Ways of Mapping Your Innovation Portfolio

Innovation-led growth, at its core, hinges on how resources are allocated; it’s not simply a matter of creativity or generating new ideas. The challenge lies in prioritizing a portfolio of initiatives in a way that aligns with a company’s strategic goals and prepares it for the future. Often, companies fall into the trap of using […]

Why ISO Standards Fall Short in Innovation Management

Co-authored by Bruno Pešec and Dan Toma. There are companies nowadays that are recognizing the importance of innovation for their long term strategic intent. Some of these companies have had great experiences with innovation in the past and just want to double-down on the effort and professionalize the practice; while others want to do it, […]

Thesis-based Investment or Theme-based Investment

One of the worst mistakes companies make when pursuing innovation-led growth is to sink their money into various investments without knowing why, beyond just ‘it’s a cool technology that can disrupt us’ or ‘it’s the board’s pet project’. Yes, this sounds like the world’s most obvious mistake to avoid, but in our experience, we’ve seen […]

The Innovation Thesis and its Structure

President Kennedy’s address to the joint session of the US Congress on May 25th 1961 can be viewed as the start of the space race: “… I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to […]

Three Things to Consider When Developing an Innovation Strategy

The process of developing a strategy in companies pre-pandemic was nothing more than an exercise in incremental adaptation of last year’s plan. The pandemic proved that the strategy development process needs to be more dynamic if the companies are to be able to swiftly adapt to new conditions when they arise. Furthermore, strategic planning is […]