161
174 162
175 163
176 164
177 165
178 166
179 167
180 168
181 169
182 170
183 171
184 172
185 173
186 174
187 175
188 177
189 178
190 179
191 181
192 183
193 184
194 185
195 186
196 187
197 188
198 189
199 190
200 191
Acknowledgments
Many people helped make Fearless Innovation a reality. I could never have made it on my own this far without the support of my mentors and “co-conspirators” who pushed me to accomplish more than I have ever imagined.
Throughout my career, I’ve worked for truly unique leaders, such as Gerald T. Halpin, Chris Thompson, Paul Stark, Ronald Acra, Hina Patel, Brent Wahl, Venkat Narayanan, David Ward, and Gene Hall. I want to thank all of them for supporting my aspirations, and helping me discover and develop my true potential. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Maciej Kranz for encouraging me to pursue what’s possible, including writing this book.
When it comes to changing culture, most of my work would be impossible without the courage, leadership, and perseverance of Mathilde Durvy, who partnered with me to take employee innovation programs to new levels and to then establish them as the best in the industry. I am also fortunate to be surrounded by fearless trailblazers who always inspire me to change the status quo. I am indebted to Jenn Loftin, who always proved that innovation can indeed blossom when supported by the right structure, discipline, and governance. My special gratitude goes to Anna Gnatyuk and Jenny Agustin for believing in me and joining me on this innovation adventure. I am lucky to have amazing friends and co-workers who have supported me through my journey-thank you Olga Beregovaya, Lindy Bartell, Miroslav Sarbaev, John Parello, Michael Maltese, Wayne Cuervo, Andrey Kozlov, Gulia Trombini, Marc Musgrove, Simon Gladin, Masha Finkelstein, Dave Maslana, Chris Melching, Mikhail Pakhomov, Roman Kostin, Alex Hills, Irina Kosinovsky, Zhenya Kurts, Flora Freitas, Tatyana Rudchenko, Yuri Naumov, Guillaume De Saint Marc, Marina Velednitsky, Tom Kneen, Elena Ropaeva, Nick Chrissos, Yelena Denisova, Peter Shearman, Vadim Stepanchenko, Boris Fomitchev, Oseas Ramirez Assad and Cayla Young.
Wendy Khentigan and Marla Flores Reves deserve special recognition for helping me focus on what’s important in my life, which made writing this book much more joyful and rewarding.
Finally, none of this would have possible without the help of my family, most importantly my wife, Maria, and my son, Matthew. Words cannot express how much I appreciate Maria’s and Matthew’s encouragement, understanding, support, and pure unconditional love. I am also grateful to my parents, Yuri and Tamara, and my sister, Julia, who has always inspired me to seek change and adventure over safety and comfort.
The task of turning this book into reality is shared by so many people, which includes tremendous support from Mark Nelson, Mat Miller, and Zachary Schisgal, Vicki Adang, Amy Handy, Jocelyn Kwiatkowski, and Jenny Douglas. Scott Kirsner, cofounder and editor of Innovation Leader magazine, graciously provided invaluable guidance and archival resources that were essential in researching this book.
And last, but not least, I am grateful to Zach Gajewski, the most amazing editor in the world, who spent countless hours with me bringing this book to life.
Introduction: From Buzzword to Reality
Innovation is a horrible word.
The term has become so buzzy, it seems to have lost all practical meaning. Ask a hundred people to define it and you’ll receive just as many different answers. And, you know what? All of these answers might be right—or they might be wrong.
This is, in part, due to the fact that discussions about the topic are everywhere today. If you actually google “What is innovation?” you will receive nearly half a million results, and according to Google Trends, the number of search requests for news related to “innovation” tripled between 2014 and 2019.1 Not a day goes by without another dozen articles, blog posts, or think pieces on the concept, highlighting how we all need to be more innovative and showcasing the latest process and methodology that should be immediately adopted. We read, listen, and try to keep up, looking for clarity and some type of real-world application of what is seen as a squishy subject with no end.
Today, 63 percent of companies are hiring chief innovation officers, and more than 90 percent of companies are implementing new tech to support innovation processes.2 Sure, that’s great, but there’s a problem here: despite the obvious growth of demand for “innovation,” we remain utterly confused about the concept. In the meantime, most leaders believe that dropping the word into a shareholder letter from time to time or mentioning it at a quarterly employee all-hands meeting is enough to prove that they’re on top of the trend. Let me let you in on a little secret: they’re not.
Many of these organizations relegate innovation to one very special team somewhere in the “hip” part of the office, featuring free snacks and “edgy” motivational posters, and they think they’ve done their job—innovation is enabled; time to celebrate! It’s understandable. With so much information out there on the topic, it’s hard to know where to start, let alone with what goal and for what purpose, even for the “practitioners” themselves. Leaders are enthusiastic about encouraging everyone to be innovative, yet vague about what this means in practical terms. In return, employees have little interest in something that their bosses don’t know what to do with or can’t even describe.
But why does this matter? If “innovation” is such a buzzword, what’s the point? And why in the hell are you reading
