When It's Time To Scale

According to Michael, Frank and Gina, three key areas make the difference between stalled projects and scalable success:

1. Ensuring a smooth transition from pilot to operations
2. Securing long-term leadership support
3. Building the right capabilities

Below, we’re exploring each of these in more detail.

A Smooth Transition

“When transfers don’t happen well, there’s potential for unconscious sabotage,” says Micheal. “The new owner in charge of scaling could drag their feet providing the adequate resources. Timelines could be pushed into the next budgeting cycle, or support could diminish altogether.”

This resistance isn’t intentional—it’s systemic, says Frank. The core business is simply built for a different purpose.

“The day-to-day business is designed for safely delivering operational KPIs and the margins that keep shareholders happy. It’s short-term, process-driven, and risk-averse.”

This is at odds with scaling new innovations because they introduce uncertainty and unstructured processes.

Frank identifies three common mistakes that companies make during this transition:

• Over-investing in innovation teams but not addressing the integration challenge: “Companies pour resources into the front end but don’t solve the ‘now vs. new’ dilemma. Eventually, they face a sunk cost problem.”
• Handing over the innovation too early: “Emerging business models often ‘die the death of a thousand cuts’ because they’re forced to fit into existing processes and mindsets that weren’t designed for them.”
• Relying on shared resources: “Innovation teams are told to use the same functional departments as incremental innovation projects, but when there’s a conflict, the core business always wins.”

So, what can you do? Micheal offers a simple yet powerful strategy: get the operational leaders—those who will eventually scale your innovation project—involved as early as possible.

“Bring them into the innovation process as soon as possible so they understand what problem you’re trying to solve or which opportunity you’re trying to seize. They will believe in the solution because they will be part of it, understanding the implications and challenges early so they can plan for it,” Micheal advises.

Other recommendations for smooth transitions include:

• Create detailed documentation: “Organizations often lack records on what’s happened in the innovation process, when, and why,” he notes. “Without full knowledge transfer, the receiving team struggles to implement.”
• Pre-define and agree on KPIs: “Scaling success requires transparency, trust, and ongoing communication,” he emphasizes. “Agree on KPIs early and ensure they align with both innovation and operational goals.”

Yet Michael acknowledges that even with careful planning, many companies struggle to connect innovation to the core business without unintentionally also creating misalignment.

As such, he suggests thinking of the transition as crossing a bridge. “We’re exploring adjacencies first where we can apply business model innovation that makes sense. The bridge we use to get there is based on familiarity and the core competencies we already have. But what we find on the other side might look different when we get there.”

This approach helps organizations expand into new markets without completely detaching from their strengths. Rather than expecting the core business to absorb something unfamiliar immediately, innovation teams can identify natural connections (or bridges) that facilitate adoption.

Gina also believes that challenges to successful transitions often stem from a misalignment between new innovations and existing business structures.

“Scaling is not necessarily the problem. The problem is the ‘force fit’ of the new business into an operational setting with tried-and-true business models, its own sales force, and all of that. When we’ve seen breakthroughs that fit the business model of the receiving unit, they can’t wait to pull them in as quickly as possible. The others that are a little bit outside require work beyond what the business unit is designed to handle.”

Gina provides a straightforward solution to this challenge: get the innovation team to scale the new business to the point where it generates clear value.

“Organizations that successfully bring new businesses all the way through to commercialization actually have the strategic innovation team scale it to a point where there is an obvious trajectory to profitability that will meet the requirements of a receiving unit. Unless those requirements are realized, things get very confusing,” she warns.

Securing Leadership Commitment for Innovation

We all know that leadership buy-in is critical for scaling innovations. But what happens when budgets tighten, the economy shifts, and executives prioritize short-term stability? Many innovators assume there’s nothing they can do. If leadership pulls support, the project is dead in the water.

That’s not entirely true. Gina argues that the key to maintaining top management commitment is aligning innovation efforts with long-term strategic priorities, not just short-term wins.

She introduces the concept of “Domains of Innovation Intent,” which are broad opportunity areas where the company wants to grow over the next 5-10 years. “These are not fleeting trends,” she explains. “They’re structured opportunity spaces where companies can systematically build a portfolio of initiatives. Instead of chasing isolated ideas, leadership should commit to these domains and track progress against them.”

Organizations can diversify their innovation efforts across multiple domains to hedge risk. “Even during downturns, companies can slow the pace of innovation, but they don’t abandon it entirely.”

Michael also highlights the importance of the leadership’s mindset: “Our CEO sees his role not just as optimizing the core business but as building a portfolio of future business concepts. That changes everything.” Chick-fil-A’s CEO prioritizes innovation by funding exploratory projects and empowering teams with autonomy.

“Innovation thrives when leadership intentionally creates a portfolio of business concepts, not just a reliance on core operations,” he says. However, he acknowledges the need for consistent storytelling to align the core business with innovation efforts.

Frank suggests treating leadership as customers and aligning innovation efforts with their goals. “Understanding what parts of their strategies need exploration or validation allows innovators to position themselves as problem-solvers, not just idea generators,” he remarks.

The solution for innovators battling short-term thinkers is to demonstrate clear progress in innovation efforts. “You don’t always need immediate revenue,” Micheal explains. “Sometimes, leadership just needs proof that you’re progressing in the right direction.”

Developing the Right Capabilities to Deliver Value

Companies need the right people with the right skills to scale innovation consistently. Frank estimates that around 4-6% of employees should be focused on translating innovation into the core business. He emphasizes the need for a select group of “translators” who can bridge the gap between innovation teams and operational systems. “We need empowered functional experts who understand both structured corporate processes and the ambiguity of new business,” he says.

Beyond technical expertise, Micheal argues that behaviors are just as important. He outlines a few of the behaviors he believes are critical to success:

• Trust: Teams need to feel supported when taking calculated risks.
• Humility: Leaders must acknowledge that they don’t have all the answers.
• Psychological safety: People need a safe space to experiment without fear of failure.
• Curiosity: The best leaders are the ones who ask great questions instead of making quick judgments.

Gina highlights the importance of structural ambidexterity, which combines managing the core business while simultaneously exploring new growth avenues. She stresses the need for leadership teams to develop a new identity, one that embraces ambiguity and fosters collaboration across silos. “Shifting the dynamics at the top is essential for aligning strategic innovation with organizational goals,” she says.

Gina admits that one of the biggest challenges corporate innovation faces today is that senior leadership is stuck in the established ways of working. “They are used to having a certain dynamic together. They’ve worked together for many years on what Frank calls the ‘now’ business. We need to cultivate a new dynamic among them to help them see themselves as leaders in a world of ambiguity.”

Trying to get leadership to think differently is a definite barrier, amplified by the innovation activities themselves. Gina explains, “The tables have turned because the innovation team exploring the domain knows more than the senior team, but the innovator can’t necessarily come forward with recommendations, as strategic choices are needed from the business model perspective.”

“So, how do we help those senior leadership team members develop a new identity for who they are and how they work together? It’s very interesting to try to get them to step back from that and to think forward differently.”

But equally, there is no other way to deliver value from innovation at scale, as Gina puts it, “If companies want to chart new growth pathways, they need to rethink how they structure, lead, and scale innovation. The organizations that commit to this will shape the future.”