How should corporate innovation be shaped to create growth at the edge of the box?

I spent the last two days with Carine Peeters and Brett Hamilton and 15 CxOs at Vlerick Business School’s Strategy In Action Program.

The topic: GROWTH — why it matters, how to organize for it, central vs. decentralized growth approaches, maintaining corporate DNA while growing, leadership’s role. I contributed to the discussion with a focus on the leader’s role in enabling growth outside and at the edge of the box (= the existing business, operating and mental model).

Carine kicked us off with a simple exercise: map your company’s most important growth initiatives on a 3×3 Ansoff Matrix. The results were in line with what we expected:

• 37 initiatives were positioned inside the box
• 10 aimed for limited diversification (adjacencies)
• Only 1 had a disruptive ambition

But here’s the twist: Some initiatives that the CxOs positioned to be inside the box were actually at the edge. To identify the edge, we examined the Business Model Canvas and counted potential changes that a growth initiative created. For example, a new value proposition to an existing customer segment which is delivered differently and has a new revenue model would count as 3 changes.

• 1 change: Can be handled via incremental innovation
• 2-3 changes: This initiative is at the edge or even beyond
• More than 3 changes: This initiative is truly outside the box

Why does this matter? Because at the edge and beyond the box, success demands a different setup and leadership approach. In my talk, I emphasized a few critical factors for leaders that want to see growth in this space:

• Success stories and typical mistakes
• Leadership’s skin in the game (spoiler alert: support is not enough)
• Effective collaboration between C-suite and corporate innovators
• Role models for ambidextrous leaders
• The right structure, funding, and governance
• Leadership’s watch points when scaling and reintegrating validated growth concepts