Contributing an Opinion Piece or Case Study to InnoLead

InnoLead welcomes submissions of story pitches or finished stories from leaders in corporate innovation, R&D, design, strategy, new product development, and other roles. Some guidelines and samples of previously published pieces are below, as are topics that InnoLead regularly covers. Pitches or finished pieces should be submitted to editor@innovationleader.com. (If you work at a software vendor, consultancy, workshop leader, or other service provider/advisor, learn more about becoming an InnoLead partner; we only distribute thought leadership pieces from our community of partners.)

Guidelines: 

• We exclusively publish pieces from writers who are currently in a corporate/nonprofit/governmental role, or who have left that type of role within the last 12 months.

• Our goal is to share candid stories and actionable advice that will be useful and helpful to our community. That may take the form of an opinion/advice piece; a list of suggestions or learnings; a case study about a project or initiative; an annotated set of slides or photos; etc.

• We require that all submissions have not been published previously elsewhere.

• We work with contributors to edit and, when necessary, add photos and illustrations to their submissions. Contributors will see a final draft version of their piece before it runs for review.

• Once a piece is published, we promote it on our social media channels and in our email newsletter. We invite you to do the same.

• We ask that you don’t republish the piece in its entirety on your own blog, website, LinkedIn page, Facebook, etc. (Three to five paragraphs from the opening is fine, with a link to the piece on InnoLead.)

• Your piece will be freely accessible on our site for at least three months so that you (and we) can share your piece widely. After that, it will be freely accessible to anyone who registers for a trial account — not just IL members.

• We occasionally publish excerpts from newly-published or soon-to-be-published books that may be of interest to innovators in large organizations.

• Contact editor -at- innovationleader.com with ideas, or any other questions.

Sample Pieces:

• What are the Biggest Barries to Innovation?
• How Can You Stay Close to Customers Remotely?
• How Consumer Goods Companies Can Turn Everyday Users Into Influencers
• What I Wish I Knew Before Joining the Innovation Team
• The Demise of an Innovation Team: 5 Warning Signs
• Three Tips on Better Stakeholder Engagement from Nestlé’s Innovation Director
• How a Team at Intel Tackled a Big Challenge: Transforming Hiring and Work Habits
• Pfizer’s Daniel Seewald: Where Design Thinking Breaks Down—and How to Avoid It
• How We’re Building a Culture That Supports Innovation at Chick-fil-A
• Setting Up the Innovation ‘Shop’: Former Starbucks VP Shares Her Advice
• Achieving Innovation Balance: Advice from Cambia Health’s Chief Innovation Officer
• So You’re Trying to Innovate in a Heavily-Regulated Industry…
• Six Tips from Eastman Innovation Lab on Managing a Distributed Team
• Three Keys to Longevity for Corporate Venture Capital Groups
• Want to Win at Business Model Innovation? Put These Four Pillars in Place

Topics of Interest:

This is a list of topics based on our past surveys of the InnoLead community; it’s intended to spark or guide your thinking — but not limit it.

• How to spur cultural change / risk-taking
• Collaborating or staying connected with customers when you’re in hybrid work mode
• Case studies of successful launches… or testing things that didn’t ultimately work
• Spotting emerging technologies and disruptive trends
• Building and maintaining support from the CEO and other senior leaders
• Building communities / networks of innovators
• Metrics, reporting, dashboards
• Converting the innovation skeptics in your organization
• Co-creation with customers
• Operationalizing/rolling out successful projects into the business
• Governance and ideal organizational structure for innovation groups
• Interacting with startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem
• Co-creation with suppliers & business partners
• How traditional R&D organizations need to change
• Innovation to reduce costs and streamline operations
• Lean startup methodology
• Hiring / talent issues
• Training employees / running workshops
• Academic relationships & sponsoring university research
• Various models of innovation labs or initiatives by business type
• Internal, cross-divisional collaboration for innovation
• Incubation models
• Creating communities of practice
• Gaining organizational support for innovative methods
• Taking innovation beyond “just incremental”

Please reach out to editor@innovationleader.com with any questions.

(Featured image by Joyce McCown on Unsplash.)