How can leaders and their teams make the case for continued, and even increased, investment in innovation during these challenging times? 

That question was brought up by a corporate member from the financial services industry at an in-person event in late February, just as the coronavirus outbreak was beginning to make headlines in the US. And it has taken on a different tone in recent weeks: How can I protect my budget, and my team, as the C-Suite starts looking for costs to cut?

The two pathways in this document — Capitalize & Grow and Protect & Defend — are particularly designed to be useful to those leaders tasked with identifying and developing breakthrough innovation concepts, as well as other sources of future growth. Each pathway contains a detailed list of key topics and questions, which could be used to shape a presentation deck. This resource was created as a downloadable Word document, so that you can easily pull elements from it, add, or edit.

In developing this resource, I drew from two years of recent experience helping lead innovation within EmbraerX, the new growth group of the Brazilian aerospace company, Embraer. I also solicited input from a handful of current and former corporate innovators who have worked in industries as diverse as theme parks, quick-service restaurants, and manufacturing.

We hope that you find this helpful. You can download the full resource here.