What happens in practice
Many energy organisations have a clear innovation strategy on paper.
- Focus areas are defined
- Investment themes are agreed
- Roadmaps and priorities are documented
But in practice, little changes.
Innovation remains:
- Disconnected from the teams that need to make, own and execute the business choices
- Difficult to prioritise consistently
- Hard to translate into concrete decisions
The strategy may be clear. But the choices that determine impact are often not made sharply enough.
Why this happens
This is not a lack of strategy. It is a failure to translate strategy into the business choices that decide what gets built, funded, owned and stopped.
In energy organisations, a few patterns show up consistently:
- Strategy and execution are separated
Innovation is defined centrally, but the teams expected to own the business outcomes are often not part of the decisions. - Other priorities take over
Reliability, regulation and day-to-day operations crowd out innovation. - Ownership is unclear
No one is fully accountable for deciding which innovation opportunities should move forward, what they need to become business, and when work should stop. - Progress depends on others
Partners, startups and regulators influence what can move forward, which dependencies need attention, and where internal decisions are not enough.
Strategy gets defined, but the business choices behind it remain unresolved.
What it costs
When strategy doesn’t translate into business-building decisions:
- Innovation investments don’t deliver full value
- Initiatives get started, but are rarely scaled
- Teams lose focus and momentum
Leadership starts questioning whether innovation is creating real business value.
Over time, this leads to:
- Repeated strategy resets instead of real progress
- Growing scepticism around innovation efforts
More strategy cycles, but fewer decisions that change what gets built.
How I help
I help energy organisations turn strategy into business-building decisions: what to focus on, what to fund, who should own it, and what needs to stop.
In practice, this means:
- Making strategy operational
Turning high-level priorities into concrete business choices: which opportunities deserve focus, which pilots should move forward, which dependencies must be resolved, and which initiatives should stop. - Clarifying ownership
Ensuring there is clear accountability for turning selected innovation opportunities into business outcomes, not just for coordinating activities. - Connecting teams
Bringing innovation teams and operational units around the same priorities, decisions and ownership. - Integrating the ecosystem
Making sure partners and dependencies support business-building decisions instead of slowing them down.
Strategy stops being direction. It starts deciding what gets built.
Where I've done this
I have worked with organisations across the energy value chain, including system operators (TSO/DSO), energy corporates, technology and service providers, startups and ecosystem partners.
Supporting leaders who need to make sharper innovation choices, including innovation leads, strategy teams, programme and transformation leads, and business owners accountable for turning innovation into operational value.
Examples of work include:
- Connecting innovation roadmaps to operational choices and delivery capacity
- Aligning strategy across innovation and business units
- Structuring governance so focus, funding and ownership are clear before initiatives move into execution
If your innovation strategy is clear, but focus, ownership or business choices are not yet sharp enough, we should talk.
