3 Tools and 1 Word to keep your Innovation Growth Board humming

Innovation Growth Boards are not that complicated really. A group of business leaders gathers to make investment decisions regarding a portfolio of emerging business opportunities. All pretty standard fare so far. The tricky part is that they are set up primarily to manage business opportunities in innovation portfolios and because of that many of the inputs the board needs to consider are wrapped in high levels of uncertainty. That uncertainty means that the status quo approach they have been trained in, essentially the evaluation of static long-term business plans (all of which, amazingly enough, show strong margins and positive cash flow!) is simply irrelevant.

We need a new set of tools and norms to support investing in innovation opportunities.

Over the last few years, I have helped stand up and coach growth boards in a variety of corporate settings. What has become clear is that the Growth board dynamic puts leaders and the startup teams presenting to them, far outside their comfort zone, at least until they get their confidence. Here are three of the tools and one important word I have seen to be successful in building that confidence and enabling Growth boards to be successful at managing an innovation portfolio.

Read the rest of this article on the Modern Accelerator blog here