Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources (Education) Thomas Menkhoff and Ong Geok Chwee, who is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in innovation at SMU, believe that boards should hold themselves accountable for making innovation work. Those that do not might end up destroying value rather than creating it. To stay in business and be ahead of the competition, realignment of business models with new opportunities offered by digitalisation is necessary.

“The key challenges of innovating are usually cultural – can board members and the CEO create an organisational culture that is adaptable and nimble, and where employees are truly passionate about the change imperative and the intrapreneurial, more innovative way forward?” they asked.

“Building a solid foundation for being continually innovative requires numerous pillars. One is to encourage employees to try and to accept that they can make mistakes,” they suggested.