Thijs Sprangers
Director
Thijs combines 15+ years of experience as an entrepreneur with expertise in innovation and general management roles. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded two agencies and two tech startups. He has worked with globally operating companies as an innovation leader and as a director in profit and loss (P&L) responsible positions.
Arno Nijhof
Director TNW Programs
I love building – ecosystems, teams, and programs. At TNW, I built TNW Programs from the ground up into an internationally operating innovation and ecosystem studio. As part of TNW’s management team, I focus on strategic growth and impact, working with a passionate group of people. I thrive on collaboration, pioneering, and watching ideas – and people – grow.
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Unraveling the challenges of innovation ecosystems during Create the Future
Why Innovation Ecosystems Underperform
At Create the Future, Anikka Fulop, Thijs Sprangers, and Arno Nijhof unpacked a hard truth: innovation ecosystems fail due to poor coordination, not a lack of good ideas, capital or talent. To thrive, partners must shatter their isolated bubbles and align on a shared mission to actively accelerate startups in their domain.
Designing Ecosystems with Purpose
Innovation isn’t born from a one-size-fits-all playbook; it requires a coordinated, multi-actor behavioral shift. The session mapped the friction between competing actors and delivered three unsentimental rules: choose partners wisely, pursue your mission with integrity, and ruthlessly grow your most powerful value streams. These principles were anchored in real-world benchmarks like WeWork Labs and Amsterdam Science Park.
Experiencing Coordination in Practice
These dynamics were made tangible through The Ecosystem Game, in which participants stepped into roles such as investors, universities, and corporates to support the fictional startup Newmaterials.ai. As incentives clashed, invisible blockers emerged. As one participant noted:
“The key moment for us was when the perspective shifted from trying to fix individual problems of a single startup to coordinating as an ecosystem to take away blockers. Suddenly we were building an engine instead of trying to fix friction between individual moving parts.”
Orchestrating the Future of Work
The takeaway for the future of work is clear. As innovation becomes increasingly cross-sector, the ability to orchestrate ecosystems — not just participate in them — becomes the defining organizational competence.
