The largest challenge I have met is fitting the new world into the old world. It all comes down to the ‘innovator’s dilemma’. The current way of operating the business is the largest challenge for most corporates. However, the challenge does not only come from the inside but in many cases it comes from the outside. That outside challenge in most cases is the “hostile” regulatory environment in which corporates operate in.

For instance, from the financial services perspective when corporates engage into Innovative activities such as: proposing new Innovative products, or partnerships with Fintechs or other emerging tech/digital platform; corporates face challenges in three key areas.

Business model Innovation - Standard business practices have not clear understanding on how to monetize Innovation models and what is customer willingness to pay. Therefore, Innovators struggle into steering the conventional business towards customer centricity. Ideas are still built around the problems which in most cases are not the customers’ problem.

Procurement - Innovation in most cases takes partnerships and collaborations. Onboarding a new partner can be still a long and tedious process.

Risk - New Business models, and partnerships, expose corporates to a new set of risks that they are unfamiliar with. Risk teams have to familiarise with new processes which eventually impact the delivery of projects. Hence, corporations operating in highly regulated countries face the biggest challenge in that regard.

The way to overcome those challenges may vary case by case but building the right capabilities is a fundamental aspect towards the change.”