You’re a Business Innovation professional. What are the most common challenges you face?

Most challenges come from the brain: mindset and culture. The biggest ones are: - short-term thinking --> we cut innovation because we need to save costs immediately - lack of psychological safety --> people are scared to experiment and make a failure. everything need to be perfect, by the first trial - silos --> we think about only our own cup of tea. lack of collaboration, synergies and intransparent communication.

1. Resistance to change. 2. Resource constraints. 3. Risk aversion. 4. Siloed thinking. 5. Lack of supportive culture. 6. Short-term focus. 7. Market uncertainty. 8. Execution challenges. 9. Talent acquisition and retention. 10. Measuring impact.

It's important to distinguish the innovation vision from the general business vision, and don't shy away from embedding substantial ambition within it. I often reflect on Schiphol Airport's innovation vision of "An autonomous airport by 2050" as an inspiring example. Despite acknowledging the uncertainty of achieving complete autonomy, it sets an ideal direction for innovation, focusing on the progressive realization of autonomous elements.

Many a times, companies do want to innovate but there is lack of clarity as to where they should begin, how they should go about doing it and what resources do they need to allocate to innovation. What proactive managers can do is help bring clarity, help identify gaps and challenges whether it be processes or products and create a path towards innovation by clearing the fog.

Its daring to dive in the deep end, to try, test and potentially fail. Mostly everybody is scared of failing because projects are not made as MVP's but made into full blown developments that are "to big to fail". Small scale out of the box failing leads to massive disruptive wins.

In the world of business innovation, navigating company culture is like sailing uncharted waters: challenging yet filled with potential. This culture, often seen as an obstacle, actually holds the key to transformative change. By understanding and addressing internal frustrations with empathy, we can integrate innovative solutions into everyday workflows. This approach doesn't just solve problems; it shifts the organizational mindset, making innovation a natural part of our work. Herein lies the real power of business innovation: not merely in altering products, but in revolutionizing how we work and think daily.

People are not resistant to change, we go through change constantly and ongoing. Just review a few years of your own past. However, we need to connect a change to a personal goal. If we don't see the personal value of a change, then it is really hard to transform.

Convincing stakeholders to adopt novel approaches necessitates addressing concerns, showcasing benefits, and fostering a culture of openness and experimentation to facilitate smooth transitions and foster innovation.

Resistance to change often results from a lack of imagination as a result of limited or lack of knowledge. While this can be resolved by providing equal access to learning and education material, it's also important to let people explore how their "why" may change (ideally for their benefit) when they embrace into a new business process (with a changed role). Providing an environment in which people can explore their next role and thrive at their pace, will increase the engagement for change.

Build a culture of inclusion, where everyone feels their voice is heard. In times of change people can often feel left behind, especially if their voice, opinion or ideas are not heard- or worse still - never asked of in the first place. Secondly, respect people's contribution, especially if you proceed with their ideas. Give credit, were credit is due. Its the simple things that can make a big difference.

One of the most significant challenges in business innovation is managing limited resources, particularly when it involves collaborating with personnel from different departments within the organization. Even with an agreed-upon allocation of resources, ensuring the availability of team members remains a critical factor. If their schedules are already at capacity, advancing innovation initiatives becomes difficult. Therefore, planning well in advance to ensure that the necessary personnel are available is advisable, rather than relying on ad-hoc assignments which can hinder the momentum of innovation efforts.

New ideas and innovative initiatives often competes with the legacy business in an organization. Employing resources into innovation is an uncertain bet on the future, while the legacy business ensures the present forthcoming. Balancing both endeavors is challenging but needed to stay market relevant.

Na minha trajetória profissional, deparei-me com o desafio da escassez de recursos ao tentar impulsionar a inovação empresarial em um ambiente com limitações de tempo, dinheiro e talento. Para superar essa barreira, adotei uma abordagem estratégica e ágil na alocação de recursos, priorizando projetos com maior potencial de impacto e alinhados com nossa visão. Utilizando métodos enxutos e iterativos, como o lean canvas e o canvas de proposta de valor, conseguimos testar ideias com recursos mínimos antes de realizar investimentos significativos. Essa abordagem nos permitiu maximizar a eficácia de nossos recursos limitados e impulsionar a inovação de maneira eficiente.

Cualquier proyecto tiene una visión, objetivos, plan de acción........ y PRESUPUESTO. Sin los recursos necesarios no funciona un proyecto y los proyectos de innovación no son diferentes. Normalmente la falta de recursos es por no tener clara y compartida la visión y objetivos. Revisa el plan de innovación hasta tener los recursos necesarios, empezar antes es contraproducente.

Compelling events are happening all the time, and sometimes those events have the potential to seriously threaten the business purpose of a company. A potential mitigation is scenario thinking and using (own) data to evidence scenario results regularly and not just at the occasion of fixed dates in the fiscal year.

In an uncertain environment, there is one thing that is certain: There's always, I mean literally always, at least two ways out of any situation, even if you're screwed. Even when the circumstances are harsh and you're forced to just one choice, you still have the freedom to choose how you will react. Remember, when one door closes, another opens; we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. Every setback is a setup for a comeback. So, embrace the challenge, seek the hidden pathways, and trust that you have the strength to overcome anything.

Adapting to market fluctuations requires agile strategies, ongoing learning, and flexible leadership to capitalize on emerging opportunities and mitigate risks effectively.

In my experience, the uncertain environment, mainly related to changing needs and customer behaviour. And turning the need into something stable over time, using the right method. Next challenge is learning to apply different models in the innovation process, coupling various model, because using one single model is not effective for developing successful innovations.

Certo vez, me deparei com o desafio de operar em um ambiente empresarial incerto e em constante mudança. As rápidas e imprevisíveis alterações no mercado, nos clientes e nas regulamentações podem impactar diretamente nossos esforços de inovação. Para enfrentar essa incerteza, adotamos uma abordagem flexível e adaptável em nossa estratégia de inovação. Estamos sempre atentos às tendências externas e prontos para ajustar nossos planos e ações conforme necessário. Enxergamos a incerteza como uma oportunidade para aprender e crescer, utilizando ferramentas como cenários e experimentos para explorar diferentes possibilidades e garantir que estamos preparados para qualquer eventualidade.

Mostrar el valor de la innovación es crucial para su éxito. Se deben evaluar críticamente los costos y beneficios, considerando aspectos financieros y estratégicos. Es esencial comunicar estos beneficios de manera clara y persuasiva a los niveles adecuados de la organización. Además, es importante medir y evaluar regularmente el impacto de la innovación para demostrar su valor de manera continua y mantener el apoyo de los stakeholders clave.

I believe that each of us can innovate in our small areas, from optimizing how we work, improving and simplyfing processes, creating value and problem-solvng. Sometimes, its handy to look outside and take help from innovation partners. What is very important is an innovation mindset and investments towards developing team skills for improvement.

Competitive Markets! One of the main driver of innovation is competition. In monopoly, we hardly see breakthrough innovations. Therefore, free markets always push innovation dynamics. In undeveloped markets, very rare to see continues innovations except intimating existing products by governmental supports. Typically, radical innovations are led by either from visionary leaders or great rivals. Build an transparent free market first.

Reward and recognition systems are essential for fostering innovation, the absence of them may demotivate employees, reduce morale and employees may feel undervalued and not willing to invest their time and effort into generating innovative solutions.

Additionally, staying ahead of rapidly evolving technologies and market trends while balancing short-term and long-term objectives can also be challenging for a business innovation professional.

Encontrar o equilíbrio entre a busca pela inovação e a manutenção da estabilidade operacional é um desafio crucial na gestão empresarial. Integrar a inovação de forma contínua às operações existentes requer uma abordagem estratégica e cuidadosa, que promova a criatividade enquanto garante a eficiência operacional. Este equilíbrio é essencial para o sucesso a longo prazo de qualquer iniciativa de inovação empresarial.

Actually, the greatest barriers to effective innovation driven value creation is human bias, risk aversion and endowment, in other words, path dependencies. The only way to breakthrough those barriers is team calibration through a common shared vision, clear innovation OKRs and having the bravery to take the leap towards the uncertain path of disruption and creating a new worwhile market, solution or business.