Nisse Krenchel
Contact Nisse Krenchel
Expertise
- Innovation, Strategy, Transformation
Themes
Innovation Director
I help companies create new products. Not the next version of what they already sell, but something that solves a real problem in a way the market has not seen before: a new kind of insurance, a bike lock nobody has built yet, a service that did not exist last year. Digital is my home ground, so the products can be almost anything, from insurance to connected technology. I have spent more than twenty years in insurance and the last six in tech, first in a startup and then in a large corporation.
Two things I bring into the equation. A strong sense, grounded in design thinking and service design, of whether a product will actually fit the person who ends up using it. And a hard-won sense of how organisations work, because a genuinely new product has to survive the company long before it reaches a customer. That second part is where most good ideas quietly die.
So that is where I am most useful. Most organisations I meet are not short of ideas or ability. They are stuck, usually for a reason nobody has said out loud: a decision no one owns, a disagreement everyone is being polite about, a structure that quietly rewards standing still. I am good at spotting what is genuinely blocking progress, and better still at helping remove it. Taking something from standstill to motion, with the team rather than around them, is the part of this work I am best at.
My talent
I am curious before I am opinionated. I listen properly, I ask the concrete and slightly uncomfortable question early, and I would rather understand a problem than win an argument about it. People tell me I am a useful sparring partner at management level, and I suspect that is why.
I am creative and analytical in roughly equal measure, which is a practical combination in this line of work. The analysis tells you what is true and the creativity tells you what to do about it. Neither gets you very far on its own.
And I am an optimist. An outgoing introvert, driven by curiosity, who believes most things can be made better than they currently are. I treat that as fuel, because anything new meets resistance sooner or later and someone has to keep the energy in the room.
My education
- MSc in Economics and Business Administration (cand.merc.), Strategy and Product Development, Copenhagen Business School
- MBA program, University of South Carolina, USA
- Innovation Masters Series, d.school, Stanford University
People and organizations that inspire me
Great leaders, great inventors, and people with genuinely deep insight. Those are the three kinds of people I learn from.
Roger Martin, for the insight. I once spent a couple of hours with him, and I came away with considerably more respect than I walked in with, which is rarer than it ought to be. His book, The Design of Business, transformed my approach to create products and services.
Sir Alex Ferguson, for the leadership. I support Manchester United, so I am not a neutral witness. He rebuilt the same club three times over 26 years and never once let a winning side get comfortable.
Great politicians, and Nelson Mandela before anyone else. It feels almost wrong to file him under leadership, but that is what it is: the ability to hold a direction when everything argues against it.
What I like to do in my spare time
Cooking for people. My favourite evening is a bunch of guests around the table, family for preference, and me in the kitchen all afternoon. That is when I feel most useful.
Otherwise running, books, and archaeology and history, which is where my curiosity goes when it is off duty. And an old farmhouse in Sweden, which is mostly about quiet.
This track kicks off my weekend
Honestly it depends entirely on my mood, so I refuse to pretend I have one fixed answer. But if I have to name someone: Amy Winehouse. And, to my own surprise, Billie Eilish, who is nowhere near my generation and is very good anyway.
Work with us
Call +316 43 74 39 76 or send a message to floor@nlmtd.com


