June 2025 – Sofija Mijalkovic

June 25, 2025June 25, 2025

Mercedes vs BMW

When it comes to luxury automobiles, few rivalries are as iconic as that between Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Both German giants have carved out powerful global identities, yet they approach branding, marketing, and customer perception in very different ways.

Mercedes-Benz

Brand Identity
Mercedes-Benz has long positioned itself as the pinnacle of automotive luxury and engineering excellence. Its slogan, “The Best or Nothing,” isn’t just a tagline it’s their mission and guarantee. The brand emphasizes heritage, status, and timeless design. Mercedes is often associated with sophistication, comfort, and prestige.

Marketing Strategy
Mercedes marketing leans heavily into heritage and elegance. Campaigns often focus on innovation (like their safety technology or electric vehicles) while reinforcing the brand’s luxurious image. They frequently use sleek visuals, classical music, and authoritative narration in their ads, targeting successful professionals, executives, and those who want to project affluence and refinement.

Public Perception
People often see Mercedes as a symbol of success. It’s the car of diplomats, CEOs, and those who’ve “made it.” The brand is often associated with classical luxury, making it appealing to an older, more conservative demographic, although this has been shifting with newer models and the introduction of sportier variants and electric models.

BMW

Brand Identity
BMW markets itself as a driver’s brand. Its longstanding slogan “The Ultimate Driving Machine” is all about performance, agility, and connection to the road. BMW emphasizes the thrill of driving, precision engineering, and a sportier lifestyle. It’s less about being chauffeured, more about being in the driver’s seat.

Marketing Strategy
BMW’s marketing campaigns highlight emotion, performance, and dynamism. They often feature winding roads, sharp turns, and the sound of an engine revving. The focus is on you, the driver, and your experience while driving.

Their ads tend to feel younger, more energetic, and often more adventurous than Mercedes. BMW also uses tech-savvy features and digital experiences to appeal to a slightly more youthful, urban, and active customer base.

Public Perception
BMW is often seen as the choice of enthusiasts, those who love the act of driving itself. It’s considered stylish and sporty, with a slightly more rebellious or assertive attitude. While it’s still a status symbol, it appeals more to youthful ambition than old money elegance.

Mercedes and BMW are not just car brands, they’re lifestyle brands that reflect different philosophies. Where Mercedes represents calm power and refined luxury, BMW is about dynamic control and passionate driving. These distinct branding strategies have helped both companies create loyal fan bases and clear market positions.

June 16, 2025

How Company Culture Affects Innovation

Innovation is one of the most important factors in companies. It can affect company culture, but company culture can affect innovation just as much. A culture that supports innovation empowers teams to take risks, experiment, and challenge the status quo, while a rigid or fearful culture often leads to stagnation.

Psychological Safety and Risk-Taking
In innovative cultures, failure isn’t punished—it’s seen as a step toward success. This mindset creates psychological safety, where employees feel confident sharing bold ideas without fear of embarrassment or retribution. Companies like Google and 3M are famous for encouraging experimentation, even allocating time specifically for side projects that can lead to breakthroughs.

Openness and Collaboration
Innovation is rarely a solo act. A culture that values open communication and cross-functional collaboration tends to produce more creative outcomes. When people from diverse backgrounds and roles are encouraged to exchange ideas freely, new solutions often emerge at the intersection of different perspectives.

Purpose and Vision
When employees understand and believe in a company’s purpose, they’re more motivated to contribute ideas and go beyond the minimum. A clear and inspiring mission gives innovation a direction and a reason. It aligns individual creativity with collective goals.

Agility and Adaptability
In fast-changing markets, innovation depends on a company’s ability to move quickly. Cultures that embrace change and remain flexible are better equipped to pivot, test new approaches, and adopt emerging technologies. Bureaucracy and rigid hierarchies, on the other hand, tend to slow innovation down.

Leadership and Role Modeling
Leaders play a crucial role in shaping culture. When leadership encourages curiosity, rewards initiative, and celebrates learning from failure, it signals to the entire organization that innovation is a priority—not just a buzzword.

A company’s culture can either fuel or block innovation. Businesses that want to stay competitive in the long term must build a culture that actively nurtures creativity, embraces change, and empowers people at every level to contribute their best ideas.

June 10, 2025

Innovation around the world

Innovation is a global force, but its nature, drivers, and outcomes vary significantly across different regions. Cultural values, economic structures, education systems, and access to resources all shape how innovation takes place, and what problems it seeks to solve.

Europe

Europe tends to focus on sustainable and regulatory-driven innovation, particularly in sectors like clean energy, health care, and digital infrastructure. The European Union plays a strong role in funding research and creating common standards. Countries like Germany and Sweden excel in industrial and technological innovation, while nations like the Netherlands and Estonia are leaders in digital government and green tech.

Asia

Asia is a powerhouse of technology-driven innovation, but it’s far from homogenous. Japan and South Korea lead in robotics and advanced manufacturing. China has become a major global innovator, especially in e-commerce, AI, and fintech, supported by a vast market and heavy government investment. Southeast Asia is emerging rapidly in digital services and startups, often leapfrogging legacy systems with mobile-first solutions.

Africa

Innovation in Africa is often resourceful and socially driven, addressing local challenges in creative ways. With limited infrastructure in many regions, mobile technology has become a central tool—especially in finance, agriculture, and education. Kenya’s mobile money platform M-Pesa is a standout example. Innovation here is typically frugal, practical, and aimed at community-level impact.

America

The Americas present a wide spectrum. The United States is a global leader in cutting-edge innovation, driven by Silicon Valley’s ecosystem of venture capital, research universities, and tech entrepreneurship. Latin America, on the other hand, focuses on adaptation and inclusion, with Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia fostering vibrant startup scenes in areas like e-commerce, transport, and financial inclusion.

While innovation is a global phenomenon, it is deeply shaped by local needs, opportunities, and constraints. Understanding regional differences helps highlight the unique value and creativity that each part of the world brings to solving problems and shaping the future.

June 3, 2025June 3, 2025

Understanding the types of innovation

Innovation is the process of developing new ideas, products, services, or processes that create value. It’s the driving force behind progress in business, technology, and society. It enables organizations to adapt, grow, and stay competitive in ever-changing environments. However, not all innovation is the same, some changes are small and continuous, while others completely reshape industries. To better understand how innovation works and how it can be strategically applied, it’s helpful to explore its four core types: incremental, adjacent, radical, and disruptive innovation.

core types of innovation

1. Incremental Innovation

Incremental innovation refers to small, continuous improvements made to existing products, services, or processes. This is the most common type of innovation and is often low-risk and cost-effective. Companies use it to refine what they already do well—making things faster, cheaper, or more user-friendly.

Example: A smartphone manufacturer releasing a new model with a better battery and camera, but with the same core design and features.

Purpose: Maintain competitiveness, meet customer expectations, and gradually improve performance.

2. Sustaining Innovation

Sustaining innovation improves existing products or services to meet the needs of current customers—usually through incremental or evolutionary improvements.

Example: A car company releasing a new model with better fuel efficiency and a sleeker design.

Purpose:Maintain or grow market share by making things better, faster, cheaper, or more appealing for current customers.

3. Radical Innovation

Radical innovation introduces entirely new ideas, technologies, or business models that differ significantly from current offerings. These innovations often require substantial investment and involve higher risk, but they can also lead to major competitive advantages.

Example: The development of the first personal computers, which created a completely new product category and changed the way people interacted with technology.

Purpose: Create breakthrough solutions that transform industries or customer experiences.

4. Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive innovation occurs when a new product or service starts off serving a niche market and eventually replaces established market leaders. Unlike radical innovation, which aims for performance, disruptive innovation often starts with simpler, more affordable solutions.

Example: Netflix starting as a DVD rental service by mail and gradually disrupting the entire video rental and streaming industry, replacing Blockbuster.

Purpose: Challenge incumbents by offering more accessible, convenient, or affordable alternatives, reshaping entire markets over time.

Understanding the four types of innovation can help businesses plan strategically, allocate resources wisely, and navigate uncertainty. While some innovations enhance what already exists, others create entirely new paths forward. The key is to recognize which type of innovation fits your goals, capabilities, and risk tolerance, and to embrace innovation as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event.