Recommendations to the boards (from Radical Innovation and Growth - Global Board Survey 2016)

1. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
   There is no sign of the digital transformation taking a break. We see an increased pace at which disruptive technologies are being brought into the business world and thus all players are in the discomfort zone to stay par with competitors or to outinnovate them. The board's new role is to play proactively on this field. Radical innovation is the board's new growth horse, and it needs exercise, feed, grooming and perhaps a skilled horse whispers not to lose its winning power. 
2. Raise the risk assessment of uncertain technologies
   Of course an element of the discomfort zone is the risk of failure. There will likely be money sunk before any big breakthrough. But do we have a choice?  Here is a quote from Chairman of KMD, Board of Schneider Electric SA, Steria and PlaNet Finance Léo Apotheker "... Risk appetite requires better risk assessment of uncertain technologies and their equally uncertain impact on business". 
3. Broaden the board's insight to building of new revenue streams
   Executive training, study tours abroad, increase of gender diversity and hire new recruits are all good initiatives and often needed to broaden the insight and skillset of the board. But, we also suggest experimentation. Take the chance and build wholly new revenue streams on the edge of the organization. Start at small scale and learn before stepping up to taking big bets. Treat each and every idea passionately like a start-up would and man this division with people freed from the pull of the past, the corporate legacy and complicated internal politics. Let this group report bi-monthly to the responsible board director and use a venture capitalist's assessment to determine whether to keep or kill. This is the recipe for orchestrating a successful Division-X.
4. Let your Division-X drive your growth
   Your evolving experiments are kept in pendulum between the board and Division-X until you need to build a real business and commercialize the new products and services. The edge business (dark green) might cannibalize the core (light green) but following the exponential curve (dotted), the edge business progressively becomes the core as it takes over in size and importance.
   
   
5. Add diverse competencies
   Diversity is a buzzword. Diversity in cognitive styles, in perspectives, in interpretations, in heuristics and in predictive models are all evidenced as impacting the creative and innovative process. You need heterogeneity in the right places of the organization, ie. where innovation is anchored and takes place. However, it is equally important that the collective competencies among the board directors mirror the variety of competencies throughout the organization, and that calls for a much greater board recruiting span than has been the norm historically. You need more age-spread, more internationalization, better gender balance, greater cross-cultural  understanding, and not least competence diversity to drive your future business. 

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