🟢 Building a proper innovation portfolio - Part 3

Part 2 quick recap

In parts 1 and 2 of this series, I tried to lay out some key quantitative aspects of a proper corporate innovation portfolio.

🟢 Building a proper innovation portfolio - Part 1

Few corporations have been capable of transitioning from a pipeline to an innovation portfolio. We can blame well-known business books for oversimplifying the issues at stake, but also, the non-linearity of a portfolio strategy genuinely baffles most executives. Let’s share some insights…

innovation copilotsPhilippe MEDA

🟢 Building a proper innovation portfolio - Part 2

In this second part of our series on how to build a proper corporate innovation portfolio, we are talking numbers, critical mass of projects, and optionality over serendipity!

innovation copilotsPhilippe MEDA

The key takeaway is that it's about dealing with optionality – not serendipity – and spreading out enough explorations between technology and market innovations, with enough in the different low, medium, and high-risk zones. Eventually, totaling around 120 explorations seems to be the empirical soft spot for a portfolio that delivers.

Culture is a b...

Now that we have the core mechanism in mind, one last (massive) factor is at play: your corporate culture. It's genuinely amazing that very few business books start here. Without a proper understanding of how your organization works, your chances of building an effective innovation strategy are slim. At best, it's a shot in the dark. But given the scope of what we are discussing, which is not an isolated innovation program but a cohesive approach connecting all innovation initiatives, I don't think walking in blind is an option.

So what are we discussing when we say culture?

If you've been reading about our work (or better, worked with us), you are aware of our innovation and our culture frameworks:

What you may not be aware of is that they work together!