In today’s fast-changing, ultra-competitive business environment, most companies understand the urgency of innovation. We live in a world where unpredictable trends, from global pandemics to climate change, are continually throwing up new problems for companies to address. It’s also a world in which technological innovation is steadily empowering new business models that generate unexpected competitive challenges. No wonder C-suite executives in practically every industry are making innovation a top priority for their companies and constantly searching for the “next big idea” that will help their businesses survive and thrive.
In this innovation-craving world, a relative handful of companies seem to have cracked the secret of innovation. Some, in fact, have faced a problem most businesses would be thrilled to experience: having too many innovative ideas to select from!
That’s the problem that challenged leaders at Allianz, the German financial giant.1
My involvement with Allianz began several years ago, when I was invited to meet with Jan Carendi, an Argentinian-born executive who was then a member of the board of Allianz. Carendi was part of the corporate team working to develop a systematic approach to generating and implementing innovative ideas throughout Allianz. This was a fascinating challenge. After all, the world of insurance in which Allianz primarily competes is not generally regarded as a hotbed of innovation. But I discovered that Carendi had been thinking
