Driving innovation without disrupting the business 

This tension is particularly evident in large, complex companies. The teams responsible for daily operations—those who ensure reliability, security, and performance—are also expected to allocate time and resources to explore the new and untested. However, innovation seldom prevails in that internal competition. It slips further down the priority list with every urgent operational demand, audit cycle, and pending release. 

And yet, innovation still needs to happen. 

When companies notice that internal innovation is slowing down, the logical response is to create a dedicated team. A full-time group focused on R&D, experimentation, and transformation. It seems appropriate—and in many cases, it is. However, organizing that team is anything but straightforward.

The costs extend well beyond hiring. There’s the approval process for headcount, the effect on OPEX, the time required for onboarding, and the organizational effort needed to integrate this new team into an already packed roadmap, with the risk of losing them to cover operational emergencies. Even worse, once the team is established, it might find itself facing the same constraints that hindered everyone else. The environment remains unchanged—only the job titles have shifted.

That’s where the argument for an external innovation capability becomes not only valid but often preferable. 

What has consistently proven effective is a hybrid model. An external team undertakes the majority of the work: research, exploration, prototyping, validation, and delivery. Meanwhile, the internal team participates selectively, concentrating on areas where their input is vital: defining business context, validating decisions, and ensuring alignment with organizational constraints.

This setup isn’t about outsourcing ideas; it’s about increasing capacity without compromising stability. When executed effectively, external teams provide two benefits that are difficult to achieve internally: flexibility and focus. Flexibility allows the team to expand or contract based on the project’s demands, while focus ensures they aren’t pulled in multiple directions—they’re dedicated to solving a specific problem or exploring a defined opportunity.

This model also provides structural support. Because these initiatives can be framed as self-contained projects, they often qualify for CAPEX treatment. This makes them easier to justify, particularly in organizations where new operating costs face closer scrutiny.