Program Management
+3
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9 min read
Sun Life’s global innovation team didn’t try to bring AI to all of claims at once. It picked one task, gave it to leaders with the authority to decide on the spot, and tested every choice against client impact, technical feasibility, and business value.
Culture & Capabilities
3 min read
Lufthansa Group leaders kept running into the same three AI problems: work that colleagues had to redo, teams that stopped asking why, and pilots running in parallel across units. The Lufthansa Innovation Hub trains leaders to fix all three, starting with their own beliefs about AI.
Stakeholder Alignment & Engagement
+5
At CIBC, Camilo Gonzalez Barrero’s enterprise innovation team treats saying no as core work. The team records its refusals and reports them alongside its demos and patents.
+4
6 min read
ILUNION Hotels has run innovation through three operating models in 12 years. Each one delivered, then hit its limit: first capacity, then reach. The third is now running into a question of control.
4 min read
Experian kept governance light so its tiger teams could move fast. The overhead moved instead to unclear expectations, duplicate AI stacks and a six-week wait for funding.
Leadership
8 min read
Paqui Lizana scanned the innovation roadmaps of Europe's 20 most innovative companies. Every roadmap pointed inward. Here are the three questions she says are missing.
5 min read
Curate, translate, integrate: how bridgers at Delta, Mastercard and DIFC get competing teams working together.
Moving from just “talking about innovation” to working on real business problems, collectively.
Scaling
Mars's new gum launched in January and became its best-selling SKU by rate of sale since 2019. It's now scaling across global markets. This isn't a lucky shot, however.
The ultimate purpose of these metrics is not just reporting, but triggering smarter conversations.
Understanding why innovation theatre happens allows you to build AI-powered systems and workflows that enforce responsible innovation by design.
+6
The solution isn't to sprinkle AI on top of existing problems, but redesigning the innovation architecture.
7 min read
Balancing long-term vision with short-term execution.
Corporate hesitation is rarely a strategy; it’s the symptom of outdated structures, misaligned incentives, and a cultural bias toward safety.
To stay ahead of the curve, redirect to the human element: think how teams work together, how they process change, and how they turn uncertainty into fuel for growth.
The work of innovation is not just about coming up with ideas, but about fixing the boardroom dynamics that could kill it. We must prepare to do the messy, human work of culture change.
The walls of yesterday won't protect us eventually, but curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to endure the struggle will guide us through the fog.
+7
It's the role of the innovation team to generate data about the future that the core business cannot see.
When people stop viewing innovation as a tax they have to pay, or a compliance box they have to check, and start viewing it as a vehicle for their own success, you have won.
