It was surveyed that nearly 51% of the organization were surveyed that in our innovation research, reported that their organizations are unable to keep pace with market changes. Also organizations are seeing substantial changes in their sectors and related ecosystems. Therefore such shifts demand innovation and investment or face the consequences.

Usually, companies struggle with their innovation efforts as they fail to equip themselves with the relevant capabilities, talent, and resources. In order to shift an organization’s effort towards innovation a concerted effort needs to be made in five dimensions critical to innovation maturity such as ecosystem, environment, governance, culture, and process.

The integral part to innovation is the access to a wider ecosystem. The innovative organizations must develop ideas in conjunction with both external and internal partners. Organization recognizes the critical nature of ecosystems with a dedicated alliances organization. Such alliances in the organization makes sure to maintain partnerships with leading names as well as managing an emerging partner program for startups in collaboration with the organization.

It has been observed that hierarchical, bureaucratic, and linear work structures are flattening in today's time whereas morphing in to becoming more flexible, with a collaborative and self-managed environments. Indeed the workplace structures would not disappear completely. Instead, employees clear areas of responsibility in new project-driven work styles, as well as individuals will become specialist, and ad-hoc teams will come together based on need. In which context workplace innovation is considered to be of utmost importance. It is has been confirmed by the digital talent and innovation research that a digital-first culture is one of the most dimension for an innovative organization together with the support and role modeling of senior leadership.

The innovation centers offer a wide range of benefits such as -
1. They accelerate the speed of innovation. For instance Walmart Labs, helped Walmart in developing its internal search engine in just 9 months, driving a 20% increase in online sales conversions.
2. The Innovation centers also provide a fresh source of ideas. With the reference to their location, innovation centers tap into a very wide ecosystem of startups, technology vendors, and academics. It is a great source of inspiration and new ideas.

Some of the key skills of innovation manager are -
1. Business Case Oriented
2. Project Oriented
3. Ability to manage failures and expectations
4. Willingness to change
5. Curiosity to learn
6. Optimism to achieve
7. Cross Industry experience
8. Clear vision and Strategies

According to me the biggest threat to an innovation project is that the more disruptive the project, the bigger the chance failure can occur. When we are walking in new territory, then an innovation manager would require to prepare others around since the future is always very uncertain.

In this case the interviewer does not only want to talk about change as it is not enough. The interviewer is looking for candidates that are willing to take the first steps themselves. If you are wanting to become an innovation manager then you must put your foot forward and state experiences which inspire others to follow.