What if innovation weren’t the mysterious, magical thing people make it out to be, but something far more practical and achievable? That’s the realisation that shaped much of my career and the message I want to share with you.
Watch the whole recording now.
I used to think something was wrong with me because I would dive deeply into one pursuit, see it through to the end, then veer off in another direction entirely. For years, it felt restless and unfocused, but later I discovered that this constant curiosity, this habit of joining dots across disciplines, was actually the mark of an innovator. Innovation isn’t about one big idea or a flash of genius. It’s a process, a set of steps that takes imagination and creativity through to something tangible that delivers measurable value.
The first important point is that innovation is not a thing in itself. It’s not an iPhone or a new app. It’s an outcome. To understand this, it helps to distinguish between imagination, creativity, invention, and innovation. Imagination is the unbound thought process where you dream up things that don’t exist. Creativity is about rearranging what already exists in new ways. Invention is creating something novel, even if it doesn’t yet deliver value. Innovation happens when that creation produces real, measurable value for people, businesses, or society.
Take Steve Jobs as an example. He was fascinated by calligraphy during his time in India and later at Berkeley. He imagined what it would be like to bring calligraphy into computers, which at the time only displayed blocky, dot-matrix text. He then applied creativity by studying typefaces and magazine layouts and combining them with code. The invention was the creation of the first digital fonts. The innovation was making personal computers friendlier and more accessible, transforming them into everyday tools measured by sales and adoption. Jobs didn’t just have ideas—he followed the process through.
That’s where many organisations stumble. Too often, companies mistake ideas for innovation. They hold beanbag brainstorming sessions, stick Post-it notes on walls, and congratulate themselves for being “innovative”. But unless those ideas are tested, validated, developed, and executed, they remain just that—ideas. Without a system to move them forward, ideas clog the arteries of progress.
The real purpose of innovation is to keep us relevant. Markets evolve quickly. Technology shifts, culture changes, and competitors emerge. Yet when I ask boards to name the top three companies most likely to disrupt them in the next 90 days, most draw a blank. That’s dangerous, because it means they’re making decisions about the future based only on past performance. Past performance matters, but it’s not enough. If a business doesn’t adapt as the market evolves, it drifts into decline.
Consider companies like Kodak or MySpace. Their failures weren’t inevitable—they were symptoms of losing touch with what was happening in the market and among users. Kodak clung to film when digital was already on the horizon. MySpace became cluttered and chaotic while Facebook offered a simpler, cleaner alternative. On a smaller scale, I’ve seen promising ventures falter not because the idea lacked merit but because teams argued over who the customer really was instead of validating it with data. Innovation falls apart when ego and assumptions replace evidence and process.
That’s why I emphasise the importance of detective work. Every major innovation has a backstory. When you look closely, you’ll find the same steps repeated: imagination, creativity, invention, innovation. By training yourself to dig into these stories, you build cognitive muscles for pattern recognition and association. You start to see not only how existing innovations came to life but also how you might adapt similar approaches to your own context. It’s far more powerful than chasing shiny new ideas.
Innovation also requires balance. It isn’t just about technology, though tech often plays a part. It can be design, service, customer experience, or business model.
Nespresso pods weren’t simply a product—they were a combination of product innovation, brand positioning, and customer experience design. What was essentially overpriced Nestlé coffee became a luxury lifestyle because the whole ecosystem was designed that way. That’s innovation.
To deliver it, we need the right mix of people across the three zones of innovation. There’s the front end, where discovery and creative thinking happen. The mid zone, where strategies and business cases are validated. And the back end, where execution and delivery take place. Most organisations pour their energy into the front end, then stall. The reality is you need researchers, strategists, and analysts as much as you need dreamers and creatives. Without them, ideas never translate into measurable outcomes.
This is why culture is so critical. Innovation can’t live in a silo. If a business sets up an “innovation team” without embedding innovation into the DNA of the whole organisation, the antibodies of the culture will attack it. The CFO who resists funding, the project manager who’s overloaded, the strategist who isn’t brought in—these are not obstacles born of malice, but of a system that doesn’t value innovation as essential. Until leaders embrace innovation as a de-risking process, not just a creative indulgence, it will struggle to stick.
And here’s a truth that often gets overlooked: not innovating is riskier than innovating. In a world where markets move faster than ever, standing still is the most dangerous move of all. Innovation provides the resilience to adapt, to grow, to remain perpetually relevant. It’s not about chasing the next cool gadget. It’s about building the processes that make relevance sustainable.
If there’s one thing you take away, let it be this: start thinking like a detective. Pick an innovation that has shaped your life, research its backstory, and trace how imagination, creativity, invention, and innovation all played a part. Do this often, do it with your teams, and you’ll build the mindset that fuels true innovation.
If this struck a chord, let’s keep the conversation going. Bring your stories, your questions, and your challenges. Maybe it’s over a coffee, maybe at the next Masterclass. After all, innovation isn’t just about the big leaps—it’s about the connections we make along the way.