10 Reasons Why It’s Inefficient to Stay on the Same Project Too Long
1. Diminishing Marginal Returns
After the initial creative phase, each additional hour produces smaller improvements. Early work generates breakthroughs; later phases offer tiny gains for disproportionately high effort.
2. Habituation Reduces Cognitive Sensitivity
As the brain adapts to a familiar project, attention, emotional engagement, and novelty response decline. Launchers lose their natural advantage—fresh, high-energy insight.
3. Decline in Divergent Thinking
Long exposure to the same problem activates repetitive neural patterns. This suppresses divergent thinking, which launchers rely on to generate multiple ideas, prototypes, and innovative solutions.
4. Opportunity Cost of Stagnation
Time spent polishing an old project prevents the creation of higher-value new ones. Every extra week drains time, attention, and potential impact elsewhere.
5. Misalignment With Launcher Cognitive Strengths
Launchers excel at ideation, structuring, and early prototyping. Maintenance, optimization, and long-term operations require different cognitive strengths and drain energy and efficiency.
6. Reduced Neuroplasticity From Monotony
Neuroscience shows that varied tasks and challenges enhance neuroplasticity. Staying on one repetitive project limits cognitive flexibility and weakens future creativity.
7. Strategic Rigidity and Reduced Agility
Prolonged focus narrows perspective. Launchers become less responsive to new opportunities, trends, and signals—weakening the agility that makes them effective.
8. Lower Creative Energy and Motivation
Motivation systems thrive on novelty and challenge. When a project becomes routine, dopamine-driven engagement drops, reducing both motivation and execution quality.
9. Decreased Problem-Sensitivity
Fresh eyes spot issues quickly. Familiarity blinds launchers to inefficiencies and weak points, making improvements slower and less effective.
10. Slower Ecosystem Growth
Launchers create value by building a pipeline of initiatives. Staying on one project limits the ecosystem effect—where each new launch builds visibility, partnerships, and momentum for the next.
Launching is a universal capability that applies across industries, sectors, and domains. Here are ten clear examples of what “launching” looks like in practice—each demonstrating how ideas become real through structured execution, creativity, and momentum.
1. Launching an Event
Creating, promoting, and delivering a public experience—such as a conference, expo, festival, or workshop—to attract participants, partners, and media attention. Includes venue planning, experience design, stakeholder coordination, and high-visibility promotion.
2. Launching a Book
Developing and releasing a manuscript through writing, editing, design, and distribution. The launch includes coordinated marketing: author events, media outreach, social engagement, and targeted reader campaigns.
3. Launching a Research Project
Defining research questions, designing the methodology, securing partners or funding, collecting data, and sharing early findings with academic, industry, or community audiences.
4. Launching an App
Designing, developing, testing, and publishing a digital application on the App Store or Google Play. Supported by beta testing, user acquisition strategies, and continuous product updates.
5. Launching a Government Program
Creating and implementing a public initiative aimed at community, economic, or social impact. Involves policy design, stakeholder engagement, pilot testing, communications strategy, and inter-agency coordination.
6. Launching a Manufacturing Business
Developing a product concept, designing prototypes, establishing production lines, sourcing materials, ensuring compliance, and building distribution, branding, and sales channels.
7. Launching an Online Business
Building a digital platform or storefront, defining offerings, setting up payment and logistics systems, and attracting customers through SEO, content strategy, social media, and advertising.
8. Launching an Educational Course
Designing curriculum, creating learning materials, preparing assessments, building digital or in-person delivery, and promoting the course to students, parents, or institutions.
9. Launching a Hotel
Developing the concept, designing interiors, securing permits and licensing, training staff, building operational standards, and executing a pre-opening marketing strategy that drives anticipation and bookings.
10. Launching a Service
Creating a service model, defining processes, training staff, shaping customer experience, establishing pricing, and activating promotional campaigns to attract early clients.
Launching is not only a process — it’s a philosophy and a way of thinking. Effective launchers rely on a distinct set of principles that guide how they create momentum, reduce uncertainty, and turn ideas into visible impact. These ten principles shape the mindset behind every successful launch.
1. Promptness — Move Early, Move Fast
Speed creates advantage. Launchers reduce delays, act decisively, and turn ideas into action while momentum is high.
2. Creativity — Start with Original, High-Value Ideas
Every launch begins with creativity. Generate concepts that capture attention, solve real problems, and open new possibilities.
3. Disruptiveness — Break Patterns and Create New Space
Strong launches challenge assumptions, rethink norms, and introduce alternatives that shift the status quo.
4. Benchmark Search — Look Outside Your Field and Transfer Insights
Explore best practices across industries and disciplines. Adapt what works elsewhere and translate insights into your project.
5. Guerrilla Marketing — Achieve High Impact with Low Resources
Use bold, unexpected, and cost-effective tactics that spark attention and spread organically.
6. Mass Involvement — Engage Many People Early
Involve users, partners, communities, and supporters from the beginning. Broad participation builds momentum, visibility, and trust.
7. Wide Research — Understand Needs, Context, and Trends Deeply
Perform comprehensive research on markets, users, competitors, and emerging trends. Strong research reduces uncertainty and improves decisions.
8. Simplicity — Focus on the Clear, Essential Core
A powerful launch communicates one simple, compelling idea. Simplicity accelerates understanding, execution, and adoption.
9. Experimentation — Test Small, Learn Fast
Run quick experiments, prototypes, and MVPs. Use evidence — not assumptions — to refine the project and reduce risk.
10. Bold Communication — Tell a Strong Story with Confidence
Share the idea loudly and clearly. Successful launches rely on memorable storytelling, consistent messaging, and visible presence.
Generate and explore multiple ideas, identify the core opportunity or problem, and clarify the value you’ll deliver. A strong idea is the seed of everything else.
2. Research — Evidence & Validation
Study the market, audience, competitors, and feasibility. Use research to validate relevance and viability. The initiation phase of the project lifecycle emphasizes defining value and obtaining stakeholder buy-in.
3. Strategy — Strategic Management Steps
Define the strategic direction: mission, vision, positioning, value proposition, differentiation, and risks. Apply strategic frameworks such as SWOT or OGSM to build clarity and coherence.
4. Concept — Project Definition
Translate strategy into a clear concept: scope, SMART objectives, deliverables, success criteria, and stakeholder roles. Also finalize your launch-event concept — audience, messaging, and experience.
5. Plan — Timeline, Resources, Structure
Build a roadmap: tasks, milestones, timeline, budget, team, resources, and a risk/assumption log. Strong planning frameworks create structure before execution begins.
6. Test — Minimum Viable Project / Prototype
Run a minimal version or prototype to gather feedback, test assumptions, and uncover issues. This step aligns with preparation for the execution/monitoring phase of project management.
7. Event — Public Presentation
Execute the public launch. The event is the focal moment where you attract partners, customers, collaborators, and visibility. Define clear goals, design the experience, promote effectively, and follow up afterward.
8. Marketing — Awareness & Engagement
Run communications to amplify your launch: storytelling, channels, content, partnerships, and community engagement. Marketing sustains momentum beyond the event.
9. Evaluation — Feedback & Measurement
Collect and analyze KPIs such as attendance, leads, satisfaction, conversion, and impact. Reflect on what worked and what didn’t, aligning findings with your original objectives.
10. Iteration — Improvement & Scaling
Use evaluation insights to refine the offering, fix issues, expand reach, and strengthen the next launch cycle. Iteration turns a one-time launch into a scalable system.
Event Evaluation: How to Measure the Effectiveness of Planned Events is a comprehensive guide to capturing the true impact of events. It goes beyond headcounts and satisfaction surveys to show planners, sponsors, governments, venues, and academics how to measure financial, experiential, cultural, and social value.
With practical frameworks, real-world examples, and modern methods, the book covers ROI, audience emotions, sustainability, and inclusion. It explains how to design effective surveys, run experiments, use digital tools, analyze results, and turn insights into stronger strategies and outcomes.
Blending foundational techniques with innovations such as AI, sensors, and immersive evaluation, it equips readers to assess events of any scale—from community festivals to global conventions. More than a measurement guide, Event Evaluation promotes a culture of learning where every event becomes a chance to innovate, connect, and create lasting impact.
Kid-Friendly World offers a visionary yet practical framework for designing inclusive environments where children and families thrive. Blending global case studies, developmental science, and participatory design, it redefines child-centered design as a catalyst for healthier, more vibrant communities. From public spaces and tourism destinations to hotels, events, and policy strategies, the book provides tools and insights to guide planners, educators, and hospitality leaders. It positions children as co-creators—not just users—of the spaces we share and shows how family-centered design can attract more visitors, guests, attendees, and residents.
This book is for:
Urban planners, designers, and policy makers seeking to build inclusive, vibrant communities
Tourism professionals and destination marketers aiming to attract and retain family travelers
Hospitality managers, hoteliers, and Airbnb hosts enhancing child-friendly services
Event organizers looking to design inclusive, family-centered experiences
Educators, researchers, and students focused on child development, social design, and community engagement
Parents, advocates, and nonprofit leaders working to create better environments for children and families.
Throughout my career, working with thousands of innovators, startup founders, researchers, and investors, I have observed both successful and struggling models of fostering innovation. From launching government innovation programs to establishing accelerators, incubators, and research acceleration initiatives, I have learned a crucial lesson—developing innovation and entrepreneurship as standalone efforts or isolated initiatives is rarely effective.
Sustainable innovation requires a dynamic and interconnected ecosystem—one that integrates support mechanisms, project pipelines, acceleration events, industry collaborations, and real-world application pathways into a cohesive structure.
Innovation Events
Some well-tested events require minimal resources to organize yet can have a significant impact on fostering innovation.
Hackathons
Pitch Competitions
Idea Crush-Tests
Acceleration Events
Networking Events
Startup Showcases
Innovation Forums
And many more…
Innovation Infrastructure
Several key initiatives can be developed and launched simultaneously, complementing each other and creating a strong foundation for sustainable innovation:
Incubator
Accelerator
Innovation Center
Co-Working Space
Research Acceleration Center
Innovation Events & Programs
Contests and Challenges
Partnership and Fundraising Activities
New Educational Curricula
The Pace of Innovation
Based on my experience, innovation development systems evolve quickly—sometimes even faster than expected. Attracting partners is often easier than it seems. A highly effective approach is inviting them to utilize university infrastructure, including conference rooms, meeting spaces, and co-working facilities.
I have firsthand experience in launching an innovation hub from scratch that, within just a year, was supporting over a thousand innovation projects. It quickly began collaborating with researchers, investors, government programs, industry leaders, and other stakeholders, ultimately becoming a regional center for innovation infrastructure.
I am always happy to share knowledge, provide guidance, or offer insights to universities—without any expectations in return.
I am also happy to send you PDF versions of any of my books or articles, including Empowering Innovations and Research Acceleration, completely free of charge. If these resources can help support your innovation development initiatives, feel free to reach out.
The book provides a comprehensive framework for transforming the research process, empowering individuals, institutions, and stakeholders to achieve greater efficiency, relevance, and societal impact.
This book provides a comprehensive guide for universities, governments, and organizations on fostering innovation through strategic initiatives, infrastructure development, stakeholder engagement, and event planning to build sustainable and impactful innovation ecosystems.
Let’s Connect
If you are working on scaling innovation and need insights on structuring an innovation ecosystem, organizing events and activities, or any other related topics, please contact me using the form below.
Empowering Innovation is a comprehensive guide to building, sustaining, and scaling innovation in today’s rapidly evolving world. Drawing from real-world experience in developing innovation programs and ecosystems, this book provides a practical roadmap for universities, governments, organizations, and entrepreneurs looking to foster innovation, navigate challenges, and drive meaningful progress.
The book explores the foundational principles of innovation, the importance of structured innovation infrastructure, and the critical role of collaboration between academia, industry, and policymakers. It offers actionable strategies for identifying opportunities, securing funding, executing innovation events, and engaging stakeholders in dynamic ecosystems. Readers will gain insights into overcoming barriers, scaling successful initiatives, and measuring innovation impact using proven frameworks and best practices.
With a forward-looking perspective, Empowering Innovation also delves into emerging trends such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and green technologies, emphasizing the need for adaptable, interdisciplinary, and data-driven approaches. Whether you are leading a university research program, shaping government policies, managing corporate innovation, or launching a startup, this book equips you with the tools to transform ideas into impactful solutions and position your organization for long-term success.
Innovation is not a one-time breakthrough-it is an ongoing process that requires persistence, collaboration, and the right strategies. Empowering Innovation is your essential resource for turning visionary ideas into real-world impact.
Throughout my career, I have worked with thousands of researchers, innovators, investors, and stakeholders while leading innovation development programs in government. Establishing innovation centers, incubators, technoparks, venture funds, and other transformative initiatives was a relatively straightforward process when I could handpick the most motivated researchers and provide them with the necessary knowledge, infrastructure, funding, and collaborative networks to scale their projects.
However, my experiences in academia—both in my home country and later in the United States and Europe—revealed a stark contrast. Research processes, particularly in the soft sciences, were often less intensive and multidimensional. Too frequently, research outcomes remained confined to academic publications in niche journals, with little impact beyond academic circles. If we are to address global challenges, shape policy, commercialize innovations, influence mindsets, advance sustainability, improve well-being, or leave a lasting legacy, we must rethink how research is conducted, communicated, and applied. The current model must shift to one that integrates innovative strategies designed to accelerate and amplify research impact.
One of the most pressing issues I have observed is the way researchers receive critical feedback—often for the first time only after submitting their papers to journals. By that stage, it is usually too late to make meaningful revisions to the research design, methodology, or data analysis. This reactive approach forces researchers to modify their work primarily to satisfy reviewers rather than to enhance its substance. Feedback should come at the idea stage, when it has the greatest potential to shape and refine the research.
To address this, I developed the “Idea Crush Test” format, which allows researchers and innovators to receive early constructive criticism when their ideas are still forming. Having organized more than 50 Idea Crush Tests, I have seen firsthand how this approach fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, strengthens research design, and prevents wasted effort on projects that could have been significantly improved from the outset.
Another major obstacle in academia is the rigid structure of academic conferences and events. Having organized over 300 events, I have witnessed their enormous potential for launching projects, fostering collaboration, and attracting resources. However, traditional academic conferences often fail to deliver on this potential. Researchers typically attend to present their findings, answer a few questions, and compete for best paper awards, but rarely do these events lead to new research directions, interdisciplinary collaborations, or practical applications.
To truly accelerate research, we must rethink the format of academic events. Conferences should go beyond passive presentations and incorporate strategic brainstorming sessions, Idea Crush Tests, interactive workshops, multidisciplinary meetings, project-matching activities, creative presentation formats, commercialization reactors, hackathons, and debates. Some of history’s most groundbreaking scientific discoveries emerged from formal and informal academic discussions. Yet, in the hundreds of conferences I have attended, opportunities to break free from standardized, repetitive formats have been rare. These missed opportunities highlight the urgent need for more engaging, collaborative, and dynamic academic events.
I recently wrote the book “Research Acceleration,” where I explore various methodologies for expediting the research process and increasing its impact. Drawing from my experience in academia, government, and innovation programs, this book offers practical strategies for universities, research institutions, and policymakers seeking to improve research outcomes, attract funding, and enhance collaboration.
Beyond writing about research acceleration, I actively work on developing new formats for research acceleration events and hosting them whenever time permits. My goal is to create more dynamic, interactive, and results-driven approaches to academic gatherings that foster meaningful discussions, interdisciplinary cooperation, and practical applications of research.
I am ready to help develop and host research acceleration events that go beyond traditional academic formats. Whether through idea validation sessions, research hackathons, commercialization-focused events, or customized formats for specific research disciplines, I am always eager to collaborate with institutions and organizations looking to transform the way research is conducted, shared, and applied.
Contact
If I can be of help in developing research acceleration events, please contact me using the form below. I look forward to exploring new ways to push the boundaries of research and innovation together.
In a world where global challenges demand urgent solutions, traditional academic research often struggles to deliver timely and impactful outcomes. Research Acceleration: Strategies and Tools for Impactful Academia provides a comprehensive framework for transforming the research process, empowering individuals, institutions, and stakeholders to achieve greater efficiency, relevance, and societal impact.
Drawing on over two decades of experience in innovation development, policymaking, international organizations, and academia, the author presents actionable insights and proven strategies for accelerating research. From generating transformative ideas to disseminating findings that influence policy, drive innovation, and foster sustainable change, this book emphasizes the critical need for research acceleration, particularly in fields such as management, tourism, hospitality, and the social sciences.
Research Acceleration delves into key areas, including:
The importance of accelerating research
Strategies for embedding research acceleration into institutional frameworks
Practical tactics to streamline and enhance the research process
Cutting-edge approaches to disseminating and promoting research
Proven formats for research events and activities
The role of global collaborations and stakeholder engagement
Translating research into broader societal and industry impacts
The author introduces innovative methodologies such as research idea crash tests, research acceleration events, commercialization reactors, and more, specifically designed to bridge the gap between academic inquiry and real-world applications. Whether you are an academic, administrator, policymaker, or industry professional, this book equips you with the tools and knowledge needed to accelerate research and achieve transformative outcomes.
Packed with case studies, best practices, and examples of research acceleration initiatives, Research Acceleration is both a call to action and a practical guide for creating a dynamic research ecosystem that fosters innovation, inclusivity, and progress.
