We have become a culture that celebrates successful entrepreneurs like rockstars. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have become icons in our society. There is a feeling that working on a startup is so much cooler than working in a large established company. Steve Jobs famously remarked that, “It is more fun to be a pirate than to join the Navy”.  ..read more

A few years ago, Nico LeBlanc and I were invited to work with an innovation team at a large pharmaceutical company. The team was preparing to launch a digital health platform within a few months. Before we started working with the team, we asked them an important question ..read more

A few years ago, Nico LeBlanc and I were invited to work with an innovation team at a large pharmaceutical company. The team was preparing to launch a digital health platform within a few months. Before we started working with the team, we asked them an important question ..read more

High inflation, labor shortages, banking crises – it’s anything but business as usual these days. With the state of the world in such flux, focusing on innovation might seem counterintuitive, but the opposite holds true. Research shows that companies that continue to invest in innovation during a crisis experience superior growth and performance post-crisis.  ..read more

Here is a classic scene I have observed in many companies: Leslie, an innovation team lead, is pitching a project to the executive board. As required, he presents the business case for investing in the new offering and five-year projections for revenue growth and profits.  ..read more

A few weeks ago, Dana—the Chief Innovation Officer at a large multinational company contacted us. She was concerned her company was cutting costs across the board and her budget for 2023 had been reduced. We started working together in late 2022, designing the company’s innovation ecosystem and taking 10–12 innovation teams through our discovery and validation programs. Her question was straightforward;  ..read more

Imagine you’re the head of an innovation team in one of the world’s leading aerospace companies. Your job is to innovate on a mandate to both connect and protect people, to explore outer space, and to provide life-saving supplies to those in need. Failure, it would seem, is not an option ..read more

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Acquisition is one way to buy growth. It's not a bad way, but it’s becoming more difficult. For example, a company called Discord got an offer from Microsoft for over $10 billion and rejected it. This is a clear sign that it’s getting more expensive and more difficult for established companies to buy startups. It will still always be possible, but it's getting harder - a fact that large corporations need to come to terms with, and the reason why we’re beginning to see established companies choose different ways to grow ..read more

Invincible Leader of the Month: Sergey Zverev It’s February 2020 and Sergey Sverev is asked to lead the launch of the Emerging Markets Innovation Access Studio (EMIAS), MSD’s new innovation arm. Designing an innovation ecosystem from scratch is a daunting task under normal circumstances. In Sergey’s case it’s even more complicated than usual. COVID 19 is coming into full swing and everyone is working from home ..read more