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Why Innovation Units Lose Relevance

This page helps innovation leaders understand why corporate innovation units lose relevance and how to rebuild trust by aligning with BU goals, showing results fast, and earning a mandate for growth.

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Innovation Unit Relevance

Many innovation leaders face a quiet risk — relevance fading inside their organizations. This page explains why it happens and how to fix it by aligning with business priorities, proving measurable results, and earning executive trust.

The Problem

Innovation units start with strong support. But over time, business units don’t fully commit, leadership trust weakens, and budgets shrink. Innovation is seen as a cost center rather than a growth driver.
The result: Innovation risks being sidelined. Leaders talk about transformation, but day-to-day priorities pull attention back to the core business.

The Fix

Innovation earns its seat not through ideas, but through outcomes tied to business priorities.
What works in practice:
  • Deliver measurable results in months, not years.
  • Win business units in as co-owners of initiatives.
  • Give executives confidence that innovation de-risks and grows where BUs cannot.
With the right mandate, Innovation moves from “nice-to-have” to indispensable growth partner.

Make the Most of It

If you’d like to:
  • Assess how far your innovation unit has drifted from business relevance
  • Identify fast wins that rebuild trust with leadership and BUs
  • Clarify the mandate that protects Innovation’s seat at the table

You are welcome to book a short call. No pitch. Just clarity on your situation.

Here’s What Your Peers Say:

We aligned with the BU’s growth agenda and became part of the quarterly review cycle. The tone changed completely.
(Head of Innovation, Industrial Group)
Leadership now sees us as a de-risking partner for growth — not a side lab. That changed everything.
(Director Corporate Development, Global Manufacturing)

PS: Learn about the Lean Scaleup framework or explore how we help corporate innovators shift the corporate mindset here.

Related reading:
Proving Innovation ROI Fast
and
Earning Executive Trust.

Let Us Get Started

Let us discuss one of your growth initiatives. You will get a red-yellow-green view on metric quality, evidence path, and adoption risk.