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Roles, models and teams

Innovation leadership

By George Krasadakis ·

Definition

Innovation leadership is the accountability for a company’s ability to innovate: deciding who owns innovation, how it is organised and measured, and how the whole organisation is equipped to discover, validate and pursue new opportunities.

In Innovation Mode, the innovation leader is “the Enabler and the Orchestrator of the overall corporate innovation function” (p. 48). The job is to make the company innovate, with a small team that opens innovation up to everyone, not to produce the innovation themselves.

From Innovation Mode (Author’s Edition, 2026), Chapter 3, and the guides below.

The guides

  1. The roleThe Chief Innovation OfficerThe mission, the ten responsibilities, the reporting line, what to hire for, how to measure the role, and the CINO in the AI era.Read the guide →
  2. The modelsWho should lead innovation?Six leadership models, the hidden risk in each, who the leader should report to, and how to choose by maturity.Read the guide →
  3. The teamInnovation team structureThe Dream Team: its six core roles, the extended team, how it grows, and how it avoids the innovation bubble.Read the guide →

Where to start

Boards and CEOs, HR leaders, new innovation leaders and those who want the job each have a different question. Each starts in a different place.

Decide who should lead innovation
Who Should Lead Innovation? compares the six leadership models, the hidden risk in each and who the leader should report to.
Appoint a Chief Innovation Officer
The Chief Innovation Officer sets out the mission, the ten responsibilities and the ten competencies to hire for. How to Select a Chief Innovation Officer walks through the hiring process.
Build the innovation team
Innovation Team Structure describes the six core roles, the extended team and how to avoid the innovation bubble.
Become an innovation leader
How to Become a Chief Innovation Officer: the career paths and the skills.
Work with us
Corporate Innovation Advisory designs the innovation function and its leadership with your executive team; ongoing advisory can include a fractional Chief Innovation Officer.

Innovation leadership at a glance

Innovation leadership in brief
AspectIn brief
The senior roleThe Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), the most senior formal role dedicated to innovation, usually reporting to the CEO.
The missionTo empower the company to thrive through the discovery and pursuit of new business opportunities.
ResponsibilitiesTen, from setting the innovation agenda to measuring performance and providing talent and resources.
Leadership modelsSix: embedded in an executive role, VP or head of innovation, CINO, shared leadership, decentralised, and the Federated model that works.
The teamA flat core of six roles, an extended team that grows with the programme, and a community of innovators.
MeasurementOutput, impact, culture and image, combined into an innovation performance scorecard.
How commonBy 2017, 29% of Fortune 500 companies had a senior innovation executive (Egon Zehnder, cited in Harvard Business Review, 2019).
The AI era76% of organisations had a Chief AI Officer in 2026, up from 26% a year earlier (IBM CEO study); some companies now combine AI and innovation in one role.

Articles on innovation leadership

Further reading

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