Innovation Strategy for Boards of Directors
Ross Dawson works with boards on innovation strategy and governance, giving directors a working frame that balances their duty to manage risk with the imperative of continual renewal.
Boards face a distinct challenge in framing and driving innovation. Fiduciary duties to manage risk sit alongside the imperative of continual renewal, and the two pull in different directions if a board has no shared frame for them. Sessions can be built around current industry disruption and how the organization is responding, the distinction between innovation strategy and strategy innovation, and shifting mindsets on business model disruption. Facilitation can include one-on-one meetings with directors ahead of the board meeting, or an assessment of the organization’s current innovation frames.
Ross has served as lead faculty for the innovation programs of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and the Institute of Company Directors Malaysia (ICDM), running numerous workshops for senior directors on innovation culture, capabilities, and major innovation decisions. He has worked with numerous boards in highly dynamic industries to frame disruption and implement innovation strategy frameworks.
Audience: boards of directors and board committees, particularly in industries facing active disruption.
Key content
Sessions are framed around the board’s governance role, not a general innovation briefing.
- The board’s role in innovation. Governance for renewal, not risk management alone.
- Framing industry disruption. How the sector and the organization’s business model are shifting.
- The innovation portfolio. The major innovation decisions the board needs to see and weigh in on.
- Humans + AI as the current frontier. What the current wave of business model innovation means for the organization.
- Culture and capability. What the board should expect of management on innovation.
Outcomes
Directors leave with a clearer basis for their own decisions.
- A shared frame for innovation governance. Common language between the board and management.
- The major innovation questions identified. A clear list of what the board needs to decide or track.
- Agreed expectations of management. What the board wants to see reported and when.
- Director confidence. A board better equipped to weigh in on innovation decisions as they arise.
Examples of recent work
The board of a not-for-profit health fund examined strategy innovation in an accelerating world. The session covered acceleration in technology and consumer uptake, platforms and ecosystem value creation, executive cognition amid information overload, and the emerging roles of Humans + AI, with directors discussing what each of these meant for the fund.
Related sessions
Boards often combine this session with AI Strategy Sessions and Building Humans + AI Organizations.
Formats
Board engagement ranges from a single briefing to an ongoing director program.
- Board briefing. 60 to 90 minutes.
- Board workshop. Half day, working through the organization’s own innovation questions.
- Director programs. For institutes and associations, run across cohorts of senior directors.
- Pre-meeting director conversations. One-on-one input ahead of the board session.
Part of Board and executive briefings.
About Ross Dawson
Ross Dawson is a futurist, strategy advisor, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and author. He is the Founder of Advanced Human Technologies Group, whose ventures include the Humans + AI product suite and Fraxios, the AI-augmented strategy platform, and the bestselling author of Thriving on Overload and Living Networks. He has delivered keynotes and strategy sessions in 35 countries.
