"Excitement can only get you so far.
You can decide to ramp up your fitness, but if you never block time in your calendar, don’t buy decent shoes, and make no good plan for it - you won’t get far. Enthusiasm burns out fast without a system to sustain it.
Innovation works the same way."
Yesterday, I recorded a podcast with Alex Osterwalder, one of the world’s top strategy and innovation thinkers. He’s helped companies like Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Mastercard, and Intel among others to rethink how they stay adaptive in a fast-changing world, becoming stronger than ever.
One key takeaway that Alex kept coming back to: everything needs a system and a process. Managed. Measured. Reinforced. Otherwise, it fails.
Telling people “be more innovative,” “adopt AI,” or “bring new ideas” only gets you a short burst of activity. What delivers meaningful results are the systems you build to support innovation, learning and creativity.
Useful questions to keep in mind:
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Do you have a clear process for when, where, how, and by whom innovation happens?
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Is it actually on the schedule, measured, and tied to specific, innovation KPIs?
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Are people incentivized and rewarded in ways that align with your business innovation priorities?
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Do you track innovation against outcomes that matter, not just activity or "more AI"?
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Is the path made simple and clear - what to do, how to do it, and why?
Alex also reminded me of this subtle but critical point: exploration (trying new things) and exploitation (scaling what works) are not the same. Each needs its own success metrics, it's own process. Mixing them up is the fastest way to kill a promising innovation strategy before it even has a chance to pay off.
Over to you dear reader,
Do you have a system that gives your ideas a real shot at survival? Or are you still hoping innovation will “just happen”?