A few weeks ago, we hosted our Geneva Innovation Exchange. For one whole day innovation leaders from organizations spanning logistics, manufacturing, infrastructure, retail, financial services, and public sector sat at the same space, shared their experiences openly, challenged each other’s assumptions, and compared notes on what is actually working inside their organizations today (no wonder we needed some drinks after 🙂 ).
As someone fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with innovation leaders around the world, these gatherings are always fascinating. Not only because of the presentations and shared knowledge. Because of the conversations that happen between them. The questions during breaks. The debates over lunch. The “we’re struggling with exactly the same thing” moments, a second after trying to convince that “with us it’s different”.
And Geneva delivered plenty of those.
As always, one thing remains unchanged – and that’s despite operating in completely different industries, many participants were wrestling with remarkably similar challenges. Not how to generate ideas or additional intake. Not how to convince leadership that innovation matters. Those battles have largely been won. The conversation has moved on.
The real challenge now is turning innovation activity into measurable impact and everyone felt it!
The Shift From Activity to Impact (And Why Many Teams Aren’t There Yet)
One of the most revealing moments of the event didn’t come from a presentation at all.
Using our new SessionFlows collaborative workshop tool, we asked participants to identify and prioritize the KPIs they believe innovation teams should track. We then prioritized those results with what they believed executive leadership actually cares about.
The gap was impossible to ignore.
While innovation leaders increasingly talk about impact, many are still operating and reporting through an activity lens. Participation. Ideas submitted. Campaign engagement. Users by region.
Useful metrics? Absolutely. Executive metrics? Not necessarily.
What became clear during the discussion is that many innovation teams are still struggling to translate their work into the language of business outcomes. The challenge isn’t simply choosing better KPIs. It’s understanding what questions leadership is actually trying to answer.
Executives rarely wake up wondering how many ideas were submitted last quarter. They want to know:
- Are we breaking organizational silos?
- Are we improving operational efficiency?
- Are we accelerating strategic priorities?
- Are we diversifying our innovation investments?
- Are we creating measurable business value?
- Are we reducing risk and increasing future readiness?
Ironically, many innovation programs are already generating data that helps answer those questions. The problem is how that information is communicated.
Showing participation by region is activity. Showing that cross-functional collaboration increased by 40% and led to broader adoption of successful initiatives is business value.
Reporting the number of ideas submitted is activity. Demonstrating how those ideas contributed to cost reduction, revenue growth, customer experience improvements, or strategic objectives is impact.
The conversation also surfaced something I encounter regularly in discussions with innovation teams. Many teams spend significant effort defining innovation metrics without first asking a more fundamental question: “What is leadership actually expecting us to achieve?”
What is the mandate? How does the executive team define success? What are they personally being measured against?
Without those answers, innovation teams risk optimizing for metrics that look impressive internally but fail to resonate with the people responsible for funding and supporting the program.
Perhaps the next maturity leap for innovation management isn’t better dashboards. It’s becoming fluent in the language of business outcomes.
AI Isn’t the Story. Context Is.
Of course, no innovation gathering in 2026 would be complete without discussing AI. But what I appreciated most about the conversations in Geneva was that they largely avoided both extremes.
Nobody was claiming AI would magically solve innovation. Nobody was dismissing it either.
Instead, the discussion became much more practical. First, by re-framing the challenge. It’s not a technical challenge, it’s a major innovation challenge that should be managed on organizational level in order to scale.
Then, by tackling some practical questions re the “how” –
How do we make sense of the overwhelming amount of information available to us? How do we connect trends, ideas, projects, startups, technologies, and business priorities? How do we help teams focus on what actually matters?
The emerging challenge isn’t lack of information. It’s making sense of it and maximizing the potential from our best asset – our innovation portfolio.
The organizations moving fastest are not necessarily the ones generating the most data. They’re the ones becoming better at connecting the dots.
Why Innovation Leaders Need to Zoom Out
During the event, I shared a story about one of my favorite childhood books: Zoom. Each page reveals a larger picture than the one before it. Just when you think you understand the scene, the perspective changes again.
I’ve always loved that concept because it mirrors what innovation leaders experience every day. We often spend our time focused on individual ideas, projects, campaigns, trends, or technologies. But real insight frequently emerges only when we step back and see how those pieces connect.
The most successful innovation teams are increasingly behaving less like campaign managers and more like portfolio managers. They’re looking across initiatives. Across business units. Across geographies. Across trends. Across time horizons.
They’re zooming out before deciding where to zoom in. and most importantly – they’re directly connected to the company strategy no matter the resolution.
A Kind of Reality Check – Innovation Is Still a People Discipline
One theme kept resurfacing throughout the event. For all the discussions around AI, foresight, and emerging technologies, the foundations of successful innovation remain surprisingly consistent.
Swiss Post’s experience illustrated this well. Despite operating one of the largest innovation ecosystems represented at the event, their success still comes down to strong sponsorship, clear structures, continuous communication, feedback, transparency and community building.
What struck me is that time and time again similar lessons appeared across different organizations and industries.
In a world obsessed with the latest AI breakthrough, it was a refreshing reminder that innovation is still fundamentally a people discipline. and organizational challenge.
Technology helps scaling. Processes are must. But sustainable innovation remains surprisingly human.
Perhaps the Most Encouraging Takeaway
What left me most optimistic wasn’t any single presentation. It was the people in the room.
Innovation leaders continue to demonstrate a remarkable willingness to learn, challenge assumptions, and adapt to change. It’s part of what makes great innovation teams so effective in the first place.
This matters because the environment around them is changing rapidly. AI, new technologies, shifting business priorities, and growing pressure to demonstrate impact are creating challenges that shouldn’t be underestimated.
Yet if there was one thing Geneva reinforced for me, it’s that the strongest innovation teams aren’t standing still and hoping these changes will pass. They’re actively trying to understand them, experiment with them, and determine how to create value from them.
The future of innovation will undoubtedly look different than it does today. But after spending two days with this community, I’m convinced that the organizations that continue to stay curious, adapt quickly, and keep learning from one another will be the ones best positioned to thrive.
And if the discussions in Geneva are any indication, the future belongs to organizations that can move beyond collecting ideas, connect the dots across increasingly complex ecosystems, and turn innovation into a repeatable engine for business impact.
Ready to move from innovation activity to measurable impact? See how our impact-driven innovation software helps teams connect the dots across their portfolio and prove business value.
