Insights

InnoLead case studies, interviews, book excerpts, and contributed columns.

Insights

Is Your Company Sabotaging Projects by Using the Wrong Evaluation Criteria?

"In most companies, financial metrics are the default language for decision-making on core business innovation projects," writes Noel Sobelman in the new book Innovation Portfolio Management. Unfortunately, "projecting ROI when entering brand-new territory with no history to draw on is, at best, guesswork," he says. Here's his advice.
Noel Sobelman · Sep 11, 2026
Insights

Deploying AI at $28B Sun Life Financial: Learnings So Far

InnoLead interviews Sun Life exec Laura Money about how she prioritizes AI projects; some of the concrete outcomes they’re seeing so far; and why Sun Life has joined other Canadian companies to form the AI Consortium.

Nicole Lewis · Aug 31, 2026
Insights

How to Think About Startup Engagement in 2026

In a session at the most recent Impact conference last month, we looked at some of the reasons why it might make sense to partner with a startup rather doing everything in-house — and a few metrics and indicators that can let you know whether or not your approach is working.

Chris Varley · Jul 27, 2026
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Rewiring the Way R&D Organizations Think

R&D teams tend to understand their products with precision — but not always the people those products are designed for. Deirdre Walters explains how to address that…

Deirdre Walters · Jul 6, 2026
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Why Digital Transformation Still Gets Stuck Inside Large Organizations

When digital transformation gets stuck, the reason is rarely a lack of technology, writes Marcus East. More often, new technology is being added to organizations that still operate through outdated systems, rigid structures, and old assumptions about how work should get done.

Marcus East · Jul 1, 2026
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Five Steps That Make Change Easier

In this excerpt from the new book How Change Really Work, the authors caution that “take up” of change and new ideas among your colleagues is never automatic, but must be earned. Then they present five steps for earning it.

Julia Dhar, Kristy Ellmer, and and Philip Jameson write · Jun 12, 2026
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Strategic Innovation Demands an Investment Thesis

To survive in an environment where average business model lifespans have collapsed, corporate innovators must move from unstructured ideation to the rigorous discipline of successful venture capitalists, write Ranjan Dash and Suresh Chandran

Ranjan Dash · May 26, 2026
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Why Innovation Can’t Happen Without Playfulness

Innovation can’t exist in a culture that doesn’t allow for playfulness, says Piera Gelardi, author of the new book The Playful Way. Yet the environment in many workplaces today is shaped by plenty of non-playful dynamics. So what do you do?

Scott Kirsner · May 13, 2026
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How to Survive the ‘Stakeholder Spiral’

Every project in a big organization projects attract layers of stakeholders, each with their own interests, fears, and mental models. In this excerpt from his new book, Misha de Sterk offers advice on managing that dynamic.

Misha de Sterk · Mar 26, 2026
Insights

Stop Explaining — and Start Building More Prototypes

Because the cost of “making it real” has dropped to near zero, you can stop prototyping just the “best” idea, writes Todd Reily. Instead, you can prototype a whole portfolio of potential solutions.

Todd Reily · Mar 17, 2026
Insights

How to Know if You’re AI Obsessed… or AI Enabled

“People react in two ways to Gen AI,” writes Mohan Nair in his latest book. “One is what I call AI-afraid, and the second is AI-obsessed.” The third way is learning how to be AI-enabled.

Mohan Nair · Feb 12, 2026
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Software Provider Profile: Qmarkets

Qmarkets helps large organizations move beyond fragmented innovation initiatives and deliver measurable business impact at scale. Built for the realities of enterprise innovation, the platform enables organizations to manage innovation end to end, from early exploration to execution and impact tracking.

Scott Kirsner · Jan 23, 2026
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Inside the Innovation Process at LEGO’s Creative Play Lab

Tom Donaldson, Head of the Creative Play Lab at the LEGO Group, discusses the company’s culture; his belief in the importance of prototyping and “silent demos”; and how the company measures innovation.

Scott Kirsner · Dec 8, 2025
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Is AI a Bubble… or a Massive Opportunity?

Rana el Kaliouby talks about how she defines human-centric AI; how vibe coding is being used in large organizations; the sci-fi movie “Her”; and her biggest concerns about the AI age.

Scott Kirsner · Dec 1, 2025
Insights

The 10 Best Anti-Innovation Quotes: Hollywood Edition

With the holiday movie-going season upon us, we assembled a list of anti-innovation quotes from notable Hollywood executives, inventors, and directors — just to show that no industry is without its nay-sayers who can rationally explain why change will never come.

Scott Kirsner · Nov 24, 2025
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How Google X Works to Systematize Innovation

Helen Riley of Google X talks about the organization’s mission; several current projects; how they deal with failure; and their efforts to systematize innovation.

Scott Kirsner · Nov 19, 2025
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Success Factors: Insights from the 2025 Impact Award Winners

During a session at the 2025 Impact conference in Boston last month, five leaders from organizations that won Impact Awards shared how they are using artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to produce measurable business impact.

Scott Kirsner · Nov 12, 2025
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Using AI to Support Innovation (and Iteration) at ServiceNow

Since its founding in 2004, Silicon Valley-based ServiceNow has been all about automating business workflows. So in the current AI era, the $11 billion company is focused on how various types of AI will support that automation. And often, ServiceNow’s own employees are “customer zero” for new offerings — early adopters for the products and services it builds.

Dawn Kawamoto · Oct 15, 2025
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11 AI Trends for Healthcare Heading into 2026

Healthcare AI trends according to the Mayo Clinic, Oracle, UCLA Health, and a former partner at Mass General Brigham’s AI and Digital Innovation Fund.

Scott Kirsner · Oct 1, 2025
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How ADP is Prioritizing AI Initiatives

With annual revenues of nearly $21 billion, the human resources software and services is looking to artificial intelligence to help it maintain — and build on — an already strong position in the market. We talk to the company’s Chief Product and AI Officer.

Nicole Lewis · Sep 15, 2025
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Is Your Company an ‘AI Scaler’?

According to Anna James, Research & Operations Lead at Asana’s Work Innovation Lab, companies that qualify as “AI scalers” are approaching AI as a new kind of infrastructure that is not optional to build. Here’s our interview…

Rachel Curry · Aug 13, 2025
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Coding with GenAI: The Current Landscape

From Claude to Lovable to Windsurf, we take a look at the current market for “codegen” tools that can create software from scratch. What’s the ROI and what are the risks of using them?

Curtis Michelson · Aug 11, 2025
Insights

How Berlin’s Airport Got an AI Customer Service Agent Off the Ground

The AI-based customer service agent Melli has reduced waiting time from several minutes to zero, increased the number of languages offered, and has an 85 percent approval rating from customers. Here’s what the Berlin Airport has in store for the second phase of the project.

Dawn Kawamoto · Jul 31, 2025
Insights

With Bee Acquisition, Amazon Makes a Big Play in AI Wearables

This week, news broke that Amazon had acquired Bee, an AI wearables startup best known for a $50 wristband and companion app that records and transcribes nearly everything a user (and anyone within earshot) says. Here’s our take on what it means…

Curtis Michelson · Jul 25, 2025
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How Norfolk Southern is Using AI to Help ‘Move the US Economy’

Norfolk Southern is investing in artificial intelligence to reshape how it moves freight across its 28,000-mile rail network. And one of the people driving that train is Mabby Amouie, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Data and Analytics, who oversees the company’s AI strategy — from making use of sensor data to deploying machine learning models that optimize safety and efficiency. Here’s our in-depth interview…

Nicole Lewis · Jul 23, 2025
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How Atlassian is Deploying AI Agents and Measuring Their Impact

The world of AI agents is still evolving, but Atlassian, a collaboration software company headquartered in Sydney, Australia, has been putting agents to work for more than a year, and offering agentic AI technology to customers since April. We talk to Shihab Hamid, Head of Product for Rovo Agents at Atlassian, about what they can do.

Rachel Curry · Jul 7, 2025
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Inside Look: Chobani Relaunches a Protein-Packed Yogurt Drink

Over the past year, Thierry Saint Denis, Senior Vice President of Research and Development for Chobani, led a yogurt relaunch proving less is more in innovation. Saint Denis recently spoke to InnoLead about the product relaunch and its impact on the company.

Dawn Kawamoto · Jun 5, 2025
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GE Vernova Exec on the Nuts and Bolts of Building Strategic Alliances

We talk to GE Vernova’s Chief Corporate Officer Roger Martella about how the company is forging strategic alliances — from a $50 million partnership with MIT that fuels research and talent development to global collaborations aimed at expanding energy access and advancing decarbonization.

Rachel Curry · Jun 2, 2025
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From ROI to Readiness: What Enterprise AI Leaders Keep Getting Wrong

At the KPMG 2025 Boston AI Executive Accelerator, one thing became clear. Most enterprise AI programs are being evaluated with the wrong lens. Executives are chasing short-term validation when they should be designing for long-term advantage.

Sue Liang · May 27, 2025
Insights

How the US Dept. of Defense is Making Open Innovation Work

The OnRamp program at the US Military’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) got started in 2023 as an effort to lower the barriers for non-traditional technology companies that wanted to work with the Department of Defense (DoD) — but weren’t already suppliers. We talk with Cassie Muffley, Acting Director of the OnRamp Hub Program.

Curtis Michelson · May 19, 2025
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Book Excerpt: Secrets of Stakeholder Whispering

“Stakeholder Whispering requires identifying your stakeholders,” writes Bill Shander. “But it is also about making sure your stakeholders identify and recognize (and prioritize) their stakeholders.” Read our exclusive excerpt…

Bill Shander · May 12, 2025
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Key Takeaways from the Momentum AI Conference in New York

If there was a universal takeaway from this week’s Momentum AI conference in New York, it was this: AI literacy is now the new baseline for competitive advantage. Here’s our dispatch from the event…

Sue Liang · Apr 30, 2025
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From Seed to Scale: Advice on Building Successful Startup Partnerships

The former Head of Business Technology at ServiceTitan, Pranav Shahi, shares his framework for evaluating new technologies, structuring startup pilots, and scaling innovation with measurable business impact. He also explores how enterprises can engage with emerging tech while maintaining commercial discipline.

Paulina Karpis · Apr 30, 2025
Insights

Workiva CIO: GenAI Creates a ‘New Kind of Change Management Challenge’

As CIO of Workiva, Kim Huffman leads enterprise technology strategy with a focus on innovation, scalability, and responsible AI. In this conversation, Huffman outlines her three-pillar framework for evaluating startup partnerships, her four-part approach to AI governance, and the evolving role of the CIO as a business strategist.

Paulina Karpis · Apr 23, 2025
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Innovation in the Services Industry: Inside $3B White & Case

Isabel Parker joined White & Case as Chief Innovation Officer in 2024. She now leads global innovation efforts at the $3.2 billion firm. We spoke with her about building a culture of innovation, integrating GenAI into legal services, and how the firm balances bold experimentation with responsible AI use.

Scott Cohen · Apr 21, 2025
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