Innovation isn’t a feel-good initiative, it’s the lifeblood of resilient, forward-moving companies and imperative to future success. Just ask Blockbuster who didn’t lose to Netflix overnight, but instead it lost because it dismissed the future. The cost of ignoring innovation is irrelevance.
This is why we created The Corporate Innovation Playbook that distills insights from over 50 innovation leaders across industries and continents. This article unpacks the critical lessons they learned from strategy and execution to measurement and scaling based on their experience and how you can avoid the 90% scale-up graveyard.
What’s broken and what’s working
Before we get into best practices, let’s start with the pain points. Across the responses we received, innovation leaders were refreshingly candid:
- Process gridlock: Many reported stalled innovation cycles due to procurement bottlenecks, internal politics, and unclear handoffs. One leader noted, “Procurement processes are the most broken part… they kill momentum.”
- Cultural friction: Fear of failure and siloed teams remain major hurdles. As Michal Monit, a consultant, shared: “The corporate immune system kills innovation before it’s born.”
- Too many pilots, not enough scale: A familiar refrain was that ideas get trapped in “pilot purgatory,” lacking clear pathways to scale.
Trends worth watching (and ignoring)
Trend fatigue is real. Innovation leaders are pushing back on shiny objects and instead asking: What delivers repeatable, measurable outcomes?
- Passed over trends: NFTs, the metaverse, and similar hyped concepts were commonly dismissed. One respondent joked, “Inverse Cramer is my signal - if everyone’s excited, I’m skeptical.”
- Bet-the-farm trends: Climate change, global instability, and digital health topped the list of serious long-term bets.
What a few of our respondents mentioned:
“Worth acting [on a trend] if it is financially sustainable, scalable, and strategically aligned.” - Survey respondent from SEA Milan Airports
“Clear momentum – Is it gaining real traction, not just hype? Strategic fit – Does it align with your core goals or pose a risk if ignored? Actionable now – Can you test or implement it with current resources? If the answer is “yes” to all three - it’s time to act. If not, keep watching and stay ready.” - Óscar García Escarda from TK Elevator.
“Distinguishing between trends worth watching and those worth acting on is challenging, but the innovation lab focuses on this. After identifying a trend, they assess its maturity and test it with pilots.” - Bessem Ayari from ERGO.
Winning buy-in: The internal game
Innovators know that success isn’t just about ideas, it’s about politics, persuasion, and people.
- Frame the story: Leaders emphasize crafting narratives that resonate with skeptics. “Every innovation lead needs to be a storyteller, as these are the most effective tools. In the early stage of the journey, look for those innovations where competitors have succeeded, and then tell the story of "What if we'd invested in this?” advised Timothy Lumb of ALS Global.
- Start small: Many rely on pilot-first approaches to de-risk ideas and build trust.
- Create emotional ownership: Deep Padh of Axis Max Life Insurance puts it well: “Sell a dream. Make them feel like it was their idea all along.”
Finally, a survey respondent from Co:cubed pitched in by saying, “Show them open innovation actually working in practice. Live co-creation workshops between corporate teams and startups help deliver tangible new opportunities, immediately.”
Measuring what matters
Measuring innovation isn’t about vanity metrics, it’s about aligning with the business strategy.
- Top KPIs: ROI on capital employed, market share, cost savings, and clinical outcomes were frequently cited.
- Storytelling as measurement: Many said they win leadership support through powerful narratives, not just spreadsheets.
- Opportunity cost framing: When P&L impact is fuzzy, leaders ask: “What happens if we don’t innovate?”
What a few of our survey respondents mentioned:
“It’s hard to measure ‘love.’ But it’s unwise to have no metrics at all.” - Survey respondent.
Another mentioned, “Tangible ROI: Metrics like cost savings, new revenue streams, or improved NPS. ROI also means Risk Of Ignoring.” - Óscar García Escarda from TK Elevator.
A survey respondent from IKEA mentioned, “Finding similarities with the big leaps of faith in the past, we did that and it turned out great. And find proof with customer data.”
Scaling without losing the spark
Scaling innovation is where most efforts die. Only 22% of pilots ever make it to full rollout, according to the Boston Consulting Group’s annual innovation report. The leaders who succeed treat scaling as a deliberate, structured process.
- Repeatable playbooks: Standardized processes for moving from PoC to implementation help speed up execution.
- Dedicated internal resources: Scaling requires separate governance from business as usual (BAU) to prevent innovation starvation.
- Cultural alignment: “We’d execute much faster if there was zero fear of failure,” admitted one respondent.
“The biggest enemy isn’t technology - it’s hesitation.” - Head of Innovation, survey respondent.
Best practices from the front lines
From our research and contributions from over 50 innovation leaders, these are the best practices we believe innovation leaders should follow:
- Dare to think big, but start small: Small-scale experiments are less risky and easier to adapt.
- Use data, but lead with emotion: Pair hard metrics with softer, visionary storytelling.
- Create two portfolios: One for quick wins, one for long-term moonshots.
- Normalize failure early: Make failing forward a safe, expected part of the process, but ensure failure doesn’t happen at later stages of scaling - by this time, it’s too late.
- Build integration early: Avoid scaling delays by engaging business units from day one and making them feel like it’s partly their idea.
How organizations have approached innovation in the real-world
Several global giants offer blueprints worth borrowing to aid your innovation strategy.
- Amazon’s ‘working backwards’: Mock press releases and FAQs help clarify if a new idea is customer and strategy aligned before any resources are committed.
- Tesla’s vertical integration: Their control over software and hardware enables rapid prototyping and iteration.
- Microsoft’s cloud strategy: Azure’s success stemmed from aligning strategic investment, ecosystem partnerships, and enterprise-wide rollout frameworks.
Conclusion: Innovation as a strategic imperative
Innovation isn’t an extracurricular activity, it’s a core competency. And it’s messy. But with the right approach, tools, and mindset, innovation leaders can turn ideas into lasting business value.
To quote a certain Mr Henry Ford:
“The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.”
In today’s landscape, innovation isn’t optional, it’s the cost of staying relevant.
Download our Corporate Innovation Playbook: Strategy, execution, measurement and scaling.
