Innovation Management Watch Summary: “The Hardest Part of Innovation Isn’t Your Next Big Idea” by Peter Hirst, MIT Sloan Executive Education

Innovation is no longer simply about generating the next breakthrough product, process or technology. As markets, technologies and customer expectations evolve at an increasingly rapid pace, organizations must develop the ability to continuously adapt their strategies, structures and capabilities. Peter Hirst, Senior Associate Dean at MIT Sloan Executive Education, argues that one of the greatest innovation challenges facing organizations today is therefore not finding the next big idea, but building an organization capable of making better choices amid continuous change. 

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Innovation now reaches nearly every part of an organization. Beyond products and technologies, it increasingly involves business models, supply chains, organizational design, marketing, culture, talent and external ecosystems. Artificial intelligence is accelerating this shift by changing not only what organizations can build, but also how they create value, organize teams and interact with customers. 

One challenge for innovation leaders is that different parts of the business environment change at different speeds. MIT Sloan professor Charlie Fine uses the concept of “clockspeed” to describe the varying rates at which technologies, markets and organizations evolve. AI capabilities, for example, can now change within months or even weeks, while organizational structures and established investments may take years to develop. At the same time, changes in geopolitics, tariffs, competitors and customer expectations can quickly alter the assumptions behind previous strategic decisions. 

This creates a fundamental tension for innovation management. Organizations must continue capturing value from the capabilities and investments they have already built while simultaneously preparing for emerging opportunities. Continually abandoning the present in pursuit of the future is unsustainable, but relying too heavily on yesterday’s sources of success can leave organizations vulnerable as markets change. 

AI makes this balancing act particularly important. Much of the discussion surrounding AI focuses on what the technology can automate or augment. Hirst highlights a broader strategic question: how might AI reshape products, services, value propositions, business models, teams and customer relationships? Instead of asking only where AI can be deployed, innovation leaders can consider what new products or services are now possible, how customer expectations may change and which parts of the organization may need to evolve. 

The emergence of agentic AI further illustrates the challenge of innovating under uncertainty. Organizations may need to make significant strategic decisions before the technology, its applications and its long-term implications are fully understood. Although uncertainty has always been part of innovation management, the speed and scale at which these decisions are arriving are increasing.  

Source: AI Generated Image 

Some of the most difficult barriers to innovation, however, may be organizational rather than technological. Organizational structures and cultures can be significantly harder to change than technologies or business models. Designing a new value proposition may be relatively straightforward; creating an organization capable of consistently delivering that value can require a much longer transformation. 

Innovation is also becoming increasingly distributed across organizational boundaries. Companies can no longer assume that their strongest ideas will always originate internally. Partnerships, suppliers, customers and broader innovation ecosystems can all contribute knowledge and capabilities. Looking beyond the individual organization and understanding the entire value chain can therefore help leaders recognize how technological, geopolitical and competitive changes in one area may create opportunities or risks elsewhere. 

For innovation leaders, this reinforces the importance of combining experimentation with strategic judgment. Eliminating risk entirely can create an organization that becomes highly effective at protecting its existing business while the environment around it changes. At the same time, experimentation without considering its consequences can create unnecessary exposure. Strategic innovation therefore requires leaders to evaluate both potential risks and rewards and create conditions in which appropriate forms of experimentation can occur. 

Ultimately, organizations cannot expect to predict every technological or market shift correctly. A more sustainable innovation capability comes from learning to recognize change, challenge assumptions, experiment appropriately and make better strategic choices as new information emerges. In an environment where the pace of change continues to accelerate, the ability to learn and adapt may become as important as the innovations themselves. 

This summary is based on the original September 2026 article “The Hardest Part of Innovation Isn’t Your Next Big Idea” by Peter Hirst, Senior Associate Dean at MIT Sloan Executive Education. All rights to the original content remain with the respective copyright holders.