Innovation in legacy organisations often feels like a balancing act – move too fast and you risk destabilising the core, too slowly and you risk falling behind.

In boardrooms around the world, legacy companies are facing unprecedented pressure. Disruption is no longer a future threat – it’s a present reality. The question today is how to innovate without compromising the very foundations that made the business successful. For senior leaders, the challenge isn’t choosing between stability and reinvention – it’s designing a system where both can thrive.

Josh Emerson, Associate Partner within the Digital & Technology Practice at Eton Bridge Partners, spoke with Ivanka Visnjic, MBA Professor at ESADE Business School and Head of Department of Operations, Innovation and Data Sciences. A leading expert on innovation and business model transformation, Ivanka works with global firms and is widely published. She has been recognised among Poets & Quants’ Top 40 Under 40 MBA Professors, and twice awarded for teaching excellence. She also serves as an Independent Board Member at Wiser Technology. Their conversation explored how legacy firms can innovate from a position of strength – not from scratch, a challenge often raised by our C-suite clients.

Where passion meets purpose

Ivanka’s passion for innovation is deeply personal. Growing up in Serbia during the 1990s, she witnessed economic collapse and societal upheaval, an experience that fuelled her desire for constructive change. “At an early age, I got to experience what destruction looks like, and that made me strongly passionate about the opposite – about creativity, innovation, and transformation,” she recalls.

That desire has carried through from her early work at the consultancy McKinsey, to her academic career today, where she helps large organisations unlock innovation that’s not just bold, but built to last.

This article summarises six practical strategies for C-level leaders, highlighting how to build the systems, behaviours, and leadership practices that make innovation both scalable and sustainable.

1 – Protect the core while growing the future

A persistent myth in legacy organisations is that innovation and stability can’t coexist; this binary thinking can lead to either inaction or unsustainable risk. Ivanka advises: “The most successful legacy firms don’t disrupt themselves from within. They design systems that allow radical innovation to develop in parallel.”

She uses the metaphor of a “greenhouse beside a forest”. The forest is the established core business and the greenhouse is where new ideas are nurtured, shielded from demands until they’re ready to scale. Both grow side by side, but not at the expense of the other.

There are clear examples of this working in practice:

• Atlas Copco’s SMARTLINK solution was developed over several years and was protected from core business demands, before being scaled across 100,000+ machines.
• Enel Group runs over 200 proof-of-concept (POC) projects each year, trialling innovations from cybersecurity to robotic turbine maintenance.

The key lies in two core disciplines:

1. Test rigorously: Promising ideas shouldn’t be rushed into the core business. Instead, they need to be stress-tested – technically, operationally, and strategically – before scaling.

2. Measure differently: Early-stage innovation shouldn’t be judged by traditional KPIs such as profitability or ROI. Instead, Ivanka advises tracking signals like market fit and long-term strategic relevance.

“It’s about being architects of boldness. You don’t gamble the core – you design the future alongside it”, she explains.

2 – Think like a venture capitalist, not a planner

In many legacy organisations, innovation is treated like a project – launched with a carefully crafted plan and a long runway of assumptions. But, according to Ivanka, that’s not how meaningful innovation happens: “Innovation is more like venture gardening than corporate planning. You plant a variety of seeds, watch what takes root, and nurture what shows potential.”

At Enel, this philosophy was put into practice at scale. Each year, it scans over 4,000 opportunities and develops around 200 as structured POCs. The goal isn’t certainty, it’s discovery.

Ivanka emphasises that each stage of the innovation journey demands its own expectations and metrics. In the early exploration phase, success is measured by how many hypotheses are tested and partnerships are formed. As concepts mature, the focus shifts to customer engagement, unit economics, and business model viability. Measuring Innovation’s Return on Investment only come into play once an idea is ready to scale, not before.

This shift isn’t just about processes; it’s about cultural flexibility. Ivanka advocates for agile governance models that mirror how venture capital operates: stage funding, milestone-based reviews and cross-functional teams with the authority to act quickly. She explains: “It’s not about picking winners too early. It’s about staying close to the evidence – so when the breakout idea emerges, you’re ready to back it with conviction.”

3 – Don’t just invest in startups – grow with them

Legacy firms often approach startups as investors or acquirers, but Ivanka argues the real opportunity lies in strategic collaboration, not control.

Startups bring agility, speed and fresh thinking. Corporates bring scale, credibility, and market access. But meaningful innovation only happens when both sides are aligned – not just on what they’re building, but on why.

Ivanka highlights four key criteria for selecting the right startup partners to start collaborating with:

1. Strategic alignment with long-term priorities like AI, sustainability, or digital transformation
2. Early technical validation through pilots, lab results or customer traction
3. Operational readiness to collaborate professionally at enterprise standards
4. Agility with independence – the ability to move fast and bring fresh thinking, without becoming easily absorbed into corporate processes

Enel Group embodies this approach. It starts with small, structured pilots, not ownership stakes, allowing both sides to test the solution and the partnership before scaling together. Ivanka adds, “The smarter play is to think about what innovation needs to grow, and then what you can do to help that startup grow that innovation.”

This kind of collaboration requires internal capability – from legal frameworks to cross-functional teams – but the reward is a faster, lower-risk route to innovation.

4 – Incentivise innovation from the inside     

Inertia is often the enemy of innovation in legacy businesses. As Ivanka puts it, “It’s not that people lack ideas. The system lacks incentives and structures to let those ideas move forward.”

Real progress happens when innovation is embedded into everyday roles, recognised as a pathway to leadership, and backed by visible support from the top.

Ivanka names Atlas Copco as a standout example. Under former CEO, Ronnie Leten, innovators weren’t sidelined, they were promoted. Helena Hedblom, for example, was an R&D Manager who later became CEO of Epiroc. Innovation, in this type of culture, becomes a career accelerator.

For innovation to thrive, hubs must act as bridges, connecting intrapreneurial talent with middle managers and frontline teams. Crucially, leaders need to lead by example: sharing success stories, celebrating small wins, and creating psychological safety for experimentation to flourish. “When leaders champion small wins and tolerate small failures, they signal that innovation isn’t extracurricular, it’s essential”, Ivanka explains. 

5 – Build the reflexes to scale quickly

Many legacy organisations stall in what Ivanka calls the “corridor of uncertainty” – the space where an innovation has shown promise, but lacks the momentum, support, or infrastructure to go further.

“The hard part isn’t coming up with ideas,” she says, “it’s building the reflexes to scale them. That’s where innovation dreams either take flight or stall out.”

One common barrier is involving critical stakeholders, like CFOs, too late in the process. When brought in early, they will understand the risks and potential and are far more likely to support the next stage.

Ivanka also emphasises the need to “build the runway before you take off”. Atlas Copco’s SMARTLINK, for example, didn’t scale overnight. It required years of groundwork – testing technology, building ecosystems and aligning partners – before it was ready for wide deployment.

Scaling can’t be an afterthought, it needs its own governance, leadership, and pace. And when the signals are strong, leaders must act fast. Speed, Ivanka says, is a learned reflex and one that legacy organisations must develop if they want their innovations to stick. 

6 – Use AI as a catalyst – not a sideshow

AI is drawing unprecedented attention at the top of legacy organisations, and Ivanka sees this as a major opportunity: “AI makes benefits more visible. That’s why it’s getting board-level attention, even from sceptics.”

Her work with large businesses includes supporting the adoption of AI tools across core business functions, from automated procurement and dynamic pricing to AI-enabled board observers.

But making AI stick requires more than enthusiasm – infrastructure is critical. Ivanka points to private cloud environments as an essential enabler, providing the security and scalability needed to deploy AI responsibly.

She also stresses the importance of executive understanding. Traditional financial KPIs don’t always capture the value of AI-driven initiatives. It’s better to equip Boards and CFOs with early visibility into alternative performance signals – like speed, reliability, or customer experience – so they can evaluate outcomes with confidence and clarity.

AI can be a catalyst for meaningful innovation, Ivanka concludes, but only when it’s grounded in purpose, supported by the right structures, and championed with strategic intent.

Final thought: Innovate from a position of strength

Ivanka’s approach to innovation is a refreshing blueprint for legacy organisations, and for our clients at Eton Bridge Partners – many of whom are leading transformation from within long-standing, high-performing businesses – her message is both timely and reassuring.

At its heart, innovation is about people – their ideas, their passions, and their willingness to shape the future, and it can build on the strength of what already works.

Whether it’s protecting the core while nurturing the new, building strategic startup partnerships, or embedding AI with intent, the opportunity lies in creating the systems, behaviours and leadership practices that make innovation both scalable and sustainable.

For today’s C-suite, success comes from staying true to what already works within an organisation – core strengths, values and capabilities -and building on them as a stable foundation for purposeful innovation that delivers lasting impact.

At Eton Bridge Partners, we believe people are at the heart of business, and the core of successful transformation. If you’re exploring how to build digital and technology leadership that drives real impact or want to discuss any of the themes raised here, please do get in touch with Josh, he’d love to hear from you.

You can read the Harvard Business Review article here: ‘The Legacy Company’s Guide to Innovation’ by Ivanka Visnjic and Ronnie Leten