Shreyas Bakshi

  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 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 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...

  In the world of relentless pursuit of success, a mantra often recited is "Failure is not an option" . This is invariably true in ‘business-as-usual’ context where the processes are established, and failures are unpardonable. But, in the context of ‘business-un-usual’ – in other words, innovation, another mantra is more relevant i.e. “Failures are the stepping stones to success” . There are enough examples to illustrate this. The most common one being “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work” by Thomas Edison. Often, failures teach us a lot more than success and need to be made a part of the learning process in the context of evolving an innovative solution. However, failures, even in the context of innovation, can be daunting to deal with unless these are supported by well-designed practices and principles e.g. Aligning the understanding of ‘failure’ All the relevant stakeholders need to have a common understanding of ‘failu...