Tips and Tricks from the Trenches of Innovation

Innovation is changing the way that we live, work, play and communicate. In the last few years it has gone from a fringe topic to the shortlist of every organization’s must-do list. Yet, innovation success seems fleeting and unpredictable. Most people believe that only a select few – like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma, and Tony Fernandes – have what it takes to innovate. But innovation isn’t magical. It isn’t a mystery. And it isn’t a black art. It is a discipline. And like all disciplines, it can be mastered through careful practice.

In this interactive discussion, Innosight Managing Partner Scott Anthony will share key lessons from more than 15 years of experience in the trenches of innovation. He will integrate his experience as an advisor to global giants, an investor in startup companies, and an entrepreneur building his own company and share practical tips that will allow anyone to improve their ability to succeed with innovation.

The Myths and Realities of Building a Culture of Innovation

It sounds so seductive – a “culture of innovation.” The three words immediately conjure up images of innovation savants like 3M, Pixar, Apple, and Google. The sorts of places where innovation isn’t an unnatural act, but part of the very fabric of an organization. It seems a panacea to many companies that struggle with innovation. But what exactly is a culture of innovation, and how does an organization build it? In this interactive discussion, Innosight Managing Partner Scott Anthony will describe the essential elements of a culture where innovation happens naturally and regularly. He will provide practical tips to help you identify and address the barriers facing your organization. And, most critically, he will describe how to start the journey to create such a culture. Specific discussion topics:

• An overview of the four intertwined systems that underpin a culture of innovation

• Simple diagnostic instruments to assess your organization’s innovation capacity

• Tips to identify, motivate, and develop innovation talent inside your organization

• Guidance for how to manage the leadership tensions between operational excellence and innovation

The Fourth Era of Innovation: How Corporate Catalysts Are Helping Large Organizations Win the Race to the Future

There has never been more hype around startups. Indeed, so-called “unicorns” like Uber, Airbnb, Ofo and Sea are transforming markets all around the globe. Yet, a paradox is emerging. While it has never been easier to start a company, it’s getting harder than ever to scale one. A handful of big companies, such as Medtronic, Baxter, Syngenta, Unilever, Tata, Singtel and Ayala are demonstrating how to combine assets of scale and entrepreneurial energy to unleash massive impact. An emerging role that enables this kind of success is the corporate catalyst, a mission-driven leader who brings together corporate resources to help solve big global challenges. Catalysts help to navigate their organizations through today’s disruptive environment while focusing resources on innovation-led growth.

Break the Cycle of Misalignment And Unite Your Team

When leadership teams embark on ambitious new efforts - new growth initiatives, digital transformation, culture change programs - creating a shared vision of and understanding about the path forward is critical to success. Yet too often, teams that appear aligned are plagued by divisions and doubts just below the surface. This lack of unity can create paralysis, confusion, and derail even the most promising initiatives.

The problem is a human one – and it is solvable. Scott Anthony describes a programmatic approach to achieving leadership alignment that has enabled organizations to align on and successfully launch long-term growth strategies and major new innovation initiatives. Drawing on thinking from neuroscience and behavioral psychology, Scott describes how structured dialogues, visualization, and interactive exercises that get people out of their chairs and moving, can enable teams to break through classic behavioral traps, surface hidden agendas and unite around a strategy for the future.

Strategy through Uncertainty: How to Turn Ambiguity into Opportunity

Disruptive change is accelerating, and companies today face more ambiguity than ever before. But with ambiguity comes opportunity. Business leaders equipped to act in the face of uncertainty can build paths to growth that have not yet been imagined. They can own the future, instead of being disrupted by it.

New technologies, unexpected competitors, and fast-shifting customer tastes are upending established market leaders at an increasing rate. Business models that worked reliably for decades are struggling to deliver growth. Your customers today may not be your customers tomorrow. Traditional approaches to strategy and growth are insufficient. They analyze the past to predict the future. They are facing the wrong way.

In this interactive discussion, Innosight Managing Partner Scott Anthony will present a toolkit he and his colleagues have built to align around a shared vision of the future and then create the organizational momentum to get there. Specifically, he will describe how to live five “new rules of strategy”:

• Live present forward, but work future back

• Explore scenarios, but take a stand

• Accept rough answers, but demand precise assumptions

• Shift from data-drive decisions to data-informed dialogues

• Experiment, experiment, experiment