Governance

Corporate Venture Capital

Separate From Day One: How JLR, Old Mutual and PwC Set Up Ventures

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4 min read

Separate From Day One: How JLR, Old Mutual and PwC Set Up Ventures

Only 22% of venture building programs give founders equity. At JLR, Old Mutual and PwC, founders get a stake — while every venture starts life as its own company.

Corporate Venture Capital

Still Standing: Would Your Venture Unit Survive Its Next Budget Review?

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4 min read

Still Standing: Would Your Venture Unit Survive Its Next Budget Review?

Units that last don’t try to remove their internal tensions. Seven years of research with more than 100 corporate venture leaders shows the routines they use to manage those tensions instead.

Stakeholder Alignment & Engagement

How to Get Business Units To Adopt AI (Without Forcing Them)

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3 min read

How to Get Business Units To Adopt AI (Without Forcing Them)

At Philips, AI can cut a seven-months decision on a new value proposition to about a day. To get business units to adopt the tools, the central team first connected the data and showed each unit its savings in euros.

Leadership

What's the Center For When the Business Owns Innovation?

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4 min read

What's the Center For When the Business Owns Innovation?

Synthomer's central innovation team lost its pipeline, its agenda, and the divisions' trust. David Ring redefined its role around one rule: only do what makes each division more successful than it would be alone.

Program Management

The Innovation Function That Keeps Outgrowing Itself

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6 min read

The Innovation Function That Keeps Outgrowing Itself

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.

Program Management

10 Teams, 10 AI Stacks: Experian's Case for Setting Structure Upfront

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4 min read

10 Teams, 10 AI Stacks: Experian's Case for Setting Structure Upfront

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

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5 min read

Every Innovation Needs a Bridger

Curate, translate, integrate: how bridgers at Delta, Mastercard and DIFC get competing teams working together.

Scaling

How Mars Stopped Losing Good Products After Launch

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8 min read

How Mars Stopped Losing Good Products After Launch

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.

Stakeholder Alignment & Engagement

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4 min read

Talk Growth, Not Innovation

CEOs change. Growth targets don't.

Leadership

Own the P&L (Or Get Shut Down When the CEO Changes)

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11 min read

Own the P&L (Or Get Shut Down When the CEO Changes)

Sokwoo Rhee has run LG Nova for five years — longer than most corporate innovation units survive. His explanation isn't culture or timing. It's math: “The only thing that doesn't change, regardless who your leader is, is P&L.”

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.

Program Management

The Synergies That Turn Innovation Programs into Growth Factories

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6 min read

The Synergies That Turn Innovation Programs into Growth Factories

Most innovation programs fail because they pull one lever in isolation.

AI for Innovation

Using AI to Govern Innovation: Smarter Forecasting, Better Decisions

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5 min read

Using AI to Govern Innovation: Smarter Forecasting, Better Decisions

Estimates that used to take hours or days can now be generated in as little as five minutes—a significant boost to decision-making speed.

Leadership

Reinventing the Innovation Function For the Realities of 2026

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4 min read

Reinventing the Innovation Function For the Realities of 2026

The innovation functions that survive 2026 will look fundamentally different from those designed in the 1990’s.

Leadership

Breaking the Cycle of Hesitation: How to Operationalize Speed

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5 min read

Breaking the Cycle of Hesitation: How to Operationalize Speed

Corporate hesitation is rarely a strategy; it’s the symptom of outdated structures, misaligned incentives, and a cultural bias toward safety.

Stakeholder Alignment & Engagement

Balancing Short- and Long-Term Focus: Lead With Evidence

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5 min read

Balancing Short- and Long-Term Focus: Lead With Evidence

Senior leaders intuitively know growth and innovation differ from running the core business, yet they lack the language and systems to manage both simultaneously.

Leadership

Stop Begging for Resources (and Start Building a Movement )

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7 min read

Stop Begging for Resources (and Start Building a Movement )

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.

Leadership

Eliminate Ambiguity, Correct Asymmetry and Promote Accountability With An Innovation Mandate

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8 min read

Eliminate Ambiguity, Correct Asymmetry and Promote Accountability With An Innovation Mandate

An Innovation Mandate serves as a contract between the senior management (the organizational level) and the professionals conducting the work (the portfolio and project levels).

Leadership

Fixing the Systemic Issues That Block Innovation

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6 min read

Fixing the Systemic Issues That Block Innovation

How to evolve org structures, governance systems and talent practices to build what's next.

Leadership

How to Deliver BU Growth (and Stay Relevant)

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5 min read

How to Deliver BU Growth (and Stay Relevant)

Innovation leaders must audit their current standing, look for warning signals and act before the ground shifts completely.