Page 188 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

Innovating for the Future 177

• Supporting the innovation lab network, housed within the Tech-
nology organization, but leveraged across the entire company to
consider emerging technologies and the art-of-the-possible to
build solutions for the future

All these steps, directed by a senior-level innovation steering commit-
tee, were initiated as experiments to focus on learning, adjusting, and fig-
uring out what would work over time and then were iteratively improved.
For example, the innovation metrics were sharpened as the definitions of
innovation evolved, and the experience of the first few innovation cham-
pions helped clarify criteria for selecting additional ones. Also, all these
steps were carried out with as much transparency as possible, so that all
Thomson Reuters employees not only would know what was happening,
but could themselves contribute to the efforts along the way. In describing
Thomson Reuters’s goals, Katherine Manuel reflects: “Much of what we
did was to democratize ideation and rapid experimentation and communi-
cate successes and failures. Our aim was to create as many opportunities
for employees, no matter what level they are, which business they reside in,
or where across the globe they sit, to participate. We wanted all employees
to associate making changes to improve what they do and how they do it as
innovation: this is where innovation at scale can fundamentally shift the
performance of a large organization.”
As a result of all this work, after just a few years, organic growth
through innovation has become well established as the norm at Thomson
Reuters. The innovation network is one of the most visited sites on the
company’s intranet. Employees submit hundreds of ideas for consideration
at the enterprise innovation workshops and challenges. Catalyst Fund
projects are regularly prototyped, piloted, and then rolled out to custom-
ers. And the businesses have a robust portfolio of pioneering new ideas that
are moving through their pipelines. So although there is still much to be
done, and the jury is still out, clearly the company now has incentives in
place to sustain an ongoing innovation culture.