All Featured Article articles
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ArticleKickstarter Enables Sustainability — With Help from its Creators
Jon Leland, Chief Strategy Office at Kickstarter, shares how sustainability became a priority inside the company and explains how buy-in from creators on the platform has advanced sustainability.
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Article
Innovating to Meet Sustainability Goals
ESG? Agenda 2030? Whatever language your organization is using, it’s likely you’ve set goals related to sustainability. However, there may not yet be a defined team in place, or sufficient resources. Here’s what other companies are doing.
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Article
Mapping Three Years of Innovation Activities at TIAA
A single slide captures three years of innovation activity at TIAA, the $40 billion financial services firm. We asked creator Howard Manzon to explain what’s on the slide; what worked; and what he might do differently in the future.
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Article
DuPont’s Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer Talks Metrics
In an excerpt from the new book Innovation Accounting, authors Dan Toma and Esther Gons talk with DuPont’s Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer about the intricacies of measuring innovation progress.
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Article
A Simplified Guide to Web3 and the Metaverse
Web3 and the metaverse are two concepts that catapulted out of the world of startups, venture capital, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts in 2021. Now, many larger companies are exploring potential use cases and developing strategy for both Web3 and the metaverse. So we’ve created a jargon-free guide to these two concepts, and how they may eventually be linked.
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Article
How Carmaker BMW is Developing Strategy for Blockchain, AI, and the Metaverse
How do emerging technologies get evaluated, tested, and rolled out in Munich-based BMW Group? We talk to Andrew Luckow, Head of Innovation and Emerging Technologies to get the details.
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Article
Beneath the Buzz: What are Venture Studios and Builders, and How Do They Work with Corporates?
A growing number of big company leaders like the idea of hiring a firm like this to help them develop that elusive “next big thing.” But it’s a confusing landscape. There are hundreds of organizations of different shapes, sizes, and capabilities that call themselves venture studios, or say that they offer venture building capabilities. We’re trying to make sense of it….
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On Demand Webcast
Ideas Aren’t Enough. What’s Your Innovation ROI?
In this Master Class replay, Suzan Briganti and Mary Ann Bianco of Swarm Vision discuss the importance of delivering measurable results through innovation and examine the mindsets of consistently successful innovators around the world.
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Article
Mobile Apps, NFTs, and the Metaverse: How FIFA is Innovating its Way to the 2022 World Cup
“Innovation is a word that can mean everything – and nothing,” says Benjamin Stoll, Director of Strategic Alliances & Innovation at FIFA, football’s governing body. Unless, he adds, innovation activity can be tied to tangible value creation for FIFA and its constituents. We talked to Stoll in advance of this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
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On Demand Webcast
Centers of Excellence: How Companies Like LEGO, GlaxoSmithKline, and Bang & Olufsen Innovate
In this Master Class replay, Jay Peters discusses the success factors that drive innovation; examined the keys to creating a “center of excellence”; and highlighted lessons from companies such as Lego, GlaxoSmithKline, and more.
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Article
Should You Close Your Physical Innovation Lab and Open One in the Metaverse?
A recent conversation among InnoLead members spent less time on brick-and-mortar innovation labs — and more time discussing the possibilities of bringing people together for meetings and collaboration in virtual reality, and some of the training and support hassles that produces.
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Article
Kellogg’s R&D Chief on Plant-Based Proteins and New Ways of Testing Products
The company’s SVP of Global R&D talks about getting plant-based protein to an affordable price point; how the company is moving from focus groups to in-market testing; and why the $13 billion company hires “food designers” rather than food scientists.
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Article
Exclusive Interview with NASCAR's Chief Innovation Officer
To shed light on how NASCAR stays connected with fans — and how it explores the potential of new technologies — we spoke with Craig Neeb, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer. He says that delivering concrete results requires strong relationships with leadership, openness to the startup world, and an acute awareness of where a project’s biggest risks lie.
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Article
How to Use Myth Busting to Unlock Innovation and Growth
Most companies hold on to longstanding myths about their business and customers that constrain new ideas and experimentation — but just aren’t true anymore. Johnsonville LLC Director of Innovation Erik Falck shares four steps to get your colleagues questioning these myths and moving past them.
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Article
The Demise of an Innovation Team: 5 Warning Signs
The warning signs “did not appear all at once,” writes a former innovation team member in the US. Rather, “it was a slow and a gradual shift in priorities and resources over time.” Here are her recommendations for avoiding that same fate.
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Article
Inside Inspire Brands’ Ghost Kitchen and Innovation Center
Just a year after opening its innovation center, Inspire Brands — owner of Arby’s, Sonic, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and Buffalo Wild Wings — launched the first multibrand “ghost kitchen” in Atlanta. InnoLead spoke with Vans Nelson, VP of Restaurant Operations, Innovation, and Profitability, about staying ahead of tech trends in the fast food industry.
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Article
An Idea Canvas to Help Manage Your Innovation Funnel
The fuel of an innovation pipeline is ideas. But without a good prioritization process, it’s very hard for an innovation effort to achieve any kind of successful outcomes. That’s why Eric Braun, entrepreneur and former corporate innovation exec, created this Idea Canvas. Includes download.
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Research Report
Retooling R&D for a New Era
Amidst stressful and unpredictable business and societal conditions related to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, R&D organizations are feeling new pressures. They are trying to fill gaps on their team in a tight talent market; solve problems with essential company operations while also building for the future; bring on new vendors when existing ones are unable to deliver; and deliver more output with the same resources — or in some cases, less. This report details how Global 1000 companies are responding in the current environment, and includes qualitative interviews with companies such as Campbell’s Soup, 3M, W.L. Gore, and Comcast.
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Article
How Dell’s CTO Assesses New Technologies to Drive Future Growth
Once a company is approaching $100 billion in revenue, creating substantial growth gets a lot harder. “You need to find some new areas to play in,” says Global CTO John Roese. Here’s how he does that…W
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Article
20 Essential Tools for Collaboration, Productivity, and Remote Work in 2022
At a recent members-only online meeting hosted by Innovation Leader, members from around the world shared some of the tools they consider essential — from noise-canceling software to AI transcription services to project management platforms.
