BLOG ON INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMATION

Tools and strategies to innovate, solve complex issues, and transform businesses

Innovation requires deep alignment of executives and the board
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

Innovation requires deep alignment of executives and the board

Creating a sustainable innovation capability in an organisation is big endeavour that requires strong leadership vision, a vision truly understood and endorsed by the board.

In the last few years, I have developed an approach that helps executives and directors better understand disruption risks and strategic opportunities, requirements for exploration of those opportunities, and their respective roles to design and execute corporate innovation.

In this blogpost, I will focus on key questions that usually best contribute to shifting directors’ perspective on risk management and innovation, and ultimately create enthusiasm to have innovation added to the agenda of the board.

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What you should know about innovation’s time to impact
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

What you should know about innovation’s time to impact

When leaders turn for help on innovation, the last thing they want to hear is that transformative innovation’s time to impact is unpredictable and long. Still it is important to manage leaders’ expectations early on, if only to give transformative innovation the best chance of success.

Let me explain in this post what I believe all leaders should know about innovation’s time to impact and how to overcome the longer time to impact of transformative innovation.

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Are your leaders also ready to lead innovation?
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

Are your leaders also ready to lead innovation?

In my experience, almost all organisations assume that their existing leaders are ready to lead innovation. But that assumption is often wrong.

In this blogpost I explain how to help leaders be better prepared to lead innovation. It starts by creating time and space for leaders to reflect on innovation, and via a dialogue create the opportunity to:

  • raise their awareness on the radical difference between exploration and exploitation,

  • make explicit their role in supporting and challenging innovation teams,

  • make explicit their role in designing and nurturing an innovation ecosystem.

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The first 18 months of leading the creation of an Innovation Ecosystem
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

The first 18 months of leading the creation of an Innovation Ecosystem

What would you do if you were asked to lead the launch of the new innovation arm within a large organisation? Nick Himowicz and I interviewed Sergey Zverev who faced this exact challenge in Feb 2020.

In this blogpost we summarise Sergey's 6 priorities in his first 18 months of leading the development of an innovation ecosystem within MSD emerging markets.

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Leadership support for innovation needs more than good intentions
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

Leadership support for innovation needs more than good intentions

Despite their best intentions, attempts by senior leaders in large organisations to set up a thriving innovation capability can end up in bitter disappointment.

In this blogpost I outline the five acts of a CORPORATE INNOVATION drama I’ve seen unfold too many times, and what leaders can put in place to create a virtuous circle towards better outcomes from innovation.

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Could Agile be a Trojan horse for a bottom-up business transformation?
Frederic Etiemble Frederic Etiemble

Could Agile be a Trojan horse for a bottom-up business transformation?

In this blogpost I explore the potential of Agile to become a Trojan horse for a bottom-up business transformation in organisations.

Over the years, Agile has shifted its purpose from building better software, to delivering products, and more recently to creating more joyful workplaces.

But were Agile successes only possible as long as it was flying under the leadership radar? As expectations from Agile grow, will Agile-based transformation attempts ultimately clash with the dominant leadership culture?

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