You have said that despite efforts to make innovation a common practice, corporate innovation remains a paradox. How so?
Very few leaders would deny the importance of innovation. And yet, there is still nothing harder than trying to innovate within a large corporation. The issue is that many established companies are trapped by their previous success in a manner that limits their capacity to innovate.
A classic example is Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft. When Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, his response was as follows: “There is no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share!” Leadership teams in successful companies essentially become ‘climate change deniers’: They can see the changes happening around them in the business world, yet they deny those changes’ relevance to their company. And this denial tends to be strongest when the ‘weather’ is good and the focus is squarely on highly profitable products. The hubris that comes with that success creates dangerous blind spots.
The focus should be on taking ideas and transforming them into value propositions.
The paradox you mention is that the activities required to
