Innovating with purpose

FROM IDEA TO ACTION

THE CHALLENGE OF INNOVATING WITH PURPOSE

A guide for creating solutions to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through sustainable innovation and exponential technologies

The Challenge of Innovating with Purpose is an invaluable source of inspiration and knowledge designed to empower companies and entrepreneurs to create innovative solutions that accelerate the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Written as if it were an exciting high-seas journey, its seven chapters offer stories, expert advice, interviews, and methodologies to spark creativity and enhance the reader’s innovation skills, regardless of their background or experience.

The book’s mission is to democratize access to knowledge and innovation skills; the content and methodologies provided deliver value comparable to a specialization or postgraduate program in any of the topics covered, but with the advantage of progressing at your own pace and at a significantly lower cost.

The Challenge of Innovating with Purpose combines foresight and futures thinking, fundamentals of innovation, sustainable innovation, exponential technologies, creativity, entrepreneurship, open innovation, and biomimicry, enriched by the author’s personal experience. Through a precise style and captivating narrative, Charly Karamanian invites us on a journey through time and space — from the origins of the universe to the present day — and then takes us to the year 2100, where we can envision the needs and technologies that will help us create the solutions necessary to coexist on the planet in a more sustainable way.

The book includes innovation stories as familiar as the automobile, the ice cube, and the microprocessor, as well as others less known, narrated from the author’s perspective and his personal experience in solving some of the most disruptive open innovation challenges for NASA, the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Enel X, Volkswagen, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN).

The Challenge of Innovating with Purpose gathers and condenses Charly Karamanian’s broad and diverse academic background: Certified Public Accountant, Master’s in Communication and Information Technology Management, Postgraduate in Foresight and Innovation Management, and a wide range of courses and degrees in Sustainability, Exponential Technologies (Singularity University), Creative Problem Solving (Enel), Design Thinking (IDEO), Service Design (CIID), Biomimicry (BCI), and Futures Design (IFTF). It also draws on his personal experience as an Entrepreneur, Professor in postgraduate programs on entrepreneurship and innovation, Innovation and Sustainability Consultant, Sustainability and Innovation Manager in both public and private sectors, Head of corporate innovation and entrepreneurship programs, Evaluator for Argentina’s National Innovation Award (INNOVAR), and Director of Entrepreneurs for the Province of Buenos Aires — where he had the opportunity to meet, advise, support, connect, and learn from thousands of entrepreneurs from diverse fields, discovering the common challenges faced by those who choose entrepreneurship as a way of life. Finally, it reflects his role as a solver in open innovation challenges for organizations shaping the future.

Fair winds and following seas is one of the most popular expressions of good wishes in the nautical world; it’s said to those who are about to set sail. Without a doubt, the context in which we develop our venture will be important, but history shows us countless examples that the entrepreneur’s attitude is the key factor — the one that will allow them to succeed against all odds. We can be pessimistic and complain about the wind, optimistic and wait for it to change, or better yet, we can adjust the rudder, hoist the sails, and chart our own course toward a better future.

Content

The book is structured as if it were a journey of discovery, with sequential chapters that also allow readers to choose the order based on their interests.

Foresight and Futures Thinking
Innovation 101
Sustainable Innovation
Exponential Technologies
Innovation and Creativity
Entrepreneurship with Purpose
Open Innovation and Biomimicry

1. Foresight and Futures Thinking

Designing the cities of the future. In the first chapter, the author invites you to turn foresight and imagination into creative and innovative tools that allow you to think the unthinkable, expect the unexpected, and imagine the unimaginable.

We live in a VUCA context: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. Yet, there are people and organizations designing the products, services, and solutions of the future. By analyzing signals and identifying technologies, drivers, and trends, we can see the direction of change, make forecasts, and build possible scenarios. It’s not about predicting the future with certainty — no one has a crystal ball. Those of us who work in foresight tell stories about the future to provoke action in the present, so we can start building our preferred future today.

In this chapter, the author introduces the Futures Cone methodology through a case study: The Future of Cities 2050. Finally, he develops the Three Horizons framework, whose flexibility allows teams to collaborate creatively while exploring possible futures, helping us understand the coexistence of different perspectives and models operating simultaneously.

2. Innovation 101

The best way to predict the future is to create it. In the second chapter, the author invites you to embark on the world of innovation, which goes far beyond technology — it reflects a cultural shift toward new ways of doing things and interacting with the world.

The chapter begins with a chronological journey from Homo habilis to the knowledge era, identifying the rationale behind all innovation so you can better understand, adopt, and drive it — moving from a passive spectator to a proactive change agent. It presents the foundations and key concepts of innovation, such as the S-curve, paradigms, management models, diffusion, business and innovation leadership, Blue Ocean Strategy, Big Bang disruptions, and the waves of innovation.

3. Sustainable Innovation

The only way to do good business. Did you know that only 20% of brands are perceived as having a positive and meaningful impact on people’s lives — and that most people wouldn’t care if 70% of brands disappeared tomorrow? Consumers are beginning to understand the consequences of their actions and know that their money plays a fundamental role in shaping their future and that of their loved ones.

In this chapter, the author invites you to rethink how we do business through sustainable innovation. It starts with an introduction to sustainability, illustrating concepts such as global warming, carbon footprint, water footprint, and planetary boundaries.

The chapter includes a methodological journey presenting current and emerging green technologies, with concrete solutions for: air quality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, responsible production and consumption, zero hunger, and transportation.

4. Exponential Technologies

The impact on the future of humanity. We live surrounded by new devices, digital paradigms, and human-machine interfaces. We are entering a new world that converges and fuses technologically at exponential rates. These technologies will affect our businesses and industries in unprecedented ways. Are you ready to make the shift and start thinking exponentially?

In this chapter, the author provides keys and compasses to analyze the impacts, risks, and opportunities that exponential technologies will bring to society and business models. We’ll reflect on concepts and implications of Big Bang disruptions, the evolution of interfaces, technological convergence, big data, the Internet of Things, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain, robotics and AI, digital manufacturing, 3D printing, generative design, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and the future of health and humanity.

At the end of the chapter, you’ll find headlines from the future, helping you understand the timing and imminence of widespread innovations that could virtually transform us into a new species.

5. Innovation and Creativity

Go to the crow´s nest and beyond. This chapter was designed to help you understand the mental processes involved in creativity, providing concrete tools to develop your ability to turn problems into challenges and solve them using structured and effective models. You’ll experience a journey of discovery, divergent and convergent thinking, highlighting the value of intuition and curiosity in generating breakthroughs. We’ll explore personal and group dynamics to improve fluency, flexibility, originality, and idea elaboration, enabling you to contribute to high-performance creative teams.

Within this chapter, the author introduces Orīgo Innovation, a creative visualization method he developed based on the works of Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin, and other renowned scientists. It’s a journey through time and space, where you’ll witness the creation of the universe from the front row and travel the paths of evolution to draw on 3.8 billion years of nature’s experience — the greatest R&D lab ever created. Then, you’ll leap to the year 2100 to see technological advances and their concrete applications in everyday life.

Finally, the chapter presents the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) methodology, illustrated with an example: a new solution for affordable and clean energy based on green hydrogen.

6. Entrepreneurship with Purpose

Take the leap. An entrepreneur is someone who identifies a business or improvement opportunity and organizes the resources needed to create value and bring ideas, plans, and dreams to life. Entrepreneurship is a powerful way to develop your purpose and contribute to the growth of your organization and community. There has never been a better time in human history to start a business — but it’s also a path full of obstacles and challenges. You’ll need to navigate it wisely and, above all, you’ll need a lot of L.U.C.K.: Learning to Use your Capabilities and Knowledge. To achieve success, you must develop the skills to become a professional entrepreneur.

In this chapter, the author presents Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and agile methodologies, illustrated with three concrete examples: the design of a last-mile electric mobility product, an app that helps reduce food waste, and a platform that enables companies to offset their carbon footprint through sustainable crypto-assets.

7. Open Innovation and Biomimicry

The power of collective intelligence. Open innovation goes beyond outsourcing or complementing an organization’s R&D processes; it is a fundamental tool for reinventing every key process within a business. Open innovation means opening up to a world of new possibilities, where we can co-create innovative solutions alongside research centers, suppliers, customers, colleagues, and industrial partners — building essential alliances to accelerate the creation of shared value.

In the seventh and final chapter, the author introduces the concepts, foundations, and keys of open innovation, starting with the storytelling of his own journey as an entrepreneur and purpose-driven innovator. This will help you connect all the concepts explored in previous chapters. Charly shares examples, background, and personal experiences participating in open innovation challenges for NASA, the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN), Volkswagen, and Enel X. He also presents specific examples and strategies to leverage the potential of open innovation and biomimicry — both from the perspective of companies and innovators. To illustrate this, he includes a very personal interview with Hugo Shelley, NASA’s “star solver,” and a conversation on nature-inspired solutions with Jared Yarnall-Schane, Director of Innovation at the Biomimicry Institute.

Finally, the chapter introduces Carl Hastrich’s Biomimetic Design Spiral methodology, including an example of developing a sustainable, bio-inspired mass-consumption product.

The Challenge of Innovating with Purpose is a living, future-proof book. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a QR code that takes you to a virtual board packed with content that is updated regularly. This space includes access to videos, articles, courses, websites, case studies, templates, and all kinds of relevant material that complements the topics and concepts covered in each chapter.

FROM IDEA TO ACTION

The Challenge of Innovating with Purpose invites us to take a complete journey — from idea to action. That’s why it covers various methodologies through case studies that will help readers drive and implement their purpose-driven innovation projects:

Futures Cone. A methodology that allows us to anticipate the future so that, instead of being passive spectators, we become protagonists of change. Tools include retrospective analysis, signal and trend identification, FOG analysis, cognitive bias codex, prioritization matrix, scenario analysis, PESTEL analysis, futures wheel, speculative or fiction design, prototypes and simulations, and finally backcasting.
Three Horizons (3H). A flexible methodology that enables teamwork to foster collaboration and creativity while exploring possible futures, helping us understand the coexistence of different perspectives and models operating simultaneously.
Creative Problem Solving (CPS). A structured methodology for solving creative challenges as a team. As a practical case, the book develops a solution based on green hydrogen — an alternative to sustainable energy generation and use.
Orīgo Innovation. A creative visualization method developed by the author and inspired by the works of scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Charles Darwin. Through a journey across time and space, you’ll witness the creation of the universe from the front row and explore the paths of evolution. You’ll also travel to the year 2100 to visualize technological advances and their concrete applications in everyday life.
Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile Methodologies. These methodologies will help you design, validate, develop, and manage new solutions and value propositions. The book presents cases such as the design of a last-mile electric mobility product (EMOV Brina2), an app that combats food waste (KIGÜI), and a platform that enables companies to offset their carbon footprint through sustainable crypto-assets (Nativas).
Carl Hastrich’s Biomimetic Design Spiral. This methodology helps you apply biomimicry and bio-inspiration in the design of sustainable products, leveraging nature’s experience — the greatest R&D lab, with 3.8 billion years of expertise. The book includes the case of designing a reusable water bottle.

THE book’s cover

The book’s cover features the image of the Malizia — Seaexplorer, an IMOCA-class sailboat that competes in the world’s most important regattas. Its sails carry the message “A Race We Must Win — Climate Action Now!” alongside the SDG wheel. In 2019, it made headlines for transporting Greta Thunberg from the United Kingdom to the UN Climate Action Summit in New York without using fossil fuels. The Malizia — Seaexplorer is equipped with an automated laboratory that measures and transmits valuable ocean surface data — such as CO₂ concentration, temperature, and salinity — to its partners at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and the French Institute for Ocean Science (IFREMER). Oceans absorb 93% of the excess heat caused by global warming, profoundly altering the water’s chemistry and biology, posing a major threat to biodiversity. “We need to reduce emissions quickly to tackle climate change — one of humanity’s greatest challenges — but it is also a challenge to create better solutions that can accelerate the pace; because we are in a race against time, and it’s a race we must win,” said Boris Herrmann, the team’s captain.

available in english, spanish + KINDLE UNLIMITED

The Challenge of Innovating with Purpose is available in English and Spanish as an e-book and can be comfortably read on a tablet or iPad (Android or iOS), as well as on a Mac or PC — or even on your smartphone. To do so, you’ll need to download the free Kindle app (you don’t need a Kindle device; see links below). When you purchase the e-book on Amazon, it will automatically download to all devices where you have the Kindle app installed.

KINDLE UNLIMITED

The book is available on Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s subscription service that lets you read as many books as you want for a monthly fee — just like Spotify.

THE CHALLENGE OF INNOVATING WITH PURPOSE - ENGLISH