Unlocking Innovation

A Leader’s Guide for Turning Bold Ideas into Tangible Results

Robyn Bolton

Why do most corporate innovation efforts fail?

Only 1 in every 50,000 incubated ideas reaches $1 million in sales. If you ask most corporate executives why their companies’ innovation efforts fail, they’ll blame a lack of ideas or not enough big ideas. Innovation expert Robyn M. Bolton knows that innovation isn’t an idea problem, it’s a leadership problem. To drive real innovation, executives must defy the very instincts and behaviors that made them successful operators.

In Unlocking Innovation, Bolton draws on her twenty-five years of advising leaders to provide a practical, holistic innovation framework. Her ABCs of Innovation show leaders how to reshape their roles, teams, and organizations to create new value and catalyze corporate renewal from within. Using real-life stories, Bolton follows innovation leaders’ trajectories from heading up a new team and generating first results to navigating the inevitable crosswinds, complications, and conflicts—and ultimately delivering success. Unlocking Innovation is the essential guide for any leader tasked with innovating inside an established organization.

Reviews

“Ideas? Easier than ever. Leading innovation? Trickier than ever… unless you’ve got this book.”

Michael Bungay Stanier author of The Coaching Habit

“Robyn M. Bolton’s insights on building an innovation culture that thrives within existing corporate structures are spot-on. Unlocking Innovation is an invaluable resource for anyone navigating corporate innovation, providing a relatable and human-centered framework while emphasizing the importance of leadership behavior, smart structures, and a supportive culture. It is the playbook every CXO needs to drive meaningful change and deliver measurable impact.”

Ben Geheb global chief experience (CX) strategy officer at VML

“Robyn M. Bolton’s book stands out for its practical, nuts-and-bolts approach to innovation. As an executive, I appreciate how she anticipates the real-world challenges we face over time and provides concrete strategies to overcome them. This is the kind of book you can hand to a new innovation leader and say ‘make it so.’”

Joern Kallmeyer chief supply chain officer at tms

Robyn Bolton is the founder and chief navigator of MileZero, a consultancy that helps leaders use innovation to confidently and consistently grow revenue. She is also an assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she teaches innovation and strategy courses. She previously worked at Innosight, the innovation and strategy firm founded by Clayton Christensen; the Boston Consulting Group; and Procter & Gamble, where she helped develop and launch Swiffer. Bolton holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in marketing from Miami University. Her writing and perspective have been featured in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review online, the New York Times, and NPR’s Marketplace.

ISBN 978-1-77458-561-0
$24.95 CAD • $19.95 USD
Published February 20th, 2025

6 x 9 • 228 Pages
PAPERBACK, EBOOK