Alberto Onetti

It's not just about networking. I don't see the world "politics" used here. Being a leader requires ability to leader and navigate complex and large organizations. Vision is not enough. To deliver you need to survive and compromise, mediate... Soft skills are the real differentiator.

If your team is not motivated to meet deadlines, Culture is most of the times the main reason. They don't perceive the problem or if they do they are not particularly interested in solving it. Go back to culture and ask what you did wrong: hiring, leadership, examples, incentives, ...

Innovating means ultimately mitigating risk. Innovation brings efficiency in the short term (horizon1) and new revenue via diversification at mid term (horizon 2 and 3). The issue is its unpredictability since it works following the so called power law.

There is no confidence while taking risk. Investing in innovation (radical, breakthrough, disruptive, not merely sustaining or incremental) means knowing that 8 out of 10 will be no go. But the alternative is far worse. Not innovating means 100% certainty to be disrupted, ie no company survival. This principle does not provide confidence but at least determination.

Scout, scout, scout... There is always a solution that is better to compare and benchmark against. Continuously landscape the startup ecosystem to check how others approach the same issue and where they are better than the solution you have in mind (or portfolio)

An emerging trend is executives leading open innovation being hired as Ceos of smaller companies. that's why the role requires ability to work with colleagues of different functions and BUs as well as political skills.