Moderate innovators simply copy the visible tactics used by many of the best innovators and apply them across the entire organisation without building the appropriate capabilities and structures to exploit the innovation opportunities they have discovered.

It is common for such companies, when faced with declining sales and profit margins, to declare that "we need more innovation." They often see the solution in setting up a new innovation lab or team. However, these new units have limited resources and authority within the company, yet they are expected to make the entire organisation more innovative. They are given considerable freedom, but rarely receive more specific strategic goals than "think about projects that best serve the future of our business". This is not surprising, as senior management generally has no experience in managing innovation, but they know from their studies or the business press that innovation requires a great deal of freedom, so employees involved in innovation should not be restricted. This is what innovation teams get when they run pilot projects for new products and services, which they then try to hand over to existing business units because they do not have the resources to bring the products to market. However, these business units typically lack the capabilities to develop or implement them, and are often not interested in doing so, as focusing on these new services would mean that they would not be able to achieve their own short-term goals and performance indicators. Once the new innovation units realise that they cannot innovate on their own, they begin to work on making the corporate culture more innovative and try to inspire other business units to innovate, which typically involves holding hackathons, creativity workshops and sending employees to special innovation seminars.

These measures undoubtedly generate good vibes and positive feedback from participants, but as soon as the innovation pilot projects end and employees return to their old roles, they inevitably fall back into their old habits. After the sample and pilot projects, no real change takes place in the organisation, and senior management becomes increasingly sceptical about innovation. It is very difficult to get out of such situations, so it is worth trying to avoid them.

If the above description sounds familiar to a business, it is advisable to take a step back and look at the big picture, figure out the strategic directions, and determine what role innovation can play in that business. This vision should then be broken down into smaller, very specific initiatives and projects that need to be implemented step by step. The key to their success is that the new initiatives deliver measurable results and contribute to the organisation's strategic goals.