Shreyas Bakshi

  In my previous article, I posed a simple question:     "We already innovate!" …Enough?! The answer depends on how leaders assess innovation. Most organisations measure innovation by what they have achieved. Successful innovation leaders also measure how those achievements are strengthening their ability to innovate in the future. That subtle shift changes the conversation from measuring innovation outcomes to building innovation capability. But how do you know whether your organisation is genuinely becoming more innovative? The number of ideas generated doesn't answer that question. Neither do the number of patents filed, products launched or AI tools implemented. Innovation leaders need a way of assessing whether their innovation capability is actually improving. That's where the MijS Innovation Compass ™, one of the frameworks within the MijS Discipline of Innovation ™, comes in. The same Compass can be applied at multiple levels—individual, ...

  During my initial discussions with leaders, one statement comes up almost invariably: “We already innovate!” And this is typically followed by statements like: "We've implemented the latest AI tools." "We've launched new features." "We've improved our processes." "We've automated operations." The leaders who consistently deliver innovation-led disproportionate outcomes ask a very different question. Do we innovate enough?! Enough to stay ahead. Enough to create meaningful differentiation. Enough to shape tomorrow rather than simply improve today. That single shift in thinking changes everything. That's why innovation leaders are never satisfied. Not because they fail to appreciate success. But because every success has an expiry date.  Every innovation raises the bar. The next one must raise it again. Innovation leadership isn't about proving that you innovate. It's ...

  During a recent innovation workshop, the team had generated many ideas. Yet they seemed underwhelmed. When I asked why, one participant said: "We are trying to find implementable ideas." I had heard similar statements before: "Let's focus on practical ideas." "We need something we can actually implement." My immediate response was: "The job of innovators is not to find implementable ideas. The job of innovators is to make ideas implementable." The room paused. Because that simple distinction changes the way we approach innovation. Many organisations approach innovation as a search exercise. The objective is to find ideas that fit existing technologies, current budgets, available resources and established processes. But if innovation is only about finding ideas that already fit the system, how much innovation are we likely to get? Perhaps the real challenge is not finding implementable ideas … but making valua...

  "The world is a lab" is a popular concept.  Here is my take on what it means for innovation . 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...

  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...