How to build trust as an innovation strategy

Innovation isn’t just about having ideas; it’s about realizing them. In the 2022 Business Innovators Index from Mastercard and Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, we explore trust as the currency of innovation.

Innovation can be driven by an organization’s desire to broaden its product and service offerings and serve different markets. “For us, innovation isn’t just a ‘nice to have,’” says Mastercard’s chief innovation officer, Ken Moore. “It’s an absolute competitive necessity, because our mission and our ambition have, as a company, evolved significantly from where they started.”

The key to unlocking innovation within an organization, explains Moore, is to create a space for employees to align their ideas with the overall strategy. That can mean giving people room to explore emerging technologies — and it can mean fulfilling their social consciousness by focusing on inclusivity and sustainability. “The best talent wants to do well and do good.”