Why #InnovationDaily?

Corporate Innovation is not a side project. It’s critical.

I believe that Innovation should become a key pillar of corporates day to day operational bandwidth. Today, it isn’t; And that’s dangerous.

After talking with hundreds of people in many different organisations in Europe, it’s still hard to believe how it’s so hard to find someone who understands what Innovation is. Not to mention Digital Transformation.

It’s even harder to find organisations where innovation is a key pillar in the day to day operation. In most cases, “Innovation” means installing new technology, changing something, or a couple of post-its in the wall.

It seems that we live in two separate planets:

1. One planet where it’s pretty clear that Innovation is strategic — on this planet we find Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Netflix, WeWork, AirBnB, Stripe, UIPath, N26, Revolut, Farfetch, etc (a couple of names can be found here)
2. And another planet where Innovation is something secondary or misunderstood — <insert here the name of your organisation> 😃

We all know the story of Nokia, Kodac, Compaq, Atari, and many others. In some cases, the hashtag #RIP can literally be used.

We all know that we live in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. Consultants call it #VUCA.

Every organisation is now in danger of being disrupted. In the past, one organisation would stick to one core business. Now, entrepreneurs are challenging the status quo of incumbents, regardless of their background. We are all in danger of being disrupted. Just a couple of examples:

• Elon Musk Will Launch an Insurance Company
• Amazon In Healthcare: The E-Commerce Giant’s Strategy For A $3 Trillion Market

Everybody can be disrupted, even if one operates in a highly regulated market. That’s why traditional banks are struggling and trying to understand how to leverage Fintech.

So, why #InnovationDaily?

Because I truly believe that:

1. Innovation must be well understood — it isn’t at the moment. Everybody has a different definition for it
2. Corporate Innovation is still new but necessary — but when we talk about it, it’s like explaining the Marketing function before Marketing existed
3. There’s a huge opportunity to embrace Corporate Innovation as a career path — New roles as Innovation Manager, Head of Innovation, are going to become more popular in the upcoming years
4. There’s a huge buzz about Start-ups and Entrepreneurship, but the real opportunity is saving a legacy organisation from being disrupted — In the latest 20 years it was mostly about entrepreneurship and start-ups. Can you imagine the size of the opportunity that lies in helping established brands, 100 years old organisations, to innovate like a start-up?
5. We don’t find one complete framework that teaches organisations to innovate — There are a couple of books about corporate innovation promoting frameworks and models on how to innovate continuously. But we don’t find one complete reference model to follow. Innovation is not a playbook that we can follow — it’s highly complex. But there a few basic components that every organisation should address, but the maturity is still very low.
6. Because I like to share — probably this the main reason why I committed myself to share what I learn about Corporate Innovation. I feel that we are still in the awareness phase. I feel that we don’t find strong communities of Corporate Innovation professionals, as we find in areas such as Design, Agile, and Technology. And this is an opportunity for all of us, Corporate Innovators or Strategists, you name it. 😃

So, please feel free comment and follow this publication, as well as #InnovationDaily on Linkedin. I’m also on Twitter.

Hugo de Sousa

Hugo de Sousa - Head of Innovation Services - Ireland - BearingPoint | LinkedIn

Disclaimer

Opinions are my own.