The walking (digital) dead – A story of corporate innovation (episode 1)

Episode 1: Welcome to the magnificent corporate innovation theatre!

Corporations are a curious thing: On the one hand they’re really good at running their business, which is why they exist and where they make money. On the other hand, they want to innovate new business models, which is not why they exist and where they lose money… As the guys who make the money hold a stronger hand than the guys who lose the money, the guys making the money are the ones ultimately holding the chips. In other words: The legacy business decides over innovation.

Consequently, corporations suck at business model innovation (let alone; digital transformation).

Despite the simple truth stated above, innovation-thirsty corporations strangely seem to lack any kind of self-awareness regarding that reality.

Instead, they buy minority shares in startups, create innovation labs, do design workshops, have legions of agile coaches running around, run acceleration programs and – of course – let their senior managers hop on the silicon valley safari tour bus to watch those unicorns in their natural habitat.

However, all of those things are nothing else than homeopathy. Translate: They are cheap, the sugar -or alcohol- makes you feel good, and they totally lack any working ingredient. There is no empirical evidence whatsoever that any of the above has ever lead to a substantial innovation, and certainly not; a digital transformation. And yet, many people seem to believe in those things. This is what we call: The magnificent corporate innovation theatre.

Just look through your LinkedIn stream to watch all the episodes of this year’s season of the magnificent corporate innovation theatre

The show is hugely popular though, and it’s easy to see why: It’s an experience of unseen beauty and exotic charm for the corporate world.

The stage is equipped with all the latest tech gadgets. Glaring spotlights are pointing to “disruptions” happening in every corner of the set. Actors wearing beards, T-shirts and sneakers are running around the stage waving colourful little papers, which they stick to the walls.

Every now and then some actors scream “innovation!” and show off a body, newly created from cardboard. They give the body some fantasy name with either too many vowels or too little (such as Valuu, Siroop or Immmr) and hold it into the PR spotlight. Then, some actors move the body around from behind -like a huge puppet- to make it appear alive as if it were a real thing.

If the overall business of a corporation would continue to be doing great, this show could go on forever. However, the guys who used to make the money, make less and less of it. Therefore, money to splash out is getting scarcer.

And this is because in the outside reality a totally different story is unfolding: It’s the first winds of the storm of the century, that are starting to loom and rattle the theatres. In plain English:

What we’re experiencing is the beginnings of a full fledged industrial revolution – maybe the most fundamental one ever, and maybe the final one.

To be continued...

The next episode will be published here next week.

If you don't want to wait, you can read the full season on stryber.com.

Meanwhile...

Get in touch directly if you're interested in hearing our take on "digital transformation".

About the author: Jan Sedlacek is a serial entrepreneur, former strategy consultant and former corporate manager. He is currently co-founder and partner at Stryber, a strategic portfolio builder that helps to build resilience against the industrial revolution.