Igniting innovation within established organizations is my passion. For over a decade, I've guided leadership teams and employees of corporates, governments and non-profits to unlock their creative potential and drive meaningful change from within their organizations.

Many talented professionals feel stifled by rigid structures, struggling to bring fresh ideas to life. I bridge this gap, empowering individuals to become catalysts for innovation in their companies.

Through proven frameworks and hands-on learning experiences, I create innovation leaders and intrapreneurial employees. My approach blends design thinking, lean startup methodologies, and business model innovation to equip professionals with practical tools for ideation and execution.

Participants in my programs consistently report increased confidence in pitching ideas, improved problem-solving skills, and a renewed sense of purpose in their roles. Many have successfully launched internal projects that have significantly impacted their organizations' bottom lines.

My tailored courses and workshops have helped hundreds of corporate innovators across various industries. From ideation sprints to long-term innovation capability building, I provide the guidance and support needed to navigate the complexities of corporate innovation.

If you're ready to unleash your innovative potential and make a lasting impact within your organization, let's connect. Together, we can transform your ideas into reality and propel your career to new heights.

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CONTACT ME!
I’ve never knowingly refused an invitation to talk about innovation. If you want to include me as a speaker at your next event, have me as a trainer or workshop host, or get our help to set up your own intrapreneurship toolbox or innovation lab...

... Message me here on LinkedIn, 
... Call me on +316 2251 0348, or 
... Email me on roel@riverstone.blue.

Roel Vries

I believe in the progress that emerges when human creativity, determination, and artificial intelligence come together.
 
At rready, we connect people, technology, and data to turn ideas into measurable financial impact. Our AI-powered innovation platform makes the entire process — from idea generation to implementation — digital, scalable, and efficient. Integrated AI agents support innovators in developing and validating their ideas, thereby drastically reducing the time-to-impact.
 
In recent years, we have helped companies such as ZF, BMW Group, and Tetra Pak to realize projects with hundreds of millions in influenced revenue.
 
We live what we enable companies to do: in 2021, we spun off from a corporate project at Swisscom and took the leap to become an independent startup — financed by venture capital from Silicon Valley.
 
As co-founder and CCO, I built the commercial teams and am responsible for marketing, sales, and HR — with a clear goal: not only to promote innovation, but to implement it.

Ralph Hartmeier

No, innovation managers won’t vanish. 

But the ones who try to own innovation? They will.

The question if innovation managers will still exist in 10 years comes up quite often in our conversations with clients and I just recently discussed it with my co-founder Dave.

Personally, I don’t think the role is going anywhere. 
But it will change drastically.

Because innovation isn’t something you manage anymore, it’s something you enable across the entire organization.

It’s less about controlling a process and more about creating the conditions and governance for innovation to happen everywhere, all the time, yet still controlled and strategically aligned.

If I had to paint a picture of the future, I’d say we’ll see innovation shift from being “owned” by a department to being embedded into the fabric of how companies operate.

Ideas will flow from the edge to the core - not the other way around - and AI will increasingly act as a connective layer, linking people, problems and possibilities in real time.

So, what happens to the role of the innovation manager in this scenario?

It’s no longer about gatekeeping or program oversight.

▶️ We’ll need people who think in systems, who understand stakeholder dynamics, and who know how to set the right guardrails - without becoming bottlenecks.
▶️ People who don’t just run programs, but who orchestrate environments where innovation can thrive at scale.

Agentic Innovation - From Ideas to Financial Impact I Co-Founder at rready.AI

Nobody has access to your email inbox.

And that might be blocking your company's best ideas.

Here's what happens in most organizations:

Someone shares a problem during a coffee chat. They send a quick update via Teams. An idea gets mentioned in an email thread.

And then... nothing.

The update gets lost. The KPIs aren't tracked. The potential? Invisible.

Think about it:
How many ideas are sitting in your inbox right now that could move a project forward?

How many people are waiting for your input without you even knowing?

This isn't about lack of creativity. It's about structure.

When innovation happens in emails and chat messages:

➡️ Updates disappear into individual inboxes
➡️ Nobody knows which ideas are in which stage
➡️ Progress isn't visible to the people who could help
➡️ Duplicates run in parallel because teams can't see what others are doing

That's why we built an AI-native system where:
✅ Ideas have a clear home and status
✅ AI connects them with relevant data from your CRM or ERP
✅ Duplicates get flagged automatically, Patent research conducted via AI Agents
✅ The right experts are matched to evaluate a project or execute it
Innovation at scale needs visibility and governance.

Not more brainstorming but a system that makes the work visible.

Most innovation doesn’t fail because it’s risky. 
It fails because no one builds the bridge - from idea to real impact.

I’ve seen this pattern repeat across company after company:
Ambitious goals. Smart people. Even generous budgets.
But nothing moves.

Not because the ideas are bad. 
But because the path forward doesn’t exist.

> No system to carry ideas from spark to adoption.
> No link to today’s business priorities.
> No visibility into what’s working.

We love big words: disruption, reinvention, moonshots. 
But inside most organizations? 
That energy dies in delivery.

Because bold ambition without structure is just noise.

At rready.AI, we build the bridge first.

We start small, where friction already exists. 
Then help teams take a step that’s easy enough to try, but meaningful enough to spark momentum.

We help companies:
▶️ Connect real problems with real owners
▶️ Make early wins visible across the org
▶️ Build traction before asking for scale

That’s how you move fast and bring people with you.

Because big leaps make headlines. 
But bridges? 
They make change happen.

So before your next innovation push, ask yourself: 
Can your people follow you? 
Or are they still stuck on the other side?

If you were a fruit, what would you be? 

Sounds ridiculous. But it might be the start of your best idea.

It’s easy to dismiss questions like this as cheesy workshop icebreakers — the kind that make people look at their phones and wait for the “real” work to begin. 

But what they actually do is signal something crucial: this is a space where it’s okay to drop the mask, be playful and think differently.

And that shift is exactly what innovation needs. 
Innovation thrives on trust, psychological safety, and the collision of diverse perspectives. 
You can't unlock any of that if your team is still stuck in performance mode.

The right icebreaker isn’t about being silly. 
It’s about shifting the brain from “business as usual” to “what if?”

Here are three of my go-to activities that help teams make that shift:

1️⃣ Flip-the-Problem: 
Instead of solving a challenge, brainstorm how to make it 10x worse. Then flip those sabotage ideas into useful insights. It’s a fun and revealing way to surface blind spots.

2️⃣ Innovation Constraints: 
Give your team a goal, but remove their favorite tool (e.g., “You can’t use digital tools”). Constraints force deeper creativity — the brain loves a puzzle it’s not fully equipped to solve.

3️⃣ Persona Mashup: 
Combine two unrelated personas (say, a truck driver and a botanist) and design a product for this hybrid user. It’s a powerful way to break linear thinking and practice empathy beyond the usual boundaries.

At rready.AI, we believe process matters just as much as the idea. 
Whether it's a quick warm-up or our full KICKBOX methodology, the goal is the same: turning ideas into action.

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Ralph Hartmeier

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The Battle

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Ralph Hartmeier

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