Adopt a short-cycle business innovation approach
"What works, what doesn't? Which initiatives should you continue to invest in, which ones do you cancel?" In the coming years, there’ll still be room to learn, but less room to play. It‘s not: "Here’s a piece of technology, go and experiment for half a year to your heart's content to see if, and what, we can do with it". Today we need to get more clarity, more quickly ,about the specific value it delivers. The cost aspect for companies is becoming a more important factor in innovation compared to recent years. You will be less likely to be able to make long-term investments. Innovation choices will be much more focused on a faster ROI and a clearer business case.
Opportunity
Look for innovations that pay for themselves or even better, that can pay for the next phase. Get into a mode where you can continuously innovate with small investments. That recoup does not always have to be of a financial nature. These small investments can also provide insights or value that brings a conclusive business case a step closer. The challenge is therefore not only to find ideas, but to validate these hypotheses and concepts during the entire innovation process. This will provide you with transparent evidence that you can take to the MT or the boardroom: by substantiating each step with data and learnings, you can validate faster and say: "That's how we're going to do it, or not."