Nick Himo

Business Model Coach

Imperial College London

Every summer, I run a programme of innovation workshops for 1,000+ student entrepreneurs from all over the world as part of Imperial College's Global Challenge Lab.

Innovation Coach

Strategyzer

Our purpose is to unlock millions of people’s potential to create value for themselves, organizations and society. We succeed when people find the clarity to drive healthy growth and build invincible companies worldwide. To make this happen, we design the global standard methodology for business strategy and platform for solving universal business challenges. We shift mindsets to transform strategic innovation, organization, and culture.

As an innovation coach at Strategyzer, I help large multinational organizations create new business models that generate value and growth. I use Strategyzer’s tools, methodology and tech platform to guide teams through the innovation process, from ideation to validation. I work with clients on various innovation initiatives, such as venture building, innovation incubators and accelerators and training. I also help them measure the impact of their innovation investment, using data and evidence to make better decisions. I help teams save time and money on projects that don’t have potential, and scale up the ones that do. I help teams design and test value propositions and business models that solve customer problems and create competitive advantage.

Strategyzer Coach

As host of Strategyzer webinars, I have the privilege of facilitating engaging and insightful conversations with some of the world’s leading experts on corporate innovation. We explore topics such as business model design, innovation culture, leadership and strategy with guests like Hubert Joly (Former CEO of Best Buy) and Garry Ridge (former CEO of WD40). I work alongside Alex Osterwalder, the inventor of the Business Model Canvas and a best-selling author, and Tendayi Viki, an award-winning author and innovation consultant. My role is to ensure that our webinars are interactive, fast-paced, informative and fun and that our audience gets the most value out of them. I enjoy connecting with our community of innovators and learning from their experiences and challenges. You can watch recordings of previous webinars by clicking the links below.

Host of Strategyzer Webinars

As a content creator at Strategyzer, I am responsible for producing high-quality and engaging video content for our online academy and our social media channels. I plan, shoot, edit and post videos that showcase our products, services and thought leadership in the field of corporate innovation. I have helped grow our online community to over 200,000 followers across all platforms. I also write blogs and design webinars that provide valuable insights and tips for our audience. Additionally, I create content for our live virtual masterclasses led by Alex Osterwalder, the inventor of the Business Model Canvas and a best-selling author. My role is to deliver compelling and educational content that helps our customers and prospects learn and apply the tools and methods of Strategyzer.

Content Creator

University of Exeter

Associate Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship

General Assembly

I teach the Rapid Innovation workshop at General Assembly.

Course Instructor - Rapid Innovation

Google

I delivered facilitator training to more than 1,500 people from all around the world to enable them to deliver this life changing workshop themselves.

#IamRemarkable is a Google initiative empowering women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments in the workplace and beyond, thereby breaking modesty norms and glass ceilings.

Learn more at g.co/IamRemarkable


Contracted via Chesamel.

Program Facilitator for #IamRemarkable 

Founders of the Future

Founders of the Future is an invite-only community of the most promising entrepreneurial talent in technology in Europe. It is made of talented young individuals who may not be currently founders or recognised leaders in the technology ecosystem, but exhibit strong signals that they will be someday. 

Founders of the Future grew out of Founders Forum which believes in the power of technology, entrepreneurship and collaboration to make the world a better place.

Ambassador & Member

CIM | The Chartered Institute of Marketing

Course Director

Lightbulb to Launch

Host & Event Organiser of Lightbulb to Launch

Freeformers

I was responsible for generating and implementing are go to market strategy for the services part of the business. I exceeded my personal and team revenue targets and massively contributed to the growth of the business. My clients included Santander, John Lewis, RBS, 3i, Barclays and Sky.

Head of Sales

I supported companies with the people part of their digital strategies by assessing their needs and developing and implementing effective learning & development programmes including online training, design sprints and innovation labs.

My clients included Barclays, John Lewis, RBS, E.ON Energy, 3i and Santander.

I spoke in front of audiences of senior executives at international conferences and interviewed industry experts as part of the Digital Heroes initiative.

Innovation Consultant & Trainer

Having worked with innovation leaders like Alex Osterwalder and Tendayi Viki, and global brands including Google, American Express, LEGO, Microsoft, and Novo Nordisk, I know what it takes to turn a good idea into a great business.

When Imperial College London runs their Global Challenge Lab, an accelerator with thousands of founders worldwide, they bring me in to lead every workshop.

Why? Because I help get results fast.

"Nick’s facilitation brought more clarity, speed, and impact than anything I saw in 25 years at Microsoft."
- Mike Kropp, Ex-Microsoft Leader / CEO, Iridius

But when most founders come to me, they’re stuck.
They feel frustrated because they’ve already tried everything:

→ Reading the Lean Startup
→ Filling out all the free Miro templates
→ Watching The Futur or Alex Hormozi on YouTube
→ Asking ChatGPT to rewrite their landing page copy
→ Hiring expensive Facebook ad agencies
→ Joining masterminds, Skool, or Whop

And still… they don’t have clear answers.

No one’s challenged their assumptions.

That’s where I help.

We start with a structured conversation I call Innovation Therapy. It's designed to quickly surface your riskiest assumptions, hidden challenges, and growth opportunities.

Together, we’ll identify:

→ Who your real customer is
→ What they’re actually willing to pay for
→ How to position your product so it sells
→ The smartest path to profitable growth

You’ll walk away with:

✔ Clear strategy, grounded in evidence
✔ Stories that resonate with customers, teams, and investors
✔ A shared language your team can align around
✔ The right experiments to reduce risk and speed up traction
✔ Confidence in what to build, sell, and scale

And we do it all using Strategyzer’s global-standard methodology (including The Business Model Canvas and The Value Proposition Canvas) the same tools used by the top companies.

“Nick is a world-class facilitator. He is also an expert in Strategyzer’s methodology. I enjoy working with him, and I’m confident you will too.”
— Alex Osterwalder, Creator of the Business Model Canvas

Whether you’re validating an MVP, scaling a product, or rethinking your direction, 
I’ll help you move forward with confidence.

👉 Book a 15-minute discovery call
https://calendly.com/nick-himo/15-minute-meeting

Nick Himowicz

I’m running a workshop and doing a talk tomorrow at Business Innovation Summit by Technovator at maib Park in Chinisau Moldova 🇲🇩. The goal is to help companies turn AI into profit. Come along if you’re about!

🎄 AI. Strategy. Facilitation. Design Sprints.
All in one hands-on training — this December, in Berlin.

After the success of last month’s VIP session (7 professionals, 6 countries, 3 continents), we’re bringing it back. Same format. Same energy. Just 8 seats.

💡 Why it works:
→ You get focused, high-caliber learning.
→ You connect with peers who bring real-world experience.
→ And yes — you’ll leave with the skills to lead smarter in this new AI era.

🧠 What’s included:
✔️ AI Problem Framing framework
✔️ Full Design Sprint training
✔️ Real cases, real feedback, real results
✔️ 2x Facilitator Toolkits (to run AI Problem Framing and Design Sprint sessions like a PRO)

🌟 Evenings? Think hot wine, great food, and Berlin’s most magical Christmas markets.

📅 December 10–12
📍 Berlin
🎟️ Limited to 8 participants

Want to join us? Secure your VIP Ticket here:
https://lnkd.in/eYM3B3aw 


#DesignSprintAcademy  #AIProblemFraming #DesignSprints  #ProductLeadership #BerlinEvents #InnovationLeadership #DesignThinking

I’m super excited about hosting this Vibe Coding Bootcamp at Imperial College London in December.

Head of Imperial Enterprise Lab @ Imperial College London | Entrepreneurship Education | Partnerships

🚀 Ready to turn your ideas into reality — no coding required?

We invite the Imperial College London community to join Imperial Enterprise Lab and Nick Himowicz for a Vibecoding Bootcamp (1–4 December, online). A 3-day startup sprint, where creativity meets AI.

In a world where founders can prototype in minutes using AI, this immersive bootcamp helps you go from idea → prototype → pitch fast. You’ll:

 💡 Identify real-world problems worth solving
 🧭 Use design thinking and strategy tools like the Value Proposition Canvas
 🤖 Build working prototypes using AI “vibecoding” platforms like Lovable or Cursor
 🎤 Pitch your idea live to a panel of judges

No technical skills or startup experience needed — just curiosity, collaboration, and an internet connection. Whether you join solo or with friends, you’ll leave with a working prototype, a clear value proposition, and the mindset of a modern founder.

📅 When: 1–4 December 2025
 📍 Where: Online (Zoom, Miro & Mentimeter)
 🏆 Prizes for the most promising ideas!
👉 Secure your spot here: https://lnkd.in/ep8HwHqa

Open article: What's On | Imperial Enterprise Lab by imperialenterpriselab.com

Stephen Parkins

🌍 International Growth & Innovation Leader 🙋🏼‍♂️ I help ambitious innovators like you become industry leaders ✨ Innovation Management, Leadership & Culture

I help business leaders turn innovation into a strategic asset for long-term growth, with demonstrable ROI.

I firmly believe that in a volatile, uncertain world, innovation is the single most powerful driver of productivity and rising living standards.

But innovation requires structure and discipline. 

Over the past 20+ years, I’ve supported startups, scaleups, listed corporates and global giants in building the systems, the tools, the portfolios and the capabilities required to turn innovation into a source of growth, focus and measurable returns (ROI).


My focus is on:

• Corporate Innovation as a system

• Innovation portfolio management (Explore-Exploit balance, real options, advanced metrics, ROI)

• Corporate innovation strategy (from Innovation Mandate to Innovation Thesis to decision-making)

• Venture-building, Intrapreneurship & business model design

• Innovation governance (ISO 56000-aligned systems, with additions)

• Strategic decision-making (including agent-based simulations)


I've worked with everything from one-person experiments, to startups, to scale-ups, to 100,000+ employee organisations.

Some highlights:

My team and I helped ABN AMRO Bank redesign the business model of its most famous innovation product (Tikkie).
↓ What they said:
"Stephen's business savviness and commercial skills allow him to turn ideas into products that deliver real value to customers and to the organization"


I established SGS's global innovation function and guided its Business Units to create Innovation Strategies
↓ What they said:
"Stephen's insights and expertise have had a lasting impact on our business, setting us on a path of sustained growth and innovation."


I have also:
• Built, scaled, killed countless corporate ventures
• Led market expansions (e.g. Enerfip in Benelux)
• Trained and coached hundreds of professionals & business leaders
• Generated millions in P&L in high-volatility derivatives markets


I'm based in Europe, but I serve clients across the world - in English, French, German, Dutch and Spanish.

Open to punctual assignments as a fractional Head of Innovation, senior advisor, or product owner (I'm PSPO I certified).

If you're serious about building strategic, measurable, and above all, investable innovation, let’s connect.

Global Head of Corporate Incubation / Innovation

My team and I are building SGS's global incubation lab & innovation lab, from which we nurture and launch disruptive new business ideas.

Currently hiring Innovation Coaches and Service Designers / Innovation Strategists with an international background and mindset

AI won't replace you. But someone less sloppy in their AI usage will.

Innovation Strategist | Fractional Head of Innovation | Founder - Culturedge™ & Strategy Quest | Podcaster & Public Speaker

Most companies fade away because they don't treat innovation as a system.

They invest in a range of respectable, but disjointed, elements in the hope of driving innovation.

An internal venture-building operation here, a CVC arm there.

Once in a while, they organise a hackathon. Or when a business unit needs fresh ideas, they set up a spontaneous design sprint.

These activities aren't "wrong" by any means, but they need to be connected to function as an engine that produces profitable growth. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 *𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺*.


I. The first element your system needs is a clear 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲. Without this, your innovation lacks legitimacy and there's no coherence between the objectives of innovation and the risks and resources the company deploys. Simply put: You can't innovate without a mandate.

II. From a value perspective, innovation is fundamentally about placing bets on uncertain outcomes. You can't just improvise this, nor "ask someone from Finance to deal with it". Any professional organisation that invests capital needs serious 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲.

III. Unlike executing waterfall projects, the 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 of innovation need to be highly 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. This means you have to do lots of "boring" things well - like having documented processes, clearly-defined accountabilities within the system, training for specific competences and designing smart incentives.

IV. Unless you make innovation measurable on multiple levels, through clear 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀, there's no way of knowing what value (if any) your innovation activities contribute to the company's long-term prosperity. This isn't just about tracking a few project KPIs; it also requires you to run structured evaluation cycles at portfolio- and company level. And ultimately, these metrics need to convert into dollars or euros.

V. And rather than coming from a silo or an ivory tower, strategic innovation decisions (at project or portfolio level) need to be driven not by a senior innovator, nor by a top-down management budget, but formed through consensus among an 𝗙𝗕𝗜 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗼 (representing Finance, Business and Innovation). An FBI Trio can operate at project level, at C-level or any level in between - wherever appropriate to the decision being made.


With a coherent system in place, maybe you do conclude that hackathons are an ingredient in your recipe for success.

But it will be because you can demonstrate their value within the system.

When strategy becomes a p1ssing contest
🍌

When you debate a new direction, it's normal for leaders to tackle "unknowns" - how customers will react, how fast markets will change, how competitors might respond.

But these discussions can quickly descend into argument. I've been both victim and perpetrator of this myself.

Each person brings a lifetime of experience, so their uncertainty feels smaller than it really is. They don’t see it as uncertainty.

In low-trust environments, where psychological safety is thin, saying “I don’t know” signals weakness.

So the only rational move is to sound like you're certain - even when you’re not.

From there, ego takes over and backing down becomes impossible.

Eventually, someone “wins” the argument - not through evidence (because there is none yet), but through rhetoric or politics.

But your strategy loses.

When discovery gives way to debate about things that haven't happened yet, the company stops learning and quickly loses the ability to adapt.

You stop looking for truth, because you're now only looking for confirmation.


However in any kind of emergent strategy –whether it's a new corporate direction or an innovation programme or a reorganisation– humility is a major competitive advantage.

There's nothing weak about curiosity, or being explicit about what you know and don't know.

Quite the contrary: this is how you *capitalise on* uncertainty.

Across industries, we see innovation teams being cut. Not because they failed, nor because they don’t produce value.

But because they can’t *prove* what they’re worth.

Can you prove the value of your innovation lab? Not in “impact” or “learning” terms, but in dollars, euros or pounds?

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s this: If you can’t express your contribution in numbers, then someone else will
1. Miscalculate it using NPV
2. Round your personal value down to zero
3. Close you down

NPV is an automatic killer of innovation. It’s fundamentally flawed.

Unfortunately it’s the only valuation method that many companies use for innovation projects and portfolios.

However, as I explain in this article, Real Options might be the only way left to put a credible -and positive!- financial value on the adaptability, experimentation and learning that characterise innovation management done well.


👍 If you enjoyed this article, share it with a flexible friend
👎 If you didn’t, share it with a rigid enemy

Across industries, I continue to witness innovation teams disappearing. What began a few years ago as a necessary clean-up of corporate vanity project

Open article: Unless you Quantify your Value, you won’t Survive by Stephen Parkins • 5 min read

Unless you Quantify your Value, you won’t Survive

Henrik sees right through your innovation theatre Quatsch.

If your team needs to become more effective at pitching new ideas, maybe it's time they met him.

Henrik will give you honest feedback (in a German accent) 10, 20, 100 times – if you can handle it.

Because forget business books and online courses. The only way to learn something is to practise.

And when it comes to high-stakes business decisions, there's only one safe space where you can do that:
Strategy Quest | AI Business Simulations & Foresight

🔥 Unless your funding is as agile as your product development, your P&L is on fire at both ends (and not in a good way) 🔥

Most companies still run on waterfall funding: a system that assumes certainty, locks budgets in early, then measures success by your adherence to the plan rather than by any genuine learning about the market.

It all looks tidy on paper or in Excel, but it's the reason why your portfolio economics suck.

It's the reason why the ROI from innovation is such a disappointment to its parents.


Here are the two parallel ways waterfall funding is burning your P&L (profit & loss):


𝗜. 𝗜𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 (= 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀)

- Budgets get locked in at the start, based on assumptions that haven't been truly tested
- When reality diverges from plan, teams can’t adapt, so they push forward to use up the approved budget instead of pausing. There's no incentive to hand back cash.
- Change requests pile up, sunk costs grow uncontrollably
- The process rewards spending what was planned, not learning what’s needed


𝗜𝗜. 𝗜𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 (= 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁)

- When funding is released only after fixed milestones, teams can’t redirect capital toward emergent opportunities or validated experiments
- Promising signals appear but teams ignore them because they fall outside the original scope
- The approval cycle is just too slow to back agility and jump on new opportunities

This is how companies destroy their P&L twice: by executing obsolete plans AND by forfeiting upside they were never able to pursue.


Many innovation teams think they’ve escaped this trap because they use “innovation funnels” and “stage gates.” (Sound familiar?)

But these are essentially waterfall with pauses. They still reward prediction over adaptability.


👍 𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗯: 𝗔𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴, i.e. one that treats learning as progress and reallocates capital each time evidence emerges.

Sometimes this can mean allocating more than was promised, ahead of schedule.

Other times this means killing a project, 2 months before the regular check-in meeting.

But never based on someone's gut feel or a change in the wind direction.


Sadly, most companies have no idea what that looks like.

They let the financial stewards of the core business allocate funds to explorative innovation in exactly the same, competent, tested, way they always have: through forecasts, milestones, plans, pre-commitments and annual cycles. Elements designed for predictability, not for discovery.

Because this feels safe! And reasonable!

But until companies learn to change this, to 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆, even the smartest innovation strategy will keep burning money from both ends.

Your corporate innovation project is worth nothing until executed, right?
⚠️ Actually no, that's wrong!

If your project contains true optionality, it almost certainly has real value for your company.

Intuitively, this makes sense to most people. Because it's an asset.

But few would venture so far as to put a hard number on this valuation. (Surely any number is pure fiction at this early stage, right?)

Well let me stick my neck out here and make this wild claim:
𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀.

→ You can express their *current valuation* in dollars, euros, pounds or any other currency.

There are a few prerequisites though:
- You need to make the assumptions in your business case explicit;
- You need to express revenue as a formula, again with clear hypotheses around the drivers;
- You must be able to design experiments that will test these hypotheses;
- You need an adaptive plan, with agile funding conditional on certain proof (to be discovered);
- Crucially, you need investment discipline. If experiment 1 is successful, you proceed to experiment 2 without further pitching. If experiment 2 is unsuccessful, you stop the project without internal squabbling. If this investment discipline is lacking, if people make ad hoc decisions based on the wind direction, you destroy the valuation.

(It's worth noting by the way that having a clear Innovation Mandate, signed off and in place, gives you the required assurances above almost automatically.)

In the end, this valuation isn't witchcraft. Nor is it an valuation imposed by an "external authority". It's not a case of "Stephen Parkins says our project is worth $190k".

Doing it this way (using Modern Real Options) makes it YOUR valuation.

All you're doing is formulating a *company-accepted* expression of what the project is worth, today, to the company - accounting for both the potential and the uncertainty of the innovation.


What this means is that when pitching new ideas internally, you now have:
- No need to resort to fantasy stories about disruption and Silicon Valley
- A technique to compare multiple projects according to their cash valuation (including projects at different stages of maturity)
- Best of all: the ability to say, confidently, "today this project is worth x"

So many companies are paralysed by uncertainty.
While others, recklessly, are going all-in on their "big bet strategy".

However, neither approach will save you.

Standing still isn’t safe. Your cheese is being moved, whether you like it or not. "Wait and see" is a one-way ticket towards terminal decline.

Meanwhile, betting the farm on a hunch is reckless. That's no way to run a business.


So what should a company do? Play it safe or go all-in?

What about if you lead innovation, a strategy team or a CVC unit?


Thankfully there's a smarter approach: Leaders who are truly future-focused can, and should, 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆.

Optionality means you capture the upside (the opportunity) while limiting your downside (your risk of going bankrupt).


The clip below gives a taster of how you can achieve this. But if you're curious to learn more, Claus Hirzmann and I explain this further in the full video.

taplio

The Battle

Nick Himowicz

Stephen Parkins

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreNick Himowicz's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreStephen Parkins's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Nick Himowicz

Stephen Parkins

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nick Himowicz's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreStephen Parkins's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreNick Himowicz's LinkedIn Performance