Companies spend a lot on innovation.

According to strategy consultancy Strategy&, the one thousand largest publicly listed corporate R&D spenders amassed a total of US$701B on R&D in 2017. Furthermore, research firm IDC predicted a US$1.2 trillion spend on digital transformation technologies worldwide in 2017. That spend alone is more than Australia’s gross national product.

This doesn’t even account for culture change and capability lifting initiatives that companies are embarking on to help them better navigate change.

So, that’s a lot of money that organisations are spending on innovation and transformation. But, is it... enough?

Let’s park the fact that 84% of digital transformation projects fail for a minute.

Long ago, in his genre defining book Good To Great, Jim Collins reminded us that in order to be great, companies need to start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.

The problem with many corporate innovation initiatives at the moment is that the wrong people are on the bus and they’re distracting the driver.

When might your organisation’s innovation investment be at risk? Do any of the following sound familiar?

• People default to “I’m so busy” whenever asked how they are
• People watch the clock
• People are more concerned with how much they get paid instead of the nature of their work
• People are always looking to do as little work as possible
• People’s values aren’t aligned with the organisation's
• People have other priorities (such as getting home early to sit in front of the television)

You can’t get a large company to hustle the way a startup does without hustlers.

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