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Only 6% Say They're Good at Incubation. Here's How to Close The Gap

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3 min read

Only 6% Say They're Good at Incubation. Here's How to Close The Gap

SmartOrg's de-risking framework grew one project's value 5X, Deloitte Spain earned the right to fund on evidence instead of revenue, and Caterpillar booked 250 orders for a trailer, before even starting to build.

The AI Tool Didn't Change the Outcome... The Process Did.

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15 min read

The AI Tool Didn't Change the Outcome... The Process Did.

Novolex, Schreiber, and TTC decided what AI would and wouldn't touch. As a result, one landed a board-ready strategy book, one cut a sprint in half, and one stopped 25 pilots from drowning in spreadsheets.

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17 min read

Storytelling Isn't Optional

A pitch that landed, a department that found its voice, a program that finally moved.. Different context, same fix.

The Moves That Make Corporate-Startup Collaboration Compound

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20 min read

The Moves That Make Corporate-Startup Collaboration Compound

Why some partnerships build on themselves every year — and most reset to zero.

Innovation Often Fails for One Reason (And It's Not the Market)

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26 min read

Innovation Often Fails for One Reason (And It's Not the Market)

The behaviors, the blind spots, and the silence — three ways leaders decide an idea's fate.

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18 min read

Evidence Over Excitement

What happens when you make engineers answer the questions they've always avoided.

96% Use AI. Most Haven't Changed How They Work.

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20 min read

96% Use AI. Most Haven't Changed How They Work.

New research across 118 teams: 78% haven't rebuilt a single process around AI. Below — a venture studio, a 153,000-person manufacturer, and one person with no budget who didn't wait.

Who Are You Without Your Innovation Title?

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17 min read

Who Are You Without Your Innovation Title?

Four innovation leaders. Four exits. One question.

Your Innovation Program is Returning Less Than it Should

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19 min read

Your Innovation Program is Returning Less Than it Should

Like HP, Schneider Electric, Philips, and Kimberly-Clark discovered: the gap is usually between the parts, not in them.

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17 min read

Before You Go Looking Outside

Open innovation has a paradox hiding in plain sight: the outside search is often the easy part. What trips programs up is what they find — or fail to fix — on the inside first.

Why Your Best Bets Need to Leave the Building

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17 min read

Why Your Best Bets Need to Leave the Building

The conditions for transformational innovation can't exist inside a corporation. Here's what to do instead.

From Fuzzy to Fundable: A New Way to Value Innovation

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23 min read

From Fuzzy to Fundable: A New Way to Value Innovation

When the CFO asks what it's all worth, do you have an answer?

Why Most Innovation Teams Are Unknowingly Set Up to Fail

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22 min read

Why Most Innovation Teams Are Unknowingly Set Up to Fail

Smart people. Real effort. So why isn't more of it sticking?

Stealth Sustainability: How Gore and Microsoft Turned Green Constraints Into Growth

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14 min read

Stealth Sustainability: How Gore and Microsoft Turned Green Constraints Into Growth

Sustainability challenges are often systemic. Incremental innovation can't solve them. What can?

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26 min read

Pivoting Innovation Programs

How TD Bank, Chick-fil-A, and Zurich Insurance identified what was slipping in their innovation programs— and the structural changes that brought them back

Killing Zombies: How to Stop the Projects That Are Starving Your Best Bets

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30 min read

Killing Zombies: How to Stop the Projects That Are Starving Your Best Bets

The hardest decision in innovation management isn't which ideas to fund. It's which ones to stop.

After the Yes: The Intrapreneur's Guide to Turning Sponsorship Into Results

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29 min read

After the Yes: The Intrapreneur's Guide to Turning Sponsorship Into Results

Most corporate innovation efforts stall not because the ideas are bad, but because the people behind them don't know how to navigate the system around them.

Delivering Growth, Coaching Execs: New Roles For Innovation

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26 min read

Delivering Growth, Coaching Execs: New Roles For Innovation

Here's how innovation teams are resetting the role they play to stay relevant and increase their impact.

Latest articles

Incubation

How Caterpillar Tested Demand Before Building Anything

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3 min read

How Caterpillar Tested Demand Before Building Anything

A hidden brand, a separate website, and 250 real orders — that's how Caterpillar found out what the market actually wanted.

Program Management

What Deloitte Spain's Innovation Team Shows Its Board Instead of ROI

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4 min read

What Deloitte Spain's Innovation Team Shows Its Board Instead of ROI

Twelve years of proving a 3.6x return bought Hismael Doval the right to make four calls — kill, extend, pilot, scale — before anyone's ego gets a vote

Program Management

The 6Vs: How to Run the Messy Middle of Innovation

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11 min read

The 6Vs: How to Run the Messy Middle of Innovation

75% call incubation critical to growth. 6% think they're actually good at it.

Venture Building

Innovation Funding: Why CapEx Beats OpEx

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5 min read

Innovation Funding: Why CapEx Beats OpEx

To unlock transformative growth, you must fundamentally change where the money comes from.

Stakeholder Alignment & Engagement

Expected Value (XV): The Financial Metric Innovation Teams Actually Need

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5 min read

Expected Value (XV): The Financial Metric Innovation Teams Actually Need

The future requires a bilingual innovator, one who speaks the language of design thinking and the language of the P&L — XV is the bridge between the two.

Leadership

The Minimum Viable 12 Metrics: Connecting Strategy, Culture and the CFO

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6 min read

The Minimum Viable 12 Metrics: Connecting Strategy, Culture and the CFO

The ultimate purpose of these metrics is not just reporting, but triggering smarter conversations.

Program Management

Building Future Relevance: How Venture Labs Challenge the Companies That Fund Them

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4 min read

Building Future Relevance: How Venture Labs Challenge the Companies That Fund Them

Delivering prototypes isn't enough. To be successful, a venture lab needs the decision power to select which ideas to pursue.

Program Management

The Venture Clienting Puzzle: Solving for Culture, Strategy, and Scale

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4 min read

The Venture Clienting Puzzle: Solving for Culture, Strategy, and Scale

The process looks linear on a slide. In practice, it is a series of checkpoints where organizations either catch the problems early or spend months wondering why nothing scaled.

About the Compass.

Leading innovation in large organizations isn’t easy.

I know, because I’ve been there myself. In those years, I had many moments that I wish I could discuss things and compare notes with peers. That’s why, when I left this innovation manager role in 2011, I’ve set out to build a community of corporate innovators, for them to learn from each other to improve outcomes at their organizations.

Drawing from the many sessions, discussions and conversations within the community and the conferences we’ve hosted over the years, I started this newsletter to inform and inspire all those corporate innovators navigating new terrains. A weekly dose of practical insights to inform your approach and improve your outcomes.

Hans Balmaekers
Founder, the Compass and Novum