According to Kyle Harker, Head of Operations and Technology at Publicis Groupe Africa, at its core, innovation is the ability to see differently. It’s the discipline of recognising that within every challenge lies the seed of opportunity. That shift in perspective changes the conversation from ‘what’s broken?’ to ‘what’s possible?’
True innovation is about reframing challenges as opportunities and building solutions that are both agile and enduring. In environments defined by complexity and constraint, which describes most of today’s business landscape, lasting innovation is about creating value that scales and strengthens.
In practice, innovation should be measured by the depth of its impact and the longevity of its value. The most meaningful breakthroughs are those that embed into the fabric of operations, improving how people work, make decisions and deliver results.
This mindset is what separates sustainable innovation from short-term experimentation. It requires resilience and context: understanding where agility is necessary, but also where consistency is vital.
Over the past few years, two pivotal experiences have shaped how leading organisations approach innovation.
1. Scaling Transformation Across Borders
Delivering a multi-country operational transformation programme and aligning that to global operations, represents a major test of both technology and teamwork. The success of such programmes hinges on more than just platform adoption; it’s about harmonising processes, building shared purpose and ensuring that innovation does not stop at pilot phase but becomes part of everyday practice.
2. Reframing AI As An Enabler, Not A Threat
Artificial Intelligence has moved from buzzword to business backbone. The turning point comes when teams stop seeing AI as a disruptor and start treating it as a collaborator. Integrating AI into workflows for efficiency and decision support transforms it from something to fear into something to trust. It becomes a tool that enhances human capability, rather than replaces it.
Innovation fails not because ideas are bad, but because adoption is poor. Two lessons stand out as universal truths:
1. Change management is never one-size-fits-all. The nuance of local markets, cultures and work practices drives whether change sticks. A strategy that works in one region may face resistance in another. Understanding and respecting those nuances, from regulatory environments to cultural perceptions of technology, is what ultimately determines adoption speed and success.
2. Trust is the engine of transformation. Every new tool, platform or AI system depends on human trust to thrive. People don’t adopt what they don’t understand. The real work of innovation lies in unpacking the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind each advancement; explaining, in practical detail, how it benefits the user and strengthens the organisation. Transparency demystifies technology, and that understanding builds trust. Trust, in turn, drives usage, and usage fuels measurable impact.
2026: The Year of Distributed Innovation
Looking ahead, 2026 won’t be defined by a single technology or trend. Instead, it will be remembered as the year innovation became democratised.
We’re moving beyond centralised innovation teams and technical silos. The rise of low-code and no-code platforms, alongside accessible AI, is empowering people across every function to build, automate and solve problems for themselves. The emergence of self-service AI agents (systems that employees can design and train without needing advanced technical skills) is accelerating this shift.
What we’re seeing is the evolution of innovation from a specialist discipline to a shared capability. When more people can create, more ideas surface and more problems get solved faster. This decentralisation of innovation unlocks speed, scale, and ingenuity – essential in an economy where agility and resourcefulness are no longer optional, but existential.
As global markets become more volatile, and resources more constrained, the ability to innovate efficiently becomes a competitive advantage. Distributed innovation models tap into collective intelligence and empower teams to respond to change in real time.
In this model, leaders play a different role: they become enablers of ecosystems rather than controllers of change. Their job is to provide the frameworks, guardrails, and trust infrastructure that allow innovation to flourish safely across the organisation.
Moreover, the convergence of human creativity and machine intelligence will define the next wave of growth. AI amplifies peoples’ capacity to think, test and deliver. The organisations that thrive in 2026 will be those that combine the precision of data with the empathy of human judgment.
Best Practices For The Year Ahead
– Redefine innovation KPIs. Measure outcomes (adoption, efficiency and cultural impact) not just prototypes or pilots.
– Build a culture of explainability. Ensure every innovation initiative includes clear communication of how and why it works.
– Empower non-technical teams. Provide tools that allow anyone to prototype and test ideas safely.
– Treat trust as infrastructure. Embed transparency, accountability and human oversight into every system.
– Keep innovation human-centred. Technology should serve people, not the other way around.
The future of innovation is about how many people it empowers and how much value it creates. As we move into 2026, the most innovative organisations will be those with the broadest participation and the clearest purpose.
PUBLICIS GROUPE AFRICA
https://publicisgroupeafrica.com/
