Innovation is so slippery for many companies. The simple fact is that many companies are focused on the wrong parts of innovation.

In short, they are focused on the "WHAT," rather than the "WHO" and the "HOW."

It's still sad to see so many companies in 2021 looking for that silver bullet. Whether that silver bullet is D2C, Big Data, AI, pick a topic. It truly does not matter. If you are focused on the what, you confuse the destination with the goal. The goal is the journey of acceleration you want to take your company on - which could lead to those outcomes, but it could lead to more.

The fact is that culture and management will kill almost all innovation you try that is focused on one destination. The reason is, your top employees will realize it's fake. The organization is only innovating because it was forced from the top-down rather than encouraged from below (culture).

If your management team is world-class, your people will stay and will encourage the right behaviors.

In fact, I would encourage any company on a journey of digital transformation to stop thinking about the destination. Instead, first, assess your managers at all levels. This group is the key to your culture because they seek out the best behaviors and discourage bad behaviors.