Let Go

How can you break down barriers and make innovation open to all?

- Maggie De Pree

I recently attended a series of CEO presentations to Wall Street investors. While the CEOs came from vastly different industries, the messages were similar. And one stood out more than any other: innovation. ‘Innovation is our competitive advantage’. ‘Innovation is everyone’s job’. ‘We are going to create a culture of innovation’.

In a rapidly changing and uncertain business environment, CEOs have woken up to the urgency of doing things differently. 40 per cent of 500 plus corporate executives asked in 2017 stated they were investing in and increasing their internal innovation activities.

But, what does it actually take to unlock innovation in your organisation? The answer: be prepared to let go.

Innovation units and MBAs do not hold a monopoly on good ideas. Employees from back offices to board rooms are becoming an increasingly important source of innovation.2 These innovators are known as ‘intrapreneurs’: people inside corporations who apply entrepreneurial skills to develop new products, services, and business models from within. Increasingly, intrapreneurs are also driving innovation to deliver ‘shared value’—with benefits to both business and society.