Different Umbrellas to Foster Innovation: An Overview of Potential Ecosystem Options for Innovation Driving Change and Transformations on Different Levels

Innovation is one of the key sources for transformations, independently if innovation is targeting to fix a short-, mid-, or long-term dilemma situation that might be externally triggered (market competition, regulation) or internally (new ideas with expected high potential within the organization). Innovation takes place or can take place respectively in very different types of organizational settings, with very different designs and very different navigation and steering demands. This article describes preconditions for innovation-driven transformations. It focuses on potential options for ecosystems for innovation on a meta-level using on the one hand a classification of different types of transformation triggered by the innovation and on the other hand using the Three-Pillar Model and especially the concept of a Travelling Organization. The concept of a Travelling Organization is intuitively connected with special agility and flexibility demands and therefore normally associated with a start-up or at least start-up-alike environment which describes a perfect environment or ecosystems for a successful transformation. The different options for reasonable innovation settings or ecosystems developed in the article base are reflected considering their best fitting dependent on their initial preconditions and direction, necessary and available capabilities and resources, intended mid- and long-term results and outcomes, acceptable risk profiles, etc. The linked thoughts on suitable management concepts also take organizational maturity phases into consideration. In this context, some thoughts on bridging the management of hybrid organizations—with classic and agile areas—were developed. The outcomes of the article are intended to give an overview of options with their strength and weaknesses in order to show how different the concept of a “Travelling Organization” might be interpreted in an organizational and leadership context and especially for application on transformations.