Innovation in the board

On May 23, Xavier Bedoret of the INSEAD Directors Network, and Jean Charles Uytenhove of IN-BOARD Belgium invited us to deliver a keynote speech about our book Boardroom Creativity. Afterwards, we joined the panel discussion with Marc Raisière, CEO of Belfius Bank, about how to stimulate innovation in the board.

First we spoke about the key messages in our book, arguing that creativity is increasingly important in an uncertain and fast-changing world. You need it to design new business directions and create pilot projects to test these potential next businesses. By regularly making time for business innovation projects, you’ll be prepared when your existing business declines – as all businesses eventually do. Innovation is a learning journey. To be successful at innovation requires both designing new future directions and creating a culture of innovation. For board members this starts with training your own creative muscle.

Marc Raisière talked about how he built a culture of innovation at Belfius starting from shared purpose and values. Diversity in ways of thinking and doing is a prerequisite for innovation, but it can be a challenge to understand each other when you have such different perspectives. The Belfius board team demonstrates that when you’re passionate about the same things, dare to be vulnerable and evaluate your mistakes regularly you can together transform a company from bankruptcy to being a driving force of the Belgium economy. According to Marc Raisière everyone should be creative in the board and share the responsibility for innovation. He didn’t see the need for specialists. That’s the only topic we disagreed on – we believe in both/and. We argued that installing an innovation committee with unusual suspects can be a catalyst for transformation. Financial performance is also the responsibility of the whole board and still most companies have CFO’s and audit committees.

How do you stimulate innovation in the board? Do you think installing and innovation committee can add value?