A B C D E F H I L M O P S T
Inn Int Inv

Innovation Thesis

/ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən ˈθiː.sɪs/

A broad statement about where we are as a business (purpose and maturity), where we think the world is going (business environment), what sorts of ideas we think will succeed in that world (trends) and how we are going to use innovation to respond.

Venture capital investors have investment theses that specify the types of ventures and markets they invest in. In the same notion, large companies must have an innovation thesis — a thesis that states what a company will invest in versus what it will not invest in. An innovation thesis must be aligned with the overall corporate strategy and clearly set out a company’s view of the future and the strategic objectives of innovation. Because we cannot predict the future, an innovation thesis must be developed and viewed as a hypothesis that will evolve over time. Investments in various ideas will be the experiments we run to test the thesis.