Are Your Innovation Directors Really Delivering?

Innovation is often misunderstood. It’s not just about moonshots or shiny new tech, lately AI. It’s a growth strategy — and too many organizations are getting it wrong. 📉 Efficiency-driven thinking has helped many companies scale. But past a certain point, it becomes a ceiling — not a growth engine. Here’s what innovation really means in large organizations: 1️⃣ It’s how companies grow. Innovation creates value — for customers, employees, shareholders, and society. It’s the only sustainable path to long-term relevance. 2️⃣ It begins at the edges. Innovation doesn’t come from strategy decks or executive offsites. It comes from the people closest to customers, products, and day-to-day operations. 3️⃣ It must be systemic. A 3-person innovation team won’t move the needle. Not because they lack talent — but because they lack reach. Real change requires every function to participate. 4️⃣ It requires mindset shifts. Employees aren’t just executors. They must be encouraged — and expected — to act as creators. That belief must be built into the culture. 5️⃣ It takes many forms. From process improvements to business model reinventions — from incremental changes to disruptive bets. Innovation is a portfolio, not a project. 6️⃣ It struggles in scaled environments. As companies grow, they naturally turn inward — focusing on internal structures, processes, and profit protection. But innovation requires an outward focus — on problems worth solving. 7️⃣ It’s about relevance. If your organization isn’t actively solving new problems for customers and markets, someone else will. 🛑 Innovation isn’t optional. It’s the only way large companies continue to matter. ❗ Language red flags: "We are focusing on operational efficiency" "We have everything we need, we just need to sell more" "Customer experience is nice, but we can not invest now in such a project" "We don't have the resources to invest in innovation right now. We need to take care of our current business" The effect of not allocating attention, time and resources to innovation is like a tsunami. When you see it, it's too late. I know it's a long post. But if you reached the end of it: I would like to know what are your thoughts and how could we rase awareness in the organizations, so the tsunami doesn't hit?

Big bets don’t start with big ideas. They start with proof of impact. Every innovation leader wants to shape the future. But you don’t earn the right to play in Horizon 3 - new markets, disruptive models, transformative ventures - without first showing you can deliver in Horizons 1 and 2. Here’s the reality: → H1: strengthen the core. Quick wins like cost savings, efficiency gains, and better customer experiences. They build trust because they show results fast. → H2: expand to adjacencies. New offerings or markets that stretch your existing strengths. Higher risk than H1, but they demonstrate your ability to scale growth. → H3: create the future. Disruptive bets that capture imaginations (and budgets) once you’ve earned leadership’s confidence. Sequencing matters. No H1 wins, no H2 scale. No H2 growth, no H3 moonshots. Innovation isn’t just about creativity, it's about delivering measurable impact step by step until bold ideas get the backing to become reality.

Why big ideas fail Big ideas don’t fail because they’re bad. They fail because they’re not connected to a market need. Innovation isn’t about how exciting the idea feels in the room—it’s about how deeply it solves a real customer problem. The bridge between creativity and ROI is validation. ✔ Test early. ✔ Listen harder than you pitch. ✔ Iterate ruthlessly. At Gore, I saw incredible technologies—some became billion-dollar platforms, others stayed on the shelf. The difference? The winners connected technical brilliance to a real pain point customers would pay to solve. 💡 The best question an innovation leader can ask: “Who cares—and why?” 💬 What’s the last idea you validated directly with customers?

Read the article by my colleagues Peter de Vries and Matt Millington: When good process becomes innovation’s silent killer, growth stalls too. A breakthrough idea that could transform your market would it survive your approval process? Discover three steps leaders can take to help bold ideas reach the market https://lnkd.in/eSf6g3Qn

Innovation doesn’t just happen. It’s created. It’s easy to sit back and wait for inspiration to strike. 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭:https://lnkd.in/dddj8c38 __________________________ 1_This tool will save your life 2_Feel confident and secure with this tactical extendable metal stick. 3_It is compact enough to carry discreetly, yet powerful enough to use if needed _______________________ But real progress? That comes from action.💪 The problem is, most people assume innovation is for “the creative types” or the “big thinkers.” Wrong!☹️ It’s for anyone willing to: ↳ Challenge the norm ↳ Break patterns ↳ And take risks Because the second you start thinking differently, New opportunities appear everywhere. Here are 5 ways to start innovating right now:👇 (From Forbes Magazine) 🔥 Question everything ↳ Stop accepting “this is how it’s always been done.” ↳ The biggest breakthroughs come from challenging the norm. 🔥 Surround yourself with different thinkers ↳ If everyone around you thinks the same, you’ll never see new possibilities. ↳ Different perspectives = fresh ideas. 🔥 Break something ↳ Tear apart a process, system, or routine and rebuild it better. ↳ Disruption isn’t a risk - it’s a necessity. 🔥 Get uncomfortable ↳ Growth doesn’t come from playing it safe. Try something new and watch how your thinking expands. 🔥 Act fast, refine later ↳ Perfection kills innovation. Take the leap, launch the idea, and tweak it as you go. The world rewards action, not just ideas. Which of these are you going to try first?

What Makes Innovation Truly Disruptive? “Disruptive innovation” is one of the most overused labels in business. Almost every new product, app, or service claims the title. But as Clayton Christensen reminded us, not everything that’s new, shiny, or wearing a metaphorical leather jacket is disruptive. Here are the key questions to test whether an innovation is truly disruptive: 1) Does it begin in overlooked markets? Disruption often starts where incumbents (current leading businesses) aren’t paying attention, the new entrants start serving customers who are either underserved, priced out, or not seen as profitable. 2) Does it prioritize accessibility over performance? Early disruptive innovations often look “worse” on traditional metrics, but win by being simpler, more affordable, or more convenient. 3) Does it follow an improvement path that eventually attracts the mainstream? Over time, the “good enough” solution quietly climbs the ladder until it meets (and sometimes exceeds) the needs of core customers. 4) Does it challenge the business model, not just the product? Disruption isn’t just about technology, it often redefines how value is created and captured. The takeaway: If your innovation only makes the existing product better, that’s sustaining innovation. If it forces established players to rethink their model entirely… that’s disruption. Or put differently: if it just adds sprinkles to the cupcake, it’s not disruptive. If it teaches people they never needed cupcakes at all, then we’re in disruptive territory. So next time someone pitches you “the Uber of sandwich toasters” ask: Is it really disruptive, or just toasting bread with extra buzzwords? And as Christensen warned in The Innovator’s Dilemma, one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is listening only to today’s best customers. Sustaining improvements keep those customers happy, but true disruption often begins where your current customers aren’t looking at all.

Satya Nadella said, "Bring me new business models!" That challenge changed everything: As head coach for his innovation team, I had to figure out how to turn ideas into revenue. Not just any revenue. Transformational revenue. As we say in a few circles, "customer business outcomes are our business incomes." Here's what most people get wrong about innovation: They think it's about having better ideas. It's not. It's about having better systems for turning ideas into impact. When I designed Innovation Hubs with customers and at Microsoft. I made one critical decision that made all the difference: I called it "tracks" instead of "horizons." It sounds trivial. It wasn't. When executives hear "horizons," they think "someday." When they hear "tracks," they think "now." One word changed how fast we moved. For example, one Innovation Hub generated a 957% return on a $2.47M investment in its first 6 months. Not because we were smarter. Because we built a machine that turned corporate antibodies into innovation allies. The secret was running two tracks simultaneously: Track 1: Run today's business Track 2: Create tomorrow's business Most companies fail at innovation because they try to do both on the same track. That's like trying to rebuild your engine while driving 70mph. We also discovered that swarm innovation teams beat traditional innovation labs every time. Why? Because when teams get stuck, they can tap into shared services instead of reinventing the wheel. The most powerful lesson I learned with disruptive innovation s this: Innovation isn't about disrupting markets. It's about disrupting yourself before markets do it for you. I've packaged everything I learned into a playbook. The exact framework we used to build innovation hubs that actually deliver. Because here's what I believe: The future belongs to companies that can run their current business while simultaneously building their next one. The question isn't whether you need to innovate. It's whether you'll do it on your terms or someone else's. What's your biggest innovation challenge right now?

🧠 Why Most Corporate Innovations Die (and How to Keep Yours Alive) Innovation doesn’t die from bad ideas — it dies when the organization’s nervous system stops learning. Everyone talks about “driving innovation.” Yet 80–90% of corporate innovation initiatives quietly die within two years. Not because people lack ideas — but because the system isn’t designed to help those ideas survive. Here are the 3 biggest killers of innovation I see — and how to counter them 👇 🚫 1️⃣ Bureaucracy Over Learning By the time an idea gets approved, the opportunity is gone. ✅ Counteract: Create micro-funding pools where teams can test ideas under €10K within 2 weeks. Replace permission with proof. 🚫 2️⃣ Fear of Failure When failure equals risk, people stop experimenting. ✅ Counteract: Redefine failure as data. Reward fast feedback loops, not flawless execution. It’s how neurons — and teams — actually learn. 🚫 3️⃣ Short-Term KPI Obsession Innovation gets judged with the same metrics as operations — ROI in 3 months, efficiency, output. That’s like judging a seed by how fast it becomes a forest. ✅ Counteract: Use learning-based metrics early (validation speed, customer signals, insight quality), then connect proven learnings to core revenue levers — new markets, better margins, faster go-to-market. This keeps innovation free to explore and tied to business growth. The companies that evolve like the brain — fast, feedback-driven, and adaptive — will always outlearn their competition. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 👋 I’m Fran — founder of the Innovation-Game™, exploring what neuroscience can teach us about building adaptive, high-performing innovation systems. Follow for insights on innovation, adaptability, and future-proof growth.

⏰ 10 Years of Innovation Lessons in 60 Seconds?! Last Friday, one of our INNOVATOR Champions® participants asked me: ➡️ “If you only had 60 seconds, what innovation lessons would you share?” Talk about putting me on the spot! 😱 Here's a transcription of the list I gave her: 👇 1️⃣ Innovation starts with people, not ideas If you don’t build innovators, you won’t build innovations 2️⃣ Speed beats certainty Waiting for 100% perfect data means you’re too slow 3️⃣ Curiosity is an unfair advantage Ask customers “why” one more time than everyone else 4️⃣ Perfection kills progress Your first version should make you feel slightly uncomfortable 5️⃣ Customers don’t buy ideas They buy solutions for their problems & desires. Start there. 6️⃣ Data informs, emotion inspires The best innovators connect both 7️⃣ Innovation dies in meetings Protect time for doing, not just discussing 8️⃣ Celebrate the tries, not just the wins Failure is simply feedback in disguise. 9️⃣ Culture enables strategy If teams don’t feel safe, even great projects fail to fly. I tried to squeeze in a number 🔟 but ran out of time! 👉 What would you have added? --- 🔔 Follow Tom Pullen for more practical tips on innovation & growth 🔁 Repost to help others boost their innovation & growth

Research shows that business model innovation isn’t all about a novel idea. It’s a system design challenge — and leaders must learn how to prepare. https://lnkd.in/gXeageBp via @mitsmr #innovation #strategy