Why 95% of innovations fail – and what to do about it

(May 2024) Companies may have lots of clever people with plenty of great ideas. But too often, those ideas never get off the ground, even at companies that say they want to cultivate entrepreneurship among their employees.

The idea has to be coaxed into life with the right processes, says Dr. Simone Ahuja, founder and CEO of Blood Orange, an innovation strategy firm.

“Everybody has the potential to share ideas, whether they're at the leadership level or answering the phones,” said in a Transform Talks interview with Huawei Editor-in-Chief Gavin Allen.

In its initial stages, an idea is merely an invention or prototype “Maybe you hack something together in your garage, she said.” “When you bring it to scale, bring it to life,” she went on, “then that is innovation.”

One way to encourage people to be innovative is through intra-preneurship: getting them to act like entrepreneurs who also happen to be employees. 

“Once you start leveraging all the power and the insights of the people in your organization, it’s going to accelerate your path to existing goals,” she says.