Season 5 - Episode 39: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel — Use It to Get Up to Speed
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- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
AI makes it easier than ever to create ideas, analyse possibilities and move fast.
But having more ideas does not automatically create more innovation.
A good idea only becomes valuable when it solves a real problem, reaches the people who need it and becomes something they are willing to use, adopt and pay for.
In this episode of Simply Briefed, Kristine Lium speaks with Melanie Tschugmall, co-founder of CRO2GO, about how companies can move from ideas to real market value.
Together, they explore why innovation is not only about inventing something completely new. It is also about learning from what already works, adapting it to the right context and building the commercial system that helps good ideas survive and grow.
Key topics
Why an idea is not the same as an innovation
Why companies need to be painkillers, not vitamin C
Why go-to-market is a system, not a marketing task
How proven playbooks can help organisations learn faster
What Europe can learn from Silicon Valley without simply copying it
Why commercialisation is part of innovation
Episode 39: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel — Use It to Get Up to Speed
– With Melanie Tschugmall, co-founder of CRO2GO
This week’s episode
Innovation is not only about inventing the next thing. It is about learning faster, adapting what works and building the commercial system that allows good ideas to survive and grow.
We often speak about innovation as if the most valuable idea must be completely new.
But most development does not happen that way.
Ideas grow by building on what already exists. We learn from previous attempts, improve what works and combine knowledge in new ways.
That becomes even more important in an AI era, where ideas are easier to create and execution can move faster than before. The challenge is not only to move quickly. It is to understand which ideas solve a real problem, which markets are ready for them and what kind of system is needed to carry them forward.
From idea to innovation
One of the central themes in the episode is the difference between an idea and an innovation.
An idea becomes innovation when it creates value in the market. It needs to solve a real pain, be adopted by customers and become something people are willing to pay for.
A product can be impressive, but if it does not solve an important enough problem, it may still struggle to become commercially relevant.
That is where the distinction between a painkiller and a vitamin C becomes useful.
A vitamin C can be nice to have. A painkiller solves something urgent enough for people to care, act and pay attention.
A good product does not automatically travel
The conversation also explores what happens when companies move into new markets.
A product that is valuable in one country may not solve the same problem somewhere else.
Buying behaviour, customer priorities and cultural expectations can change.
That means companies need to test, adapt and understand the market before assuming that a good product will automatically work in a new context.
The question is not only whether the product is strong.
It is whether the problem is relevant, whether the market recognises the value and whether the company has the right system to learn from what happens next.
Go-to-market is a system
Go-to-market is used as the practical lens throughout the episode.
Not as a marketing task, but as a system that connects leadership, market choice, ideal customers, brand, demand, sales, customer success and revenue.
In other words, go-to-market is not something that begins once the product is ready.
It is part of how a company learns from the market, makes decisions and builds sustainable growth.
That makes GTM a leadership topic, not only a departmental one. It connects directly to revenue, sustainability and long-term commercial strategy.
Europe does not need to reinvent every wheel
The conversation also looks at what Europe can learn from Silicon Valley without simply copying it.
Europe has its own strengths: engineering, deep industry knowledge, trust, reliability and long-term thinking.
The opportunity is not to become Silicon Valley. It is to combine those strengths with systems, playbooks and knowledge that have already proved useful elsewhere.
Sometimes the smartest way forward is not to reinvent the wheel.
It is to use the wheel that works, adapt it to your context and focus your energy on building something valuable enough around it to last.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify!
Host: Kristine Lium
About the guest
Name: Melanie Tschugmall
Title: Co-founder of CRO2GO and Revenue and Go-to-Market leader
Background: Melanie Tschugmall is co-founder of CRO2GO and a Revenue and Go-to-Market leader with experience from SAP, Zühlke Group and startup environments.
Her work focuses on helping companies turn strategy into predictable, sustainable growth by connecting leadership, marketing, sales and customer success through scalable revenue and go-to-market systems.
Through CRO2GO, she works with companies at important growth and transition points, helping them build stronger commercial structures and adapt proven go-to-market methods to new markets and contexts.
Contact: LinkedIn
👉 Listen to the full episode of Simply Briefed to explore how companies can move from good ideas to real market value through stronger go-to-market systems, adaptation and commercial thinking.
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