Three innovation blindspots leadership don't see.

Christopher. S. Sellers
Apr 30
2 min read

You have the team. You have the resources. You have the vision. You have the culture. Still for some reason, your innovation output isn't reaching expectations.

It's not just you.

$2.5 trillion is invested into R&D globally -- and less than 10% of Leadership are satisfied with their innovation output -- so what's missing from your innovation process?

Having consulted cross-industry for over 15 years, three deeply embedded challenges handicap corporate innovation, challenges that leadership need to admit to, else will continue to repeat the same mistakes.

Christopher S. Sellers - International thought leader on creativity.

1. CREATIVE VALIDATION

90% of startups fail. $256 billion was lost in 2023.

But the real insight is behind the data: 90% of funded start-ups fail -- this demonstrates how weak ideas overwhelmingly receive investment, where high-value ideas are missed.

These are issues of decision-making and idea validation.

2. CREATIVE SKILLS

Teams lack the creative skills to consistently generate high-value ideas.

McKinsey reports: "Over 90% of executives report being unsatisfied with their organisations’ innovation performance".

3. CREATIVE INSIGHT

Data reports on the traffic. Insight identifies Uber.

Creative insight; the ability to interpret data in different contexts, enables you to draw out unique value that competitors don't see; this is how you design disruption.

Leadership should be aware how these traits silently compound to handicap your innovation potential.

1. SKILLS + INSIGHT (WITHOUT VALIDATION) = GREAT IDEAS ARE IGNORED

Jobs and Wozniak while working at Atari, pitched Apple computers to the CEO only to be rejected. Then while Wozniak was at Hewlett-Packard, they pitched five times, and were rejected each time.

Either Atari or HP could have owned Apple and retained Jobs and Wozniak as talent -- instead, a lack of creative validation in leadership saw this high-value idea go astray and the rest is history.

2. INSIGHT + VALIDATION (WITHOUT SKILLS) = RELYING ON LUCK

Anyone can get lucky with one good idea; Apple is successful because they were more than a one-hit-wonder.

From the Macintosh to the Ipod, to the Macbook to the Iphone, Apple grew by being consistently proactive and prolific in their innovation and leading with creative, original designs.

3. SKILLS + VALIDATION (WITHOUT INSIGHT) = 1% IMPROVEMENTS

1% incremental innovation is nice and safe in theory -- in reality it is slow and inefficient.

Apple's iPod wasn't a 1% improvement on the Sony Discman -- it was a creative redesign from the ground up that resulted in "1000 songs in your pocket".

Creative validation. Creative skills. Creative insight.

Align all three and you have the potential to disrupt, lead and capitalise with original high-value innovation.

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