From Invention to Impact: Why Adoption is the Real Innovation Challenge
- Anthony Gallego
- May 5
- 6 min read
Waiting at the airport to collect my mum, I spotted a copy of the Harvard Business Review magazine (March–April 2026 edition). It was a perfect read whilst waiting in one of the arrivals coffee shops. One article specifically, explored a familiar challenge: why do so many promising innovations struggle to move from pilot to real-world impact?
The conclusion was not new — but very relevant and important: it is rarely the technology that fails. It is the system around it.
The Real Failure Point: Adoption, Not Invention
Most innovation systems are good at generating ideas. I have seen this over the last decade whilst working with Innovators, and the systems around them. Many are reasonably effective at supporting early-stage development. Where they consistently struggle is widespread adoption.
This shows up in multiple ways: pilots that never move beyond demonstration; technologies that are proven in isolation but not embedded into systems; fragmented roll-out; and slow uptake despite clear value.
I tried to find some UK statistics on the size of the challenge:
In the UK, only 47% of start-ups survive beyond three years, and just 2% reach £1m turnover. Source: Backing Your Business: Our Plan for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
OECD - OCDE analysis shows that productivity growth in frontier firms significantly outpaces the rest, reflecting slow diffusion of innovation. Source: Frontier Firms, Technology Diffusion and Public Policy
The OECD also identifies that limited diffusion of innovation is a core driver of the productivity slowdown. Source: The Global Forum on Productivity at 10
My take: we are not failing to invent — we are failing to adopt at scale.
This is not a new diagnosis. It is recognised across government. DSIT's Technology Adoption Review, launched in 2025, exists precisely because the challenge of moving from development to deployment has been formally identified as a national priority.
Why Adoption is so Difficult
Adoption requires system-wide change. It exposes organisations to operational risk — not just technical feasibility — and it demands alignment across multiple decision-makers, often with competing incentives and motivations.
In a sector like transport, this becomes even more pronounced. Beyond the direct challenge of scaling an innovation:
Infrastructure cycles in transport are long
Different actors optimise for different outcomes: Start-ups focus on speed and iteration Corporates prioritise operational excellence, risk mitigation and reliability Regulators seek compliance and safety
These differences create friction in decision-making. Even when collaboration exists, translating shared intent into coordinated deployment remains one of the hardest steps in the innovation journey.
This creates an innovation bias: it is easier to fund a pilot than to commit to deployment; easier to test than to integrate; and easier to innovate than to adopt.
Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom Better Connected: A Strategy for Integrated Transport (April 2026) names these exact barriers directly. The strategy was launched with the explicit acknowledgement that "for too long, the transport system has been fragmented, inefficient and difficult to navigate" and frames the challenge as a call to action for the whole transport sector to work together. Its Transport Innovation Procurement Pathway is designed specifically to close the gap between pilot and procurement — moving public authorities from risk-averse inertia to confident buying of proven innovation. Source: Better Connected: A Strategy for Integrated Transport
What Successful Countries Do Differently — and the Evidence Behind It
Countries such as Singapore and the Nordics (Finland, Sweden, Denmark) are often referenced as strong performers in scaling innovation. The data supports this — not because they produce more ideas, but because they enable adoption more effectively.
1. Faster Diffusion Across the Economy (OECD evidence)
Policies that support skills, competition, and knowledge flow improve diffusion and adoption.
2. Stronger System Alignment (WEF competitiveness data)
Singapore ranked #1 globally in the Global Competitiveness Index
Nordic countries consistently rank highly for institutional quality and collaboration
3. Consistent "Innovation Leader" Performance (EU Innovation Scoreboard)
Sweden, Finland, and Denmark outperform on SME adoption, collaboration, and digitalisation.
4. High Digital and Government Integration (OECD / UN indices)
Nordic countries and Singapore lead global rankings in digital government maturity and integration.
Source (Nordic): 2023 OECD Digital Government Index
Source (Singapore): UN E-Government Survey 2024
The Common Factor: Deliberate System Integration
High-performing systems reduce friction by:
Aligning policy, funding, and delivery
Embedding collaboration early
Creating clear pathways from pilot to deployment
This is not about having more ideas. It is about creating the connection that allow good ideas to travel.
The Missing Capability: The "Bridger"
This is where the Harvard Business Review article resonated most directly with the work we do at Innovate UK Business Connect, and helped sharpen where to focus.
The core idea is that high-performing organisations succeed by developing "bridgers" — individuals, and by extension organisations, who actively align, translate, and integrate across partners to move innovation from concept to impact.
This concept is not new to Innovate UK, and Innovate UK Business Connect. Both organisations have long invested in convening and facilitating collaboration . What the HBR framework does is sharpen the language and provide a clearer model for how that function creates impact. Innovate UK Business Connect, and its position in the innovation ecosystem, closely embodies this bridger role in practice.
What Bridgers Actually Do
a. Curate the Right Partners Select stakeholders not just for capability, but for influence, alignment potential, and strategic relevance. Build diverse, high-value networks.
b. Translate Across Boundaries Convert technical concepts into business value, and business needs into technical requirements. Make complexity accessible to all stakeholders. Prevent misinterpretation and friction.
c. Build Trust and Commitment Foster mutual trust (safe to engage and take risks), mutual
influence (shared ownership of decisions), and mutual commitment (sustained engagement over time).
d. Surface and Resolve Tensions Do not suppress conflict — make differences explicit. Address root causes: incentives, fears, priorities. Turn friction into productive dialogue.
e. Integrate Efforts into Coherent Action Align decision-making frameworks, milestones, and success criteria — enabling faster, more confident execution.
What This Means for the UK — and for IUKBC
Reflecting on the article's message , I realised the UK has strong innovation capability. Like many leading systems, the recognised challenge is moving from creating innovation to scaling it consistently — and this is precisely what government policy is now targeting.
It also reinforced my view that this is where Innovate UK Business Connect will continue to play a critical role.
As a neutral convener and integrator, IUKBC supports by:
Connecting innovators with adopters, not just collaborators
Translating innovation into operational and policy-ready propositions
Aligning stakeholders around deployment, not just demonstration
Supporting system-level coordination across fragmented actors
And this is not easy. Finding partners who can genuinely align — across pace, risk, incentives, and outcomes — remains one of the hardest parts of innovation delivery.
But that difficulty reinforces the point: the bridging role is not a nice-to-have — it is essential infrastructure for scaling innovation.
Why This Matters Even More in Integrated Transport
If adoption is hard in general, it becomes significantly more complex in integrated transport.
Here, success depends on alignment across:
Multiple modes and operators
Infrastructure and digital systems
Local and national government
Evolving regulatory frameworks
No single organisation can solve this. And misalignment at any point can stall progress across the whole system.
Better Connected recognises this explicitly. Its guiding principles — People, Place and Partnership — and its eight delivery priorities are built around the premise that integration, not invention, is what the transport system most needs. Its commitment to data flows, digital twins, and the Innovation Procurement Pathway all point to the same conclusion: the system needs better connective tissue, not just better components.
This makes the bridger role even more critical:
Aligning across boundaries
Integrating fragmented systems
Enabling coordinated deployment at scale
My takeaway
Innovation systems often celebrate new ideas. But impact is only realised when those ideas are adopted widely. The evidence is clear: diffusion is slow, scaling is rare, and failure often sits at the interfaces between organisations.
Countries that perform well do not just innovate. They integrate.
In the UK, the opportunity — particularly in the context of Better Connected and the renewed focus on technology adoption across government — is not just to lead in innovation, but to lead in how innovation is brought together, aligned, and adopted.
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