What does it really take to turn bold ideas into billion-dollar businesses inside large enterprises?
In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I’m joined by Paul Campbell, one of the world’s leading experts on corporate innovation and co-author of The Corporate Innovator’s Playbook. Over the course of his career, Paul has helped create more than 50 new businesses that have generated over $5 billion in growth while advising companies including Hewlett-Packard, Philips, Schneider Electric, Mercedes-Benz, and W.L. Gore.
Our conversation moves beyond brainstorming and ideation to focus on the reality of making innovation succeed inside complex enterprises. Paul shares why so many innovation initiatives fail, why incremental thinking holds companies back, and what leaders can do to create an environment where bold ideas have a genuine chance to succeed.
We also tackle one of the biggest questions facing business today. Is AI replacing corporate innovation, or is it creating the biggest opportunity innovation leaders have seen in years? Paul explains why most companies are still focused on using AI for efficiency while missing its greatest potential as a driver of entirely new products, business models, and sources of growth.
One of my favorite moments is Paul’s story from Hewlett-Packard, where CEO Carly Fiorina personally challenged her team to think bigger, breaking through organizational resistance and helping transform HP’s position in the Chinese market. It’s a powerful reminder that innovation succeeds when leadership creates the confidence to take meaningful risks.
Throughout our conversation, Paul shares practical lessons from decades of helping global enterprises commercialize ideas, navigate internal resistance, and build innovation programs that deliver measurable business results.
We discuss why corporate innovation needs a practical playbook rather than more theory, how AI is changing the role of innovation teams, why efficiency alone is not enough to deliver future growth, the importance of bold leadership and executive engagement, overcoming organizational barriers to innovation, building an innovation culture that encourages smart risk-taking, and using the Innovation Canvas to uncover the blind spots preventing companies from turning ideas into successful businesses.
If you’ve ever wondered why some organizations consistently create new growth while others struggle to move beyond incremental improvements, this conversation offers valuable insights from someone who has spent decades helping some of the world’s biggest companies make innovation work.
Name: Paul Campbell
LinkedIn | Corporate Innovator’s Playbook
Paul Campbell is considered one of the world’s experts on Corporate Innovation, helping create more than fifty new businesses that generated more than five billion dollars of growth. His experience with a broad range of business models, technologies, and products globally lends him a unique perspective on how to address innovation and leadership challenges inside companies of all sizes.
Paul helped leadership teams for companies like Hewlett-Packard, Philips Electronics, Schneider Electric, W.L. Gore & Associates, Altria, Mercedes-Benz, and Polaris assess the cultural, structural, and leadership changes necessary to foster an environment of innovation in large companies that optimizes capital deployment and ROI on R&D and Innovation programs. Of even more value in some cases, Paul’s teams earned spots on Fast Company’s prestigious Most Innovative Companies list, improving brand equity significantly. Paul has advised the World Economic Forum, the European Commission, startups and numerous accelerators/incubators around the globe.
Paul and his co-author, Stefen Bartschat, have codified their understanding of how to address corporate innovation challenges in their upcoming book, The Corporate Innovator’s Playbook (due Spring ’26). Written by practitioners for practitioners, The Corporate Innovator’s Playbook shares a framework for understanding a company’s strengths and potential blind spots. Filled with tips and best practices, the book is a must-read for all executives looking to optimize their innovation program for growth and impact.