If you haven鈥檛 been to the , mark it on your calendar for next year. In October, 黑料吃瓜 attended InnoLead鈥檚 marquee gathering in Boston, and it was an absolute pleasure. Where else can you chat with the co-founder of robot company Boston Dynamics, the President of the Recording Academy (aka, the Grammys), the former President of Walt Disney Imagineering, the Chief Product Officer at Target, and the Chief Customer Officer of United Airlines 鈥� all in one place?
It's been several weeks since then, enough time for our heads to stop buzzing from the excitement. Now that the buzz has faded, we鈥檙e left with a takeaway that is more sobering than exciting 鈥� a looming sense of change that鈥檚 hard to shake.
Corporate innovation is at a crossroads. And it鈥檚 high time we started talking about it.
For a decade or more, the driving force of corporate innovation centered on the twin engines of startups and digital transformation. From in-house venture hubs to digital labs and accelerators, there has been a surge of corporate investment in new-wave innovation schemes. At this year鈥檚 conference, these trends were on display in full force.
For example: this year at IMPACT, AI was on everyone鈥檚 mind 鈥� and rightly so. And in one sense, the new focus on AI feels like a continuation of what we鈥檝e all come to expect. AI is a digital technology. It is poised to transform the workplace. And startup activity has been a primary driving force. But AI鈥檚 effect on the economy also transcends what we鈥檝e come to expect from the status quo. It鈥檚 bigger and broader than 鈥渏ust another fintech application鈥�. It is creating ripples across society, well beyond the corporate world.
Increasingly, it feels like we are in a 鈥渘ew normal鈥�. The extreme pain of COVID鈥檚 supply chain disruptions may have ebbed. But across manufacturing industries, background sourcing issues refuse to go away. Whether you make candy bars or airplanes, you鈥檙e likely still struggling to balance the cost and availability of your materials or components against price sensitivity, speed to market, and product performance. And that鈥檚 before we consider the costs of achieving sustainability 鈥� given the very public carbon-neutrality commitments that many large companies have already made.
Geopolitically, the world has become a very different place, just in the past few years. The semiconductor industry is changing fundamentally, and not just (or even primarily) because of AI鈥檚 effect. The emerging grand game between the US and China is likely to reset how companies in a wide array of sectors think about 鈥渧alue creation鈥�. For many companies, success increasingly means delivering shareholder returns AND national competitiveness.
As the world turns, it鈥檚 hard to imagine that the 鈥渋nnovation鈥� profession (if that鈥檚 even what we should be calling it?) will come out looking the same. Ever before we began to exit the post-Cold War order, there were already looming questions about how the Innovation department(s) create value. If the executive team decides to add more salespeople, or to increase the advertising budget, they can model the impact on growth and profitability. But what if they redouble their innovation investments? How many companies can predict the business returns with confidence? Small wonder that so many innovation teams end up supporting top-down efforts designed to improve operational performance (e.g. digital transformation). By comparison, direct bets on 鈥減ure innovation鈥� lead to a backdrop of executive unease.
What will this ultimately mean for corporate innovators? For now, we鈥檒l say this: it鈥檚 a good time to get your house in order. Don鈥檛 expect to sleepwalk into the same innovation activities you鈥檝e been doing for years. And don鈥檛 expect that pivoting from one 鈥渟trategic priority鈥� to the next, at the whim of quarterly business needs, will be good enough.
Instead, carve out time to think broadly about how the business expectations of innovation are likely to evolve. What will 鈥渃ompetitiveness鈥� look like in your industry? What kind of value will you need to drive for the company? What role will innovation need to play? And how will you equip your team to deliver strategic leverage and demonstrate its impact on the business?
We don鈥檛 expect these issues to go away, so think of this as the beginning of 奥别濒濒蝉辫谤颈苍驳鈥檚 content and advice. Starting in early 2025, we鈥檒l dive headlong into the mid- and long-term implications of these trends鈥nd how the modern innovation function needs to evolve.
Is your innovation house in order?
奥别濒濒蝉辫谤颈苍驳鈥檚 Accolade, Innovation Management empowers innovation leaders with structured tools for planning and tracking projects, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and delivering clear, measurable ROI.
Schedule your demo of Accolade,Innovation Management now and start preparing your team for the future of innovation.
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