prof. dr. Paul Louis Iske

About Paul Louis Iske

Paul Iske is professor of Open Innovation & Business Venturing at Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics. Here he is mainly concerned with service innovation and social innovation, with a specialty in Combinatoric Innovation. It is his mission to make organizations smarter, more innovative and more enterprising.

As founder of the Institute for Brilliant Failures, he aims to foster understanding of the complexity of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Organizations are confronted with important, sometimes disruptive changes and must show that they are agile and resilient. Renewal of the business model is often necessary and creativity, courage and (positive) energy are indispensable for this. The trick is to develop environments in which innovation and entrepreneurship can thrive.

“Many people are convinced that positive thinking increases the chance of success. The ambitions can be in different areas, such as business, health, education, sports, love, etc. Indeed, scientific research shows that under certain conditions, optimism helps to achieve the objectives. That seems like a conclusion that is as logical as it is welcome. However, life is often more complicated than we would like. Einstein already said it:

We need to make things as simple as possible, but no simpler than that.

Paul obtained his PhD in theoretical physics and then worked at Shell, where he mainly connected knowledge within and outside Shell.

Paul Iske is a speaker and consultant in the areas of: creativity, innovation, intellectual capital, knowledge management and entrepreneurship. He does this both within the private and (semi-)public sector at home and abroad.