Saul Kaplan: Innovation in the Boardroom

I had the pleasure of speaking at the 2013 Amplify Festival in Australia.  Now that my jetlag has subsided I’m able to reflect on what was a wonderful event hosted by AMP, a leading financial services company in Australia.  Congratulations to AMP and Annalie Killian, the festival’s remarkable curator, for catalyzing a week overflowing with inspiration and insight. More companies should consider hosting similar innovation immersion events open to employees and the local community.  It was an easy invitation to accept for this innovation junkie. They had me at the event’s theme, Shift Happened Transformation Required!

One of the highlights of my trip down under was meeting Lucy Marcus, provocateur and global expert on corporate governance best practices. Lucy is a force of nature in and out of the boardroom and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversations on the oversight role of the board of directors for a company’s innovation agenda.  We agreed that the board of directors has an important role to play and Lucy asked me to appear on her ‘In The Boardroom’ show on Reuters TV to share my top five board innovation imperatives for the board. The short video of our conversation below also serves as proof that we actually were in Australia. Check out the Sydney Harbor in the background!

5 Innovation Imperatives: Inside The Boardroom

1) Get below the buzzwords: Ensure clear and specific innovation objectives.

2) Business models don’t last as long as they used to: Enable R&D for new business models.

3) Make business model innovation a standing boardroom agenda item.

4) Bring the voice and experience of the customer into the boardroom.

5) Get out of the boardroom more: Enable more random collisions of unusual suspects.