Internationalization; The D2-Innovation-Canvas©

Summary

• “Innovation should become part of an organization’s common structure and be a standard process.” Mark Searle at UC Berkeley.
• The D2-Strategic-Destination© prices-in Innovation into the strategic growth & expansion mix.
• The D2-Innovation-Canvas© puts Innovation as a relevant component into the Internationalization Drive.
• Apply GO/NO-GO Logics to avoid Internationalization that fast-burns investments.
• Align all components of an Innovation Ecosystem in a comprehensive way to scale efficiency.
• Create a continuous & extended Value Chain across an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.
• Leverage on Open Innovation principles.

Inspiration

In 2024 I lived in San Jose, Costa Rica and got inspired by the country’s approach to attract Foreign Direct Investment in the combination of providing a vibrant Innovation ecosystem. Indeed the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE) puts tiers of Innovation into the core of their policy to attract investments from around the globe. Many multinational corporations like Amazon, Bimbo  Breads, Philips Electronics, Roche Pharma, Zollner Elektronik, just to name a few, have based subsidiaries in Costa Rica and often use those as a gateway to LatAm.

In the context of our Dach2US teams Internationalization services and our D2-Group practices we developed the D2-Innovation-Canvas©.

The  D2-Innovation-Canvas©

The  D2-Innovation-Canvas© is organized in the following Innovation tiers.

• Tier1; Ecosystem Focus
• Tier2; Innovation Champions
• Tier3; Technology Focus

When DACH2US accepts an Internationalization project for a client indeed we start with an in-depth analysis using our proprietary methodologies. 

• The Deep-Blue©
• The VGCG-360-Sphere-Analysis©

Parallel we cross check that the company’s Internationalization efforts and capabilities are aligned with its Total-Quality-Management capabilities in the wider context of the Kaizen philosophy. If all checks out and it is agreed upon with our client, only then starts the 2nd phase of the Internationalization advisory process.

It is one of the DACH2US-teams basic approaches to work with GO/NO-GO logics in the sense that after each stage, in each operation together with the counselee it is conferred and decided upon to proceed with the allover Internationalization efforts. The outcome and recommendations of this phase might not always be the most comfortable ones but it saves the clients time and money.

In the case of a GO the D2-Strategic-Destination© phase starts with analyzing the following components.

By applying the D2-Innovation-Canvas© we price-in into the decision making, the Innovation capabilities of a specific country, state, province, county and/or city/municipality. So Innovation becomes a relevant factor in the Internationalization process. Same as Innovation should anyways become part of an organization’s common structure and standard processes as Mark Searle at UC Berkeley, Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology notes.

A Case

Recently I joined as Finance Manager a Berlin based startup that is developing an innovative building material. The company is at the moment at the Technology-Readiness-Level 2 (TRL).

Also the Founders Team had originally planned to make it a Germany First company the realization was that the development of such a venture would be extremely challenging, if not partially impossible in the current Innovation environment in the country due to the difficulties to access gov-grants and/or subsidies for projects below TRL3 and the shortcomings in funding at German research facilities as well as Universities. Many professors would have loved to take the Entrepreneurs and the concept under its wings but did not have the research funds available to nurture the project to TRL5.

Therefore the geographical scope became the extended European Union and especially in addition the USA. Also LatAm appeared on the radar since some natural resources necessary for the production of the product are available aplenty in some South American countries. 

Indeed in the Americas the general Innovation environment, the related dynamics and the drive to create and explore NEW FRONTIERS is second to none.
So no disadvantage here that the D2-Group’s and DACH2US ecosystems extend relevantly into the Western Hemisphere.

This startup project absolutely matches with some of the core services that the advisories I’m associated with are offering and is a wonderful Internationalization case. What is important for start- & scaleups is even more important for Small-Medium-Enterprises!

The D2-Golden-Quadrangle©

Especially in the very early stages of a research driven startup that on top is developing a strong physical aspect, it is important to assemble the best entities to push the frontiers. It is ideal to combine the different players of an Innovation Ecosystem, to align them into a continuous value chain and to apply Open Innovation principles.

• Incubator
• Universities & Advanced /Labs
• Corporations in the field as investors
• Preseed Capacities

Since in the valley in the Italian Alps where I grew up in, in 2026 the Olympic Winter Games in the discipline of Biathlon will be held, I just say: LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

About the author

Dr. Torsten Reiss is co-founder of Dach2US. He graduated from the Universa’ degli study di Bologna, the oldest University in the world and  after he started his career as Investment Banker for Deutsche Bank. Later he worked for many years in Strategy- & Management consulting in countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland, the UK and several countries in LatAm before returning to deliver concepts for the PE and M&A industry.

In recent years TR gained in-depth insights into the world of Technology- & Business Model Innovation working with start- & scaleups. He has a strong academic record teaching as guest and working on case studies with some of the top 10 MBA schools worldwide and to end up developing a MiniMBA together with some renowned professores from Universties like UC Berkeley, MIT and IEEE.

As entrepreneur and executive TR was involved in more then 40 company launches and Internationalization projects on 3 continents.