The mirage of Sustainable Innovation: a personal reflection on the tension between imagining the future and making it real
I’ve always been drawn to the idea that Innovation, especially in Sustainability, can make the world a better place. It’s the marketer in me: I genuinely believe brands, products, services have the power to shape culture, influence behaviour, and push society forward when they dare to lead.
That’s why I decided to steer my career from Marketing to Sustainability. I didn’t leave Marketing behind, I brought it to the next level. Still aiming to deliver value, but adding positive impact as the outcome. My vision is that brands that grow by doing good have a legitimacy to exist and to sustain the economy.
“ I focused so deeply on solutions for a better future, that I forgot to build the bridge to the present. “
Despite my passion for the opportunities sitting at the intersection of marketing and sustainability, and pouring all my energy into it, I made a mistake. I focussed so deeply on looking for solutions for a better future, that I forgot to build the bridge to the present.
I created successful pilots, powerful ideas, convincing business cases… and then watched them stall. The organisation admired them, applauded them, even asked me to bring them externally, but didn’t integrate them.
Was this an oversight, or was there something more profound that made me steer away from the present? I always knew the solutions had to be integrated, eventually.
Maybe I was thinking of it as someone else’s job? The mandate I received was to explore, collaborate, and experiment without constraints. This was intended to make things easier. To avoid the corporate weeds and the difficult conversations when someone brings a bold idea in the boardroom and the time is not right.
Maybe it was just the wrong timing. And the unfavourable external context. Truth is, I am still in the process of understanding what I could have done differently.
Bridging breakthrough innovation with business integration
What is certain is that established businesses - more than start-ups or so-called ‘born good’ brands - face a tough challenge when striving for sustainability: bridging breakthrough innovation with business integration. They seem in fact to be opposing forces.
Breakthrough innovation is about boldly leaping into the future. The business case, the ROI, the desirability must be at the core, but the energy moves from the safe space of ‘what we are already good at’ to the uncomfortable and complex world of ‘new business models that will be better for the business and for people and planet’.
Helpful principles
While attempting to leap forward, I found helpful principles to push the thinking. Like adding a ‘beautiful constraint’ to a business question. For example, ‘we need to grow market share in this channel, AND we want to reduce carbon footprint at the same time’. Taking on those tough questions opens doors to uncharted territories where sustainable growth is hiding.
Another useful exercise is to reframe the business boundaries, moving from 2D to 3D. Seeing a Spirits business operating in the socialising sector, a sunglasses brand in the business of empowering people, an airline in the industry of building memories, a sports brand in solutions for mental and physical limits.
“ I learned the hard way that integration is the critical element of success.”
Compared to breakthrough innovation, Integration felt like a force pulling me backwards to 2D. And yet, I learned the hard way that it is the critical element of success, and that breakthrough pilots won’t get to scale if the business is not ready for integration.
In hindsight, I should have owned it. It was supposed to be my job. Not someone else’s. Rather than creating a separate breakthrough innovation process, strategy and roadmap, it should have been part of the overall company annual business planning process. Part of the same conversations and aligned with the same stakeholders that run the business day in day out.
The intent of keeping breakthrough innovation free from corporate constraints, and outside the regular processes, even using a different language, is why integration was missed.
I also think integration needs a better definition. By writing this piece I hope people will lean in and help all the innovators like me to understand what exactly makes for successful integration?
Finding the Balance Between Vision and Reality
They say the biggest innovators collect more failures than successes. As I intend to navigate this space for longer I picture myself as a business leader wearing a sustainability hat and an integration scarf. One or the other is not enough.
Breakthrough innovation gives us the future; business integration gives us the path. When the two work in harmony, brands don’t just react to culture, they influence it. They don’t just grow, they grow with purpose. And suddenly, sustainability stops being a constraint and becomes a competitive advantage.
That’s the moment marketing becomes a force for good, not just for growth. And that, ultimately, is the future I want to help build, one meaningful, integrated breakthrough at a time.