A central question confronting many innovation leaders today is how R&D systems that are optimized for today’s demands could also explore tomorrow’s opportunities. These opportunities offer significant potential but carry higher risk and must compete with the immediate demands of the day-to-day. Mature organizations face the complex challenge of systematically pursuing adjacent opportunities and evaluating emerging trends before they become immediate business priorities.
Axalta applied a different strategy to expand the scope of their R&D activities. Rather than forcing exploratory innovation into an already optimized operating model, the organization created a small, internal incubator designed to scout new opportunities, test adjacency ideas, and rapidly evaluate concepts linked to evolving market shifts. The incubator was not conceived as a traditional long-range research function, but as a discovery engine closely connected to corporate strategy, informed by technical expertise, and measured by the speed and quality of learning.
The result is an innovation model that complements the strength of the core R&D function rather than competing with it.
