Innovation: theory and practice of a sustainable future for systemic change

Claudia Laricchia

Serendipity and Theory of Change in service of sustainable Innovation

On May 13, the Harvard Business Review published an article by Jerome Barthelemy, Professor of Strategy & Management at ESSEC Business School in France, and Nicolas Mottis, Professor at Ecole Polytechnique in France, titled:
“To drive innovation, create the conditions for serendipity.”
I found the analysis by the two authors truly fascinating, and it made me reflect on the relationship between this approach and that of the Theory of Change (ToC), which is well known for its application in innovation processes.

Let’s start with the concept of serendipity.

Serendipity is the unexpected discovery of something useful while looking for something else.
It is a crucial element in innovation processes, as evidenced by many of the discoveries of our time.

One example is the story of Prof. Luigi Nicolais, former Minister for Reforms and Innovation in Public Administration and President of the National Research Council (CNR), founder of Materias, chemical engineer, academic, and expert in materials science.

Prof. Nicolais was working on a super-absorbent material for diapers and sanitary products, a type of gel capable of retaining large quantities of liquid. During testing, it was discovered that one of the experimental polymers, when ingested by lab animals, had a blocking effect on fat absorption at the intestinal level.

This effect was later studied by other research teams and led to the development of a substance capable of limiting lipid absorption—paving the way for anti-obesity drugs.
From a diaper to an anti-obesity drug. That’s serendipity: the unexpected discovery of something useful while searching for something else.

In this example, we clearly see the three phases of serendipity:

An unexpected event occurs.
Someone recognizes its value.
The opportunity is seized.

Companies that learn to cultivate serendipity gain a huge competitive advantage. The point is not to rely on randomness, but to create the conditions for the unexpected to become an opportunity. This is the skill and capability to be developed—which is why creating conditions for serendipity is essential.

According to the authors of the Harvard Business Review article, these conditions are threefold:

Foster openness to surprises, meaning put company resources in a position to recognize the value of the unexpected event, training them to capitalize on its opportunities. Innovation isn’t hidden in a chest you find with Google Maps. Innovation hides in unpredictable places, to be discovered with a treasure map.
Foster interaction between disciplines, i.e., avoid siloed corporate structures and encourage horizontal dialogue to enable interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary solutions. Innovation is not a solo act. Innovation is a symphony.
Foster experimentation as a key element of corporate culture, meaning create playgrounds where freedom to fail is a necessary factor for creating innovation.

In this spirit, Bernard Sadow in the 1970s, noticing an airport worker dragging a wheeled machine, invented the wheeled suitcase. He found innovation in an unpredictable place.

To break down silos, Steve Jobs designed Pixar’s headquarters to encourage spontaneous encounters, explaining that “Ideas arise from random conversations, not emails.”

Canon, in the 1970s, leveraged a mistake to foster innovation: a technician accidentally touched an ink-filled needle with a soldering iron, and encouraged by leadership, this gave rise to the idea of the inkjet printer. Just as Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by chance while studying influenza.

Serendipity.

The definition of serendipity, its three phases, and the three corporate conditions to make it a strategic competitive lever, led me to reflect, as I said, on its relationship with Theory of Change (ToC).

Let’s also begin here with a definition.
Theory of Change (ToC) is a logical model, developed in the 1990s, used to plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate systemic change. It is frequently applied in international cooperation, impact investing, the nonprofit sector, policy design, education, and sustainability. It answers the question:

“How will change happen?”

Innovation, through this lens, is an enabler of systemic change that takes into account all these elements, including economic, social, environmental, and human impact. A purpose-driven innovation, which is precisely what is needed in this era of the perfect storm of systemic crises we are facing.

The comparison with serendipity, in relation to innovation, can therefore be made by contrasting the following elements:

It is therefore clear that these two approaches are perfectly complementary.
This complementarity is essential—provided there is continuous training on both fronts, and an awareness of their bidirectional correlations (each approach supports the other).

I underline once again that the choice of the Theory of Change is not accidental, since the kind of innovation we need today is sustainable and highly impactful from a sustainability standpoint.

After all, the ToC is a theory of planned innovation, useful for building intentional strategies. Serendipity is a practice of emergent innovation, useful for discovering unexpected opportunities.

Both require training and a mindset open to interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.

Having these tools and approaches in your toolbox means being capable of co-designing a sustainable future and a systemic change, in the face of today’s urgent need to act innovatively—breaking away from old development models and ensuring, quite simply, the continuation of human life on Earth.

Claudia Laricchia, President of SMILY Academy; Faculty Member of the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability.

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