The catch-22 in strategizing for radical innovation

Abstract

Corporate strategy development is a well-oiled and recurring process in most established companies. Innovation strategy, however, especially for radical innovation, is new and unknown territory. This creates challenges for companies with radical innovation ambitions. We followed the innovation strategy work of nine large organisations, finding that they all struggle with the process and how to link innovation with corporate strategy in a meaningful way, while at the same time not hampering the innovative ambitions of the organisation. We identify two main challenges of gravitation and alignment, and develop a framework aimed at asking the questions necessary for increasing awareness about inherent business challenges, and how to overcome them at the intersection between corporate and innovation strategy work.