Trying to put together some thoughts about innovation, I have reread some chapters of “Non-bullshit innovation” from David Rowan, a book I recommend reading. I personally like a lot the chapter about Autodesk, “Find your blind spot” and ARUP, “Empower your team.”
Not trying to be exhaustive and pretending this is “the answer”, here are a few simple principles to be innovative, adapt, and potentially survive:
- Fund long-term experiments;
- Be obsessed with the future;
- Have a lab, change the culture, and show that taking some risks is fine (and necessary);
- Get involved by curiosity, not to make some public relationships;
- Follow the 3-horizon framework: 1. Maintain today’s core business; 2. Nurture emerging businesses that could become significant; 3. Conceive new future businesses in a more speculative way;
- Create organizational tensions that challenge the status quo thinking (link that back to the 3-horizon framework);
- Make sure you keep up with the speed of change in the industry. Otherwise, you will fall behind;
- Innovation must make it to the real world. Otherwise, it is not innovation;
- Tell stories, great stories.
Now, take these nine principles and turn them into questions, e.g., do we have a lab? Do we fund long-term experiments? Are we obsessed with the future? And so on. Where do you stand in terms of innovation?
Recommended reading: Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds
Digital Transformation of Asset Managers and Wealth Managers 
True article, 3 horizon though is not McKinsey’s credit but a long known rule from entrepreneurs taken up by several consulting firms and in the end specific on your own business.
Innovation takes time for people to think, strategize and in the end a culture which supports creative mindset and courage.