New markets can feel like uncharted caves full of twists, shadows, and surprises. This webcast replay gives you the flashlight to cut through the dark and find your next big move.
Every big market move starts as a bet. But what if you’re betting blind? Too often, companies step into unfamiliar spaces without truly understanding the risks — or the opportunities hiding in plain sight. Ezassi helps innovators remove the blindfold, validate assumptions with experts, and make smarter, faster bets.
In this InnoLead webcast, we share the story of one company, $1.2 billion Teknor Apex, that turned uncertainty into strategy — and what that means for innovators across industries.
Here are five key themes that Ezassi’s Matthew Heim and Teknor Apex’s Jon Mello covered in the webcast. Slides are available in PDF for below.
1. Turning Uncertainty into Strategy
Both speakers framed innovation as an act of working through the unknown rather than waiting for clarity.
- Mello described how, in his role as the Global Market Manager for Wire & Cable at Teknor Apex, he constantly faces incomplete information and has learned to move forward incrementally — acting on indicators, exploring new markets, and refining direction as evidence builds. He noted that the company didn’t know much about data centers or AI at first, but “we think there’s something here… we don’t know what yet,” and decided to start investigating anyway.
- Heim, Chief Innovation Officer at Ezassi, echoed that innovators must “face uncertainty with our clients and really have to figure it out… sometimes you just have to take the steps. And if you’re going to fail, at least you’re moving forward. Fail fast, readjust, pivot and move on.”
2. Unlocking Dormant Assets and Core Capabilities
Matthew Heim emphasized that “many companies are just sitting on so many of their assets,” such as “core competencies, intellectual property, digital assets.” He cited “over a trillion US dollars tied up in dormant assets today.”
The lesson was that innovation can start internally, through reassessing what already exists before chasing external trends. Heim noted companies can commercialize these through “out-licensing, sale opportunities, strategic partnerships, startups, spin outs, acquisitions,” showing how to turn “old IP that had been sitting in a file cabinet somewhere” into new growth, as Teknor Apex later did.
3. Building Hypotheses and Ecosystem Awareness
Mello explained that Teknor Apex’s process began with a hunch about fiber-optic sales and evolved into a hypothesis about “data centers and digital infrastructure.” He said, “We think that material science is going to have a role to play… we don’t know what yet, but we think materials and material science will have a role to play in innovation and in sustainability.”
Heim and his team helped “pressure test this hypothesis,” guiding Teknor Apex to recognize adjacent markets and a “much bigger ecosystem.” This theme underscored structured exploration—starting from curiosity, forming testable assumptions, and validating them through research and subject-matter experts.
4. Sustainability, Decarbonization, and Market Repositioning
A central thread was the pivot toward sustainable materials. Mello said the company wanted to “lead in innovation and… in sustainability,” asking “can we bring decarbonized solutions into this marketplace?”
He described how discovery led them into “immersion cooling technologies” and “materials… with a lower carbon footprint than what we have today.” Heim summarized this as part of finding “new opportunities along the way” by aligning Teknor Apex’s material-science expertise with global megatrends in digital infrastructure and climate responsibility.
5. Organizational Learning and the Value of Process
Mello repeatedly stressed learning and iteration over perfect planning: “You have to love the process… not loving the outcome, because I don’t know what the outcome is going to be.”
He outlined lessons such as:
- “Start with where you are.”
- “Ask for help; find a partner like Ezassi.”
- “Prioritization matters. You can’t chase everything.”
- “Share your insights, tell the story.”
Heim added that the hardest part is “putting the breadcrumbs out there” and getting past “the fear of the unknown,” but once teams see progress, “people tend to open up.” Together, Heim and Mello presented innovation as an ongoing, collaborative learning journey — where clarity, alignment, and momentum build over time.
(Featured image by Andreas Rasmussen on Unsplash.)
Speaker Bios
Matthew C. Heim, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer, Ezassi
Matthew Heim is the Chief Innovation Officer at Ezassi, where he helps organizations uncover opportunities in unfamiliar markets and achieve innovation excellence. With more than 25 years of experience in innovation and strategy—including leadership roles at PwC and KPMG—Matthew has guided hundreds of companies across six continents. He is also the author of several books and articles on strategy and innovation, and is widely recognized as a global thought leader in the field.
Jon Mello, Global Market Manager for Wire & Cable, Teknor Apex
Jon Mello is the Global Market Manager for Wire & Cable at Teknor Apex, where he has spent over 20 years driving growth, building customer partnerships, and leading new market initiatives. Most recently, Jon has been at the forefront of Teknor Apex’s exploration into emerging applications, guiding the company through the challenges and opportunities of entering unfamiliar markets. His career spans roles in sales, regional leadership, and global market management, giving him a unique perspective on how to align customer needs with long-term innovation strategies.
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