In my career in start-ups and as an executive in the Digital Space, it's become very clear to me that leadership mind-set matters. ALWAYS. Everything from company strategy, goals, to culture are all set from the top. Whether or not they are formally communicated, or left to trickle through the rumor mill, the organizational ability to Innovate using Lean-Start-up, Design Thinking or even Agile relies on leadership's formal or informal point of view. How does your organization rate on Leadership Mindset?

I've worked with and for a variety of companies in "Growth Mode," but growing doesn't mean ORGANICALLY or with an innovation mindset. Public companies are especially subject to Mergers and Acquisitions vs Innovation mindset, but here are some ways to tell whether your efforts in Innovation and Digital Transoformatin will get support, or be slow-rolled by leadership.

If you are already in the process of buying another company, this may be a tip-off but here are a few reasons that leadership may even be in the middle of an acquisition but STILL support a Digital Transformation:

They are buying a company that has a new technology it would take longer to build internally
An acquisition is successful in a key market that would compliment your company's existing buisiness
The employees of the Acquisition target possess skills sets that aren't present in house

If any of these ring true that's great! Many times, however, a company will be merge with a competitor to GROW SCALE. This point of this is, generally, to keep from being disrupted by becoming a bigger player (too big to fail, anyone?). This pleases investors, feels to leadership that they are building a company that can win on scale alone, and increases market share and profitability without the need for Innovation, Product or Design Thinking. This is the mindset that will kill (or at least slow roll) any Digital, Lean, or Agile mindsets that may have been forming within parts or the organization. The mindset here will be integration and consolidation only - at least in the short term.

Keep this in mind and weigh how fast and where you start with Digital in your organization. Start small with the willing, and have a lot of success to show leadership before expanding.