Corporate Innovation Without Impact - Notes from a Functional Standstill
Corporate Innovation Without Impact
Notes from a Functional Standstill
This is not a guide.
It is not advice.
It will not help you innovate better.
This book documents what happens when organisations do everything right and still go nowhere.
It focuses on functional standstill:
systems that are active, aligned, well-governed, and permanently busy, while producing little that actually changes outcomes.
What follows is fictive, but deliberately close to reality.
Any resemblance to real organisations, processes, or roles is incidental and mostly unavoidable.
The tone is dry.
Occasionally uncomfortable.
There is sarcasm, but it is restrained. No punchlines. No heroes.
This book does not analyse innovation.
It describes patterns:
- activity replacing effect
- language replacing accountability
- process replacing decision
- motion replacing change
There are no frameworks.
No methods.
No calls to action.
The purpose is not improvement.
It is distance.
To take innovation, and the people surrounding it, slightly less seriously.
You will recognise this book if you have:
- sat in innovation meetings that felt productive but changed nothing
- watched alignment delay decisions indefinitely
- seen progress measured by artefacts instead of outcomes
If this feels familiar, no context is needed.
1 ebook (PDF) Corporate Innovation Without Impact — Notes from a Functional Standstill A short-form book on innovation without effect, written in a dry, controlled tone with restrained dark humor. 30 chapters Each chapter focuses on a recurring organizational pattern (alignment, governance, process, ownership, metrics, roadmaps, initiatives) and shows how activity accumulates while outcomes remain unchanged. ~35,000–40,000 words Dense, precise prose. No filler, no storytelling arcs, no motivational language. Standalone reading Chapters can be read independently or as a continuous record of the same system at work. No advice, no frameworks This is not a guide to better innovation. It does not propose solutions or improvements. It documents functional standstill. Fictive, close to reality All situations are fictional, but deliberately familiar. Any resemblance is incidental and difficult to avoid. Anonymous author Written under a pseudonym to keep the focus on patterns, not people. Instant download DRM-free PDF for personal use.