MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Four Ways to Get Your Innovation Unit to Work

The key to success is finding the tools and structure that fit your company’s needs, strategies, and culture.

Considering how deeply companies rely on innovation, it is astonishing how bad most of them are at finding, developing, and implementing new ideas. Global companies pour roughly $1 trillion yearly into innovation; we estimate at least 10% of that sum — $100 billion — is completely wasted.

This means that across the business world, would-be pacesetters are enviously studying and imitating the innovation methods of Amazon, Google, SpaceX, and the like. But in our experience working with major companies in industries ranging from manufacturing to financial services, we have found that imitation rarely works. There is no single best way to structure and operate an innovation unit. The innovation toolbox is large and varied, containing dozens of techniques: startup competitions, investments in corporate or external startups, academic partnerships, dedicated internal units, acquisitions, and spin-offs. The real key to success is to find the tools and structure that fit your company’s needs, strategies, and culture.