Issue link: https://enterprise-resources.awscloud.com/i/1350724
S P O N S O R P E R S P E C T I V E Richard Halkett Worldwide Lead, Digital Innovation Amazon Web Services At Amazon, we have a customer-obsessed approach to innovation and believe that innovation is everyone's job. That said, each organization has its own history, priorities, and approach, so we were keen to learn how other companies innovate, what barriers they encounter, what best practices they've identified, and how rapidly evolving market conditions have affected how they prioritize and approach innovation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we saw that innovation is a virtuous circle, where those who prioritize it seem to succeed more, which then leads to greater priority and therefore more success. External pressure often pushes people back to where they are comfortable, but innovation leaders are looking to speed up, not slow down. This means that the gap between innovators and others will only continue to widen. In turn, innovation seems to have had a breakthrough from corporate buzzword to strategic priority. Innovation leaders focus on customers, business models, and breakthrough technology, all in service of their organization's mission. Other organizations focus more on competition, regulation, and profitability. What's interesting here is that those motivations for innovation leaders are durable—customers are never satisfied, and technology will keep providing opportunities. In contrast, the motivations of innovation laards are internal and finite—you can beat your competition, satisfy regulations, and then declare victory. Meanwhile, innovators will keep on innovating. What are the lessons here for organizations looking to innovate? Well, we see some useful patterns. Top-down sponsorship is essential. Innovation leaders consistently communicate and reinforce the importance of innovation through senior management. They are also twice as likely to favor an experimental approach to innovation, and they recognize that it takes a village—highly capable organizations see teams and individuals equally driving innovation. Finally, while the overwhelming majority of innovators see technology as an enabler rather than a driver of innovation, innovation leaders also intentionally explore new technologies: twice as many leaders attempt to be market leaders in new solutions. These leaders also have roughly half the level of concern around the risks of that technology, which in turn encourages them to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and innovate again if and when a failure occurs. They embrace failure as an opportunity to learn, pivot, and persevere. We hope that you enjoy the report and find it enlightening and actionable. We look forward to your feedback and to partnering with you as AWS accelerates your innovation journey.