The document lists 50 common mistakes that corporate innovation teams should avoid. It is organized into several sections covering mistakes related to innovation culture and mindset, strategy, metrics, organizational structure, resourcing, human resources, ideation, methodologies, and knowledge. Some key mistakes mentioned include senior executives dictating solutions without input, failing to define what innovation means for the organization, using traditional metrics like ROI that don't capture learnings from disruptive innovation, and not providing adequate funding or resources to pursue ideas generated through initiatives like hackathons.

1. 50 Common
Mistakes
Corporate
Innovation Teams
Should Avoid
COLLECTIVE
CAMPUS

2. When it comes to corporate
innovation - each organisation
is different and there is no silver
bullet - but still,we can stand on
the shoulders of giants and
learn not to make these
mistakes which can, with a little
TLC…
…be easily avoided in order to
not only cut the cost of making
these mistakes, but increase our
chances of success in delivering
new commercially successful
innovations to market.
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3. #1 Senior executives dictate what the answers
are and what products need to be built - without
input from employees, partners, customers or
members of the general public
#2 Misaligned communication and incentives
across an organization
#3 Beginning with a ‘what is’ constraint based
mindset instead of ‘what if’ resulting in narrowly
defined, unadventurous and easily replicated
incremental improvements
INNOVATION CULTURE & MINDSET MISTAKES
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4. INNOVATION CULTURE & MINDSET MISTAKES
#4 Trying to tackle innovation through
isolated initiatives instead holistically.
#5 Separating innovation initiatives from the
mainstream - no integration with core
businessunits.
#6 Not effectively defining whatthe
organisation’s definition of innovation is
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5. #7 Applying Horizon 1 policies, systems and
values to Horizon 3 innovation
#8 Not determining a theme and criteria for
idea contests, subsequently receiving
hundreds of disjointed ideas of varying
quality - the majority of which receive can not
be evaluated effectively
#9 Not effectively defining the objectives of an
innovation program and the type of innovation
that is sought (i.e. incremental, adjacent or
disruptive - H1, H2 or H3)
INNOVATION STRATEGY MISTAKES
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6. #10 Not tying innovation strategy with
corporate strategy
#11 Using traditional metrics based on
dollars such as ROI, IRR and NPV are used
to measure success, despite the fact that
Horizon 3 and disruptive innovation
requires innovation metrics based on
learnings - Read More
INNOVATION STRATEGY MISTAKES
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7. #12 Acquiring startups with and integrating
them into the bureaucracy and systems of the
mothership, ultimately killing them - Read
More
#13 Investing in technology without
addressing the underlying business model
#14 Not investing because the market for a
new innovation or technology isn’t large
enough
#15 Ignoring technologies that aren’t good
enough for existing customers
INNOVATION METRICS MISTAKES
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8. #16 Engaging startups to speed up innovation but
not aligning internal processes to support this
speed (eg. long, drawn out procurement processes
when engaging startups, not making key people
available to support startup testing and cadence,
etc.)
#17 Engaging only large incumbent consultants
with a large, slow moving cost base to support
innovation efforts inhibiting the ability to move
quickly and take lots of small bets
#18 Not investing in new technologies or
innovations because initial revenue projections
won’t support the achievement of short term
growth metrics
INNOVATION METRICS MISTAKES
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9. #19 Not having a direct reporting line from
innovation teams to the C-Suite or senior
management
#20 Having an innovation team which is not
integrated with other business units and/or the
wider organisation
#21 Silos - business units not effectively
sharing knowledge or talking to each for the
purposes of innovation, especially marketing
and different product divisions - competition
across business units can also inhibit innovation
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE MISTAKES
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10. #22 No funding is made available to pursue ideas
post a hackathon or idea contest - Read More
#23 People are not given time off to participate in
hackathons and other innovation initiatives
#24 Selected ideas are not given time to incubate
learnings and are withdrawn early based on ROI not
being sufficient, instead of looking at innovation
metrics such as learnings - Read More
#25 Pulling human resources from projects when
competing interests arise
#26 Not having a process in place to capture
knowledge from innovation programs centrally and
leverage it effectively across the organisation
RESOURCING & INFRASTRUCTURE MISTAKES
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11. #27 Selection criteria used to recruit people to
innovation programs is often flawed and favours
Horizon 1 ‘avoid failure at all cost’ personalities, but
not Horizon 3 ‘embrace ambiguity and experiment
rapidly’ personalities
#28 Creating innovation roles that are purely ‘part
time’, signaling that innovation is not a serious
priority
#29 Hiring new employees based on traditional
Horizon 1 competencies and skill-sets
#30 Not updating performance reviews and KPIs to
align with innovation objectives
HR MISTAKES
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12. #31 People who vote on ideas as part of an
idea contest do so without any knowledge of
innovation theory - often resulting in contests
amounting to popularity contests and one’s
abilities to market the idea internally
#32 Insufficient guidance is provided to staff
around ideation of initial ideas
#33 Ideas for progression are selected by
senior executives only and based on flawed
criteria such as short term ROI potential
IDEATION & HACKATHON MISTAKES
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13. #34 Feedback is not given to people who submit
ideas to an idea contest, subsequently resulting in
disgruntled employees brandishing innovation
initiatives nothing more than ‘theatre’
#35 There is no mechanism in place to build upon
ideas in an idea contest
#36 Hackathons focus purely on building things,
not on validating make or break assumptions
underlying a business mode
#37 Running hackathons without a strong mix of
people with diverse skills and experiences - limiting
breadth and depth of outcomes
IDEATION & HACKATHON MISTAKES
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14. #38 Middle management are not trained in
nor incentivised to take part in innovation
programs
#39 Confusing the adoption of technology
with being innovative
#40 Thinking that disruptive innovation is
simply filling existing and visible customer
needs
#41 Teaching people methodologies such as
lean startup but not addressing the
underlying culture, systems and processes
that inhibit the application of lean startup
principles - Read More
METHODOLOGY & KNOWLEDGE MISTAKES
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15. #42 Running focus groups to support brainstorming
and market research with people who are paid to
participate
#43 Asking focus group participants whether they
would pay for something without actually having to
demonstrate this behaviour
#44 Asking focus group participants leading yes/no
questions which results in false validation of
hypotheses
#45 Staff are not trained in innovation theory, design
thinking or lean startup principles, yet are expected to
act and move like startups
METHODOLOGY & KNOWLEDGE MISTAKES
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16. #46 Not getting out of the building - internal
brainstorming and a lack of customer focus
#47 Thinking that a startup is just a small
version of a big company
#48 Thinking that a large company is just a
big version of a startup
#49 Thinking that digitising broken offline
processes is innovation
#50 Trying to sell and experiment with
existing customers
METHODOLOGY & KNOWLEDGE MISTAKES
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