Cris Beswick

24/03/2026

Embrace the 3️⃣ emotions of business—Love, Desire, and Envy.

Shift to doing things WITH customers, not FOR them. Build a high-performing innovation-led organisation so you can stop reacting to the future and start shaping it.

But what’s the risk?

💬 The artist Erin Hanson said it best: “What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?”

That’s my challenge to you. Stop playing it safe. Stop reacting. Start flying.

18/03/2026

The Innovation Performance Gap Is a Leadership Gap

84% of executives call innovation critical for growth.

Only 6% are satisfied with their results.

This isn't an idea problem. It's not a methodology problem. And it's certainly not a resource problem.

It's a leadership capability crisis—and it's time we stopped pretending otherwise.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: We've promoted leaders for operational excellence, rewarded them for flawless ex*****on, and developed them through frameworks optimised for control and predictability.

Then we demand breakthrough thinking, adaptive problem-solving, and organisational agility.

The results? Predictably disastrous.

Consider this: Gallup's research shows managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. Not strategy. Not resources. The direct manager.

And teams with high psychological safety—created primarily through manager behaviours—are 67% more innovative than their counterparts.

The connection is unambiguous: manager capability is the primary determinant of your organisation's ability to compete.

Everything else—your strategy, your transformation programmes, your innovation labs—operates within the constraint created by leadership capability.

The hardest part? Most middle managers feel solely responsible for delivering cultural transformation, yet only 14% believe senior leaders actually model those behaviours themselves.

We've created a systemic failure that's now manifesting as the defining performance challenge of our time.

In my latest article, I break down:

→ Why traditional leadership development is fundamentally misaligned with modern challenges

→ The "70% factor" and why manager capability determines everything

→ How daily micro-interactions create or destroy high performance

→ What "emotional courage" means and why leaders need it

→ The specific capabilities leaders need to develop—and how to build them

This isn't about blaming individual leaders. It's about acknowledging we've asked people to demonstrate capabilities they were never taught.

The question for CEOs: Are you willing to fundamentally transform how you develop leaders?

👉 Read the full article https://crisbeswick.com/the-innovation-performance-gap-is-a-leadership-gap/

If you're a CEO grappling with the innovation performance gap, this might be the most important 10 minutes you invest this week.

😃 Follow me for more insights on building adaptive, high-performing organisations → https://lnkd.in/eTXdKdj9

While 84% of executives identify innovation as critical for growth, only 6% express satisfaction with results. This isn’t an idea problem, a methodology problem, or even a resource problem. It’s a leadership capability problem creating a performance crisis that’s now a key strategic challenge ...

16/03/2026

Transforming organisations isn’t a project with a start and end date. It’s about mindset and behaviour—every single day.

And here’s what most leaders miss: middle managers are your company’s culture enablers. They’re the ones who bring it alive on the ground, where it actually matters.

Your job as a leader? Figure out how to enable them to build the culture you need for innovation. Not dictate it. Enable it.

Because doesn’t cascade from the top. It’s activated in the middle.

11/03/2026

33% of CEOs admit bureaucracy is killing their performance.

Yet they're the ones who created it.

PwC's latest CEO Survey reveals a paradox I've witnessed in boardrooms worldwide:

53% of CEOs call innovation critical to strategy, but only 29% believe their leadership teams could convert disruption into new business opportunities.

The gap isn't knowledge. It's courage.

After two decades advising Fortune 500 companies on , it’s an uncomfortable truth I’ve witnessed numerous times.

CEOs are getting in their own way by:

❌ Demanding breakthrough thinking whilst maintaining risk-averse governance

❌ Championing external collaboration whilst protecting internal territories

❌ Advocating customer testing whilst constraining it with bureaucracy

In my latest article, I unpack:

➡️ Why only 29% can capture opportunities despite 39% being able to respond to disruption

➡️ The five actions CEOs must take to move beyond innovation rhetoric

➡️ Why M&A won't save you if you can't build internal capability

➡️ What leaders must actually sacrifice to enable innovation

The survey data reveals which approach your organisation is taking.

The question is whether you're prepared to confront that reality.

Read the full article 👉 https://crisbeswick.com/the-innovation-paradox-why-ceos-who-say-they-value-innovation-are-still-getting-in-their-own-way/

😃 Follow Me for more insights → https://lnkd.in/eTXdKdj9

A Response to PwC’s 29th CEO Survey PwC’s latest CEO Survey reveals a paradox I’ve witnessed in boardrooms around the world for two decades: whilst 53% of UK CEOs declare innovation critical to their business strategy, they’re systematically destroying the very conditions that make it possib...

06/03/2026

A high-performing innovation system consists of 5️⃣ interconnected parts: strategy, processes, management, leadership, and culture.

Five parts. Not one. Not two.

Unless all five are built and working in harmony, it’s nearly impossible to drive as a repeatable capability. You get flashes of brilliance, occasional wins, and a lot of frustration.

But harmony across all five? That’s when innovation becomes systematic.

Predictable. Sustainable.

04/03/2026

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer explains why innovation is failing.

70% of people won't trust anyone who thinks differently.

That one stat sums it up!

Innovation requires what ‘insularity’ destroys: diverse perspectives, productive disagreement, cross-boundary collaboration, and challenging assumptions.

When leaders demand breakthrough thinking whilst punishing failed experiments, centralise decisions whilst expecting creativity, and confuse alignment with agreement—they create the exact conditions that kill innovation.

After two decades advising Fortune 500s on building innovation capability, I've connected the Edelman findings to what actually makes innovation impossible in complex organisations.

The uncomfortable truth? You can't build innovation capability whilst insularity prevails.

My latest article reveals why—and what's required to change it.

👉 https://crisbeswick.com/the-insularity-crisis-what-the-2026-edelman-trust-barometer-reveals-about-innovation/

If innovation is a strategic priority but it’s stalling, this clarifies what you're missing.

😃 Follow me → https://lnkd.in/eTXdKdj9

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer has identified a crisis more fundamental than the trust deficit we’ve been tracking for years. The report reveals that 70% of people globally now have an “insular mindset”, i.e. they are unwilling or hesitant to trust those with different values, facts, problem...

25/02/2026

Your Leadership Factory is Building the Wrong Leaders!


McKinsey & Company's recent research on scaling leadership factories is valuable—but it misses the critical dimension that determines whether organisations shape the future or manage decline.

After advising Fortune 500 companies around the world for two decades, I'm still observing a troubling pattern: organisations investing millions developing generic leaders whilst failing to build the specific capability innovation requires.


The result? 84% of executives say innovation is critical, yet only 6% are satisfied with results.

This isn't a knowledge gap. It's a leadership capability gap.

In my latest article, I reveal:

➡️ Why middle managers (the "DRIVE" layer) are your innovation multipliers—not your frozen middle

➡️ How to build psychological courage and vulnerability in leaders whose success came from providing certainty

➡️ Why "fail fast" cultures fail without systematic approaches to make experimentation safer than the status quo

➡️ How innovation ownership cascades differently than sponsorship across executive, middle, and frontline levels

The organisations thriving in the AI era aren't those with better algorithms—they're those who've systematically developed leaders capable of creating conditions where breakthrough thinking flourishes.

Want to start building systematic innovation capability?

Read the full article to discover how the Innovation differs from generic leadership development—and why this distinction determines your competitive future.

👉 https://crisbeswick.com/the-ceo-led-innovation-leadership-factory-building-the-capability-to-shape-the-future-through-problem-solving-at-scale/

Why organisations that cannot systematically develop innovation leaders will fail to build innovation capability, regardless of their AI investments or transformation programmes Recent McKinsey research on “Scaling the 21st-Century Leadership Factory” offers a compelling blueprint for developing...

18/02/2026

£10 million. Three years. Stuck in pilot purgatory.

A Fortune 500 CEO just shared this with me—and it reveals why most transformation initiatives fail.

After two decades advising global organisations on innovation, I've discovered a pattern: bold visions don't fail because they're not inspiring enough. They fail because organisations haven't built the innovation capability that enables transformation.

Business strategist Peter Fisk—whose thought leadership I've followed with enormous respect for over a decade—correctly identifies transformation as "the new superpower of business leaders."

From my innovation-specific perspective, I'd add this complementary dimension to Peter's excellent framework:

Microsoft, Fujifilm, Schneider Electric, Ping An—they didn't succeed solely because they had bolder visions. They succeeded because they built the systematic capability to execute transformation at scale.

Even more critical: As AI reshapes every industry, the gap between organisations with genuine innovation capability and those engaging in innovation theatre is becoming existential.

In my latest article, I reveal:

➡️ Why transformation programmes fail for the same reasons innovation initiatives do

➡️ How AI amplifies the innovation capability gap (organisations without capability use AI for efficiency; those with capability use AI for growth)

➡️ The ODC Framework that supercharges transformation through Own-Drive-Contribute roles

➡️ The three dimensions every organisation must address: psychological, physical, and mental

➡️ Why "Differentiated Innovation" is the sweet spot where transformation happens

➡️ The brutal questions every leader must answer

Stop investing in transformation theatre. Start building the innovation capability that makes bold visions achievable.

👉 Read the full article for the framework that supercharges organisations in the AI era.

👉 https://crisbeswick.com/supercharging-transformation-why-innovation-capability-is-the-missing-catalyst-in-the-ai-era/

How Leaders Must Build the Foundation That Makes Bold Visions Achievable A CEO of a global manufacturing firm recently shared a confession that should concern every board member: “We’ve invested over £10 million in transformation over three years. We hired the best consultants. We crafted a bol...

16/02/2026

The best way to invent the future is to invent it. And that requires creativity.

But creativity without ex*****on is just daydreaming. The best way to actually invent the future is through innovation—systematic, deliberate, embedded .

That means organisations must build the capability to be genuinely innovative. Not performatively innovative. Not .

Genuinely innovative. Because the future doesn’t wait for organisations that talk about innovation.

It’s built by those who actually do it. 💪

12/02/2026

The road to competitive advantage starts with knowing your customers better than every one of your competitors.

Not just knowing them—understanding their problems and pains more deeply than anyone else in your market.

But knowledge alone isn’t enough. You must also have the to out-innovate your competitors.

Because if you understand the problem but can’t solve it faster, better, or differently than everyone else? You’re just a well-informed spectator.

12/02/2026

The road to competitive advantage starts with knowing your customers better than every one of your competitors.

Not just knowing them—understanding their problems and pains more deeply than anyone else in your market.

But knowledge alone isn't enough. You must also have the to out-innovate your competitors.

Because if you understand the problem but can't solve it faster, better, or differently than everyone else? You're just a well-informed spectator.

11/02/2026

"AI-driven innovation" sounds compelling. But here's the reality:

After 20 years advising Fortune 500s on building innovation capability, my advice to leaders around the world: AI doesn't drive innovation—it amplifies it.

The breakthrough insights that create competitive advantage don't come from algorithms analysing data. They come from humans observing behaviour, building empathy, navigating complexity, and collaborating across boundaries.

AI can't observe the frustration on a customer's face or notice the workarounds employees create. It can't build the psychological safety where breakthrough ideas emerge or navigate the organisational politics that determine whether ideas reach implementation.

In my response to Bill Schmarzo's Four Pillars of AI-Driven Innovation, I unpack the human realities that determine whether AI transformation creates genuine value or just accelerates innovation theatre.

The article explores:

➡️ Why the most valuable problems exist between data points

➡️ How innovation portfolios actually work in complex organisations

➡️ Where AI truly amplifies human capability (and where it can't)

➡️ Why middle managers remain your critical innovation multiplier

➡️ The short-term reality: AI depends on human expertise

The future isn't AI-driven or human-driven. It's human-led and AI-amplified.

Read the full article to understand what this partnership actually requires.

👉 https://crisbeswick.com/the-human-reality-of-ai-driven-innovation-why-algorithms-cant-replace-observation-empathy-and-culture/

Bill Schmarzo’s recent article on The Four Pillars of AI-Driven Innovation presents a compelling framework for organisations seeking to harness AI’s potential—design thinking, data science, economics, and cultural empowerment. His emphasis on treating data as an appreciating asset and the need...