EGADE and CANACINTRA Querétaro bring business leaders together to explore how to turn innovation into results
JOSÉ ÁNGEL DE LA PAZ | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL
Turning investment in innovation into sustained results depends less on accumulating resources than on connecting culture, structures and talent with mechanisms capable of taking projects from ideation to scale. This was the central theme of the presentation in Querétaro of the Corporate Innovation Landscape in Mexico, held on September 30 at the BLOQUE Center for Innovation and Technology.
The study, developed by Cristian Granados and Alberto Méndez, professors at EGADE Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey, with the sponsorship of Oracle Mexico, was presented at an event organized with CANACINTRA Querétaro. The gathering combined evidence on corporate innovation with business experiences and concluded with the signing of a collaboration agreement.From innovation efforts to results
Granados presented the study’s main findings, based on an analysis of 87 companies, primarily medium-sized, large and multinational organizations, across three dimensions: enablers —such as culture, structure and resources—; mechanisms —including strategy, processes and tools—; and financial, growth and impact outcomes.
The model grouped organizations into four profiles: leading innovators, frugal innovators, sleeping giants and lagging innovators. In the sample, 65% of companies fell into the last two categories, pointing to a gap between the capabilities organizations have and their ability to translate them into results.
“Companies that achieve better innovation results are those that align their efforts to build the culture, structures and other capabilities needed to ideate, incubate and scale projects,” Granados said.
He explained that some sleeping giants have significant structures and budgets but allocate limited resources to scaling. For these organizations, he suggested reducing bureaucracy and redirecting resources toward implementation. He also cautioned against focusing innovation exclusively on efficiency and cost reduction: “Efficiency has a limit.”
In the context of Querétaro, Granados highlighted the relationship between innovation and competitiveness and noted that leading companies turn more frequently to universities and research centers to address complex challenges.
Talent and autonomy to innovate
A panel moderated by Fernando Moya, Director of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation at EGADE Business School, contrasted the study’s findings with the experiences of David Pineda, Director of the Product Development Center at AUMOVIO Querétaro; Raúl Méndez, General Manager of Martinrea Querétaro; and Martijn Vriesinga, Country Manager at AWETA.
The discussion converged on two conditions: clarity about the value an organization seeks to create and autonomy for teams to experiment and act. “Innovation is something new that adds value and delivers an economic benefit,” Pineda said, emphasizing that a willingness to learn and open leadership can be as relevant as specialized training.
Méndez explained that Martinrea created its own academy to address the specialized talent needs of its foundry operations, combining internal and external instructors, university collaboration and in-house certifications.
“What did we decide we needed to do to remain competitive? Create our own academy,” he said. According to Méndez, the strategy has helped the company maintain an internal promotion rate of more than 90%.
Vriesinga emphasized that teams need to understand market needs and have the authority to make decisions without relying on constant approvals.
“The market doesn’t wait,” he said.
AI: from experimentation to business problems
Artificial intelligence emerged in the discussion as a tool whose value depends on applying it to specific objectives. Pineda advocated combining employee initiative with priorities defined by leadership and shared the case of an engineer who used AI to develop a 5,700-line software tool in two hours —work that, according to the engineer’s own estimate, would have required 11 days of manual programming.
Méndez described an internally developed tool that allows employees to consult documented solutions to production problems and reuse accumulated knowledge even when the people who originally solved an issue are unavailable. Vriesinga, meanwhile, proposed moving AI beyond automation and incorporating it into design and decision-making.
A collaboration agreement to expand joint initiatives
During the event, Bárbara Durán, Regional Director of EGADE Business School in Mexico City and Querétaro, and Alfredo Sahagún Sánchez, President of CANACINTRA Querétaro, signed a collaboration agreement aimed at advancing initiatives for senior business leaders.
In her closing remarks, Paloma Valdivia, General Director of CANACINTRA Querétaro, summarized the challenge as ensuring that innovation “stops being merely a good intention and truly becomes value, productivity and competitiveness.”
Read the Corporate Innovation Landscape in Mexico on the EGADE Business School website.
