. I will be sharing my insights on this course in
future blog posts, but it was a very worthwhile investment.
I am looking forward to putting all this new learning to the test in a real-life situation as I
start to work shoulder to shoulder with business and innovation leaders.
Stay curious.
Glenn Tjon
Innovation Strategist and Scale Up Coach
First of all, much success with your next chapter Glenn! I am certain that those who engage with you on the upwards journey of turning their vision/dream into a tangible reality, no matter the field or scale, will find an experienced coach that can deliver real results.
Having been an entrepreneur for much of my career I can look back at times where I have been at crossroads, or at inflection points, where I could have used a coach, such as yourself, to talk through various mutually exclusive options. Particularly, the tradeoffs between innovation, risk, timeline and cost are challenging at each key decision point. The eventual outcome, given each choice, can obviously be quite different.
I look forward to…
Well said Glenn! Look forward to speaking with you soon.