How do you bring discipline to innovation without stripping away the creativity that makes it powerful in the first place?
In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Stephen Parkins, Innovation Strategist and Founder of Culturedge, to unpack what it really takes to turn innovation into a strategic asset rather than a side project fueled by hope and enthusiasm.
Stephen brings an outside-in perspective shaped by an unconventional career spanning financial markets, startup entrepreneurship, and senior innovation roles within complex global organizations. That distance from the usual corporate playbook allows him to challenge some deeply held assumptions about how innovation should work and why so many well-intentioned efforts struggle to deliver measurable returns.
We talk openly about the tension between creativity and structure, and why innovation does not fail because teams lack ideas, but because organizations lack clarity, consistent decision-making, and shared language. Stephen offers a thoughtful perspective on innovation management systems, including the much-debated ISO standards, and explains why guardrails are often misunderstood as constraints.
Drawing on real-world experience from large enterprises, he argues that structure, when well designed, creates the conditions for better experimentation, smarter risk-taking, and stronger alignment between innovators and the core business.
The conversation also dives into strategy, funding, and culture, particularly the invisible friction between those running today’s business and those inventing tomorrow’s. Stephen shares how portfolio thinking, exposure to risk, and optionality can shift innovation from theater to real value creation.
We also explore his work as co-founder of Strategy Quest, a simulation-based approach that helps leaders practice decision-making under uncertainty, surface blind spots, and learn through consequence rather than theory. It is a compelling look at how scenario thinking and simulated environments can prepare the next generation of innovation leaders to see around corners.
If innovation is meant to help organizations grow stronger in uncertain times, what needs to change in how leaders think about risk, culture, and decision-making? Are we brave enough to build systems that actually support that ambition?
Name: Stephen Parkins
Title: Innovation Strategist and Founder
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Stephen Parkins is the Innovation Strategist and Founder of Culturedge and the Co-Founder of Strategy Quest. He helps business leaders turn innovation into a strategic asset for long-term growth, with demonstrable ROI.
Stephen firmly believes that in a volatile, uncertain world, innovation is the single most powerful driver of productivity and rising living standards. But innovation requires structure and discipline.
Over the past 20+ years, he has supported startups, scaleups, listed corporates, and global giants in building the systems, tools, portfolios, and capabilities required to turn innovation into a source of growth, focus, and measurable returns (ROI).
Stephen’s work centres on bringing structure, disciplined investment, and adaptive systems that turn strategy and ideas into measurable value.
Drawing on real experience inside complex organisations, he explains how clarity, consistent decision-making and adaptive learning create innovation that actually delivers. He has a practical, finance-credible approach to *innovating with discipline* – built for companies tired of chaos and theatre.