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An Alternative Approach to Innovation with a Global Head of Innovation of HSBC

CONNECT CFO UK

Solutions | Strategy | Connection - An executive community dedicated to senior Finance leaders.

发布日期: 2022年4月11日

Innovation. We all want to engage in it. Since 2020, the need and appetite has increased almost exponentially. Steve Suarez, Global Head of Innovation for Global Functions at HSBC described how large corporations can innovate using the power of community.??

Responding to the issue of legacy institutions finding innovation difficult, Steve immediately had this to say: “What’s the alternative? Not innovating?” He continues, “Innovation is no longer a nice to have, it’s mandatory. We’re constantly adapting to evolving business norms and innovation is key to success in that endeavour. But it also presents opportunities.”?

At HSBC, Steve was able to harness the immense knowledge and power of over 200,000 employees to create a community that was more than happy to give up their free time to engage in innovative projects, even if it wasn’t part of their core responsibilities. “The appetite to innovate was massive,” Steve explains “people also learned that innovation means experimenting and it’s more than just coming up with ideas.”?

To make sure that great projects don’t just get stuck in the “idea phase”, Steve was able to point to some key success factors. One of which was creating an “open innovation ecosystem”. “You can’t centralise innovation. Everyone has to be involved.” In this ecosystem, innovation leaders have to give people psychological safety: “Let people experiment and expect failure. Create sandboxes so you don’t experiment operationally – then develop the ideas that work”.??

You won’t be successful if you don’t communicate, however. You have to still involve the beneficiaries of your innovation. Steve concludes: “Silos stop ideas from leaving the think tank. If nobody knows about the assets you’ve created for their benefit, they don’t exist!”??

With the pace of change showing no signs of slowing and noisy disruptors beating their chest louder than ever, it’s vital that businesses adopt new ideas. And great ideas can come out of nowhere. If you can tap into your employees’ creativity and desire to make an impact, you might have found another way of creating competitive advantage.??