Shreyas Bakshi

  Many organisations invest in innovation labs, centres and similar facilities to support innovation. This is often a sensible investment because innovation can require specialised equipment, technologies, expertise and infrastructure. However, every innovation lab is designed around today's understanding of tomorrow. The technologies selected, the equipment installed and the expertise assembled are all based on assumptions regarding what future innovations might require. Yet truly innovative concepts often challenge those assumptions. A breakthrough idea may depend on technologies that did not exist when the lab was designed. It may require expertise that sits outside the organisation.  It may involve capabilities that have never previously been combined. It may even demand an entirely new ecosystem of partners, suppliers and technologies. As a result, the infrastructure created to enable innovation can sometimes become a limitation to innovation. The challenge is not only ph...

  Many organisations invest in innovation labs, centres and similar facilities to support innovation. This is often a sensible investment because innovation can require specialised equipment, technologies, expertise and infrastructure. However, every innovation lab is designed around today's understanding of tomorrow. The technologies selected, the equipment installed and the expertise assembled are all based on assumptions regarding what future innovations might require. Yet truly innovative concepts often challenge those assumptions. A breakthrough idea may depend on technologies that did not exist when the lab was designed. It may require expertise that sits outside the organisation. It may involve capabilities that have never previously been combined. It may even demand an entirely new ecosystem of partners, suppliers and technologies. As a result, the infrastructure created to enable innovation can sometimes become a limitation to innovation. The challenge is not o...

  Many organisations expect innovative ideas to arrive as complete solutions. But most meaningful innovation does not begin with precision. It begins with direction. Innovative ideas are often better understood as “direct-ions” — signals that point toward possibilities rather than ready-made answers. In innovation discussions, organisations often reach a stage where practical questions begin to surface: Which idea(s) should we take forward? What kind of cross-functional team (CFT) would this require? Should this move toward a pilot, proof-of-concept, or implementation? These are important questions. However, they can sometimes create an unintended expectation that innovative ideas should already resemble solutions before they are explored further. In reality, many innovative ideas do not initially emerge as solutions at all. They may begin simply as thought starters, triggers, observations, or directional signals. Some may not even directly addr...

Innovation is often visible in taglines, narratives, and presentations (PPTs), but does not always translate into outcomes reflected in Profit Before Tax (PBT). For many organisations, the innovation journey often begins with articulation e.g. innovation-led taglines vision and mission statements strategic narratives transformation messaging Some organisations go further and take measures such as: set up innovation labs launch dedicated initiatives include innovation in capability-building programmes establish new operating structures In fact, some organisations even position testing or experimentation facilities as innovation centres. The intent is visible. The aspiration is genuine. Yet in many organisations, the outcomes do not always move at the pace or scale initially envisioned. One possible reason may be that organisations often focus first on visible innovation measures before addressing deeper organisational alignment. These may not alw...

Working with client teams on cross-domain innovation, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern: the search for a ready-made solution. The tendency is to copy what worked elsewhere, import it, implement it. It feels efficient. It rarely is. Because innovation is rarely about direct adoption. It is about intelligent adaptation . The Best Practices Trap There's a deeper force at work — institutionalised and well-intentioned: the management paradigm of adopting best practices . To be clear, best practices have their place. Benchmarking, standardising, and importing proven methods can drive improvements in efficiency, quality, and consistency. That value is real. But the impact is incremental. True innovation generates disproportionate value — outcomes that are non-linear, whether it is for customer-facing aspects or internal to the operations. And disproportionate value almost never comes from doing what everyone else is already doing, only slightly better. When...

  Many organisations engage with innovation through well-established practices like Brainstorms, Hackathons, Kaizen initiative, Stage-gate evaluations, Idea management platforms, Incubation centres, shark-tanks/ pitch-days amongst others. They provide the visible structures through which ideas are generated, explored, and advanced. Over time, many organisations notice that the quality and consistency of innovation outcomes are shaped not only by these visible mechanisms, but also by the “software” and “humanware” that surround them. The organisations that expand their attention to these deeper layers often find innovation becoming more sustained and meaningful. And when leadership ambition expands… The conversation around innovation begins to evolve.  I nnovation gradually moves: From a trait admired in individuals to a capability strengthened across teams. From something experienced primarily as creative art to something developed with increasing scientific rigour. ...

  Innovation is a word leaders use often. It appears in strategy discussions, finds space in vision statements, and is embedded in company taglines. It is positioned as a lever for growth or renewal. And yet, there are leaders who are not satisfied with what innovation ultimately delivers — and wonder whether better outcomes are possible. At the same time, there are leaders who believe their innovation efforts are delivering incremental outcomes but do not wish to intensify efforts out of concern about over-stretching their teams. What if stronger outcomes could emerge by sharpening the direction of your current efforts — where efforts refer to both time and investment? Innovation efforts can be focused on: Projects — delivering defined strategic or operational outcomes. People — capability strengthened through delivering multiple projects. Organisation — systems and governance that identify and prioritise projects, track outcomes, and develop people capability...

Innovation mindset is often described through familiar qualities – curiosity, exploration, experimentation, openness to challenge. But in real innovation journeys, the question is rarely whether these qualities are present. It is about how each situation is interpreted as it unfolds. While the familiar qualities continue to hold value, much of one’s thinking remains deeply personal. It is shaped by how one has learned to interpret situations over time – and often reveals itself subconsciously in the moment, quietly influencing how the innovation journey is navigated. In such moments, innovation becomes less about applying predefined mindsets, and more about recognising the thinking at play – and what may need to shift. How often do we pause to notice how our thinking shapes our innovation journeys? Across diverse innovation contexts, I have seen meaningful progress begin here. The MijS Discipline of Innovation incorporates this aspect – recognising and working with und...

AI may not be the ultimate “truth”—but it is certainly shaping how we arrive at it. This is a reflection on my experiments with AI in creating content—text and related visuals. These were done with the intent of understanding what actually works. My background to set the context to this article I am a person of few words – drawing an analogy from the world of poetry, I am a fan of Ghazals (short, precise couplets) vs Ballads (long-form narratives). Also, I prefer to work without too many constraints on me – tending more towards the creative side rather than more regimented. In view of this, with the advent of social media, people sharing more were getting noticed. So, I had to express myself more – clearly and consistently. And, to put some of my content on marketplace platforms, I had to put my content in far more regimented way than I am used to. Hence, I needed help and before the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), I was seeking help from content professionals. ...