At NVIDIA’s global conference, GTC 2024, global leaders showed that innovating in large organizations depends less on isolated new technologies and more on culture, leadership, and smart data access. In a context of accelerated technological transformation—especially with the advancement of artificial intelligence—the debate made it clear that innovating today is less about adopting isolated tools and more about rethinking decisions, culture, leadership, and the way people and data connect within organizations.
During a public panel at the event, executives from companies such as Mastercard, Adobe, Salesforce, Intuit, and Autodesk shared practical lessons on what works — and what stalls — when the goal is to innovate without losing efficiency, engagement, or present results.
How should leaders frame innovation in a moment of technological transformation?
Leaders need to rethink their projects and decisions based on the new capabilities brought by emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence.
Mastercard VP Rohit Chauhan compared the current moment to the emergence of the internet itself. During that period, as the cost of communication and connection approached zero, companies that managed to view their challenges through this new logic created unprecedented opportunities, such as e-commerce, service apps, and new business models.
According to Chauan, something similar is happening now: the cost of creating forecasts, simulations, and hypothetical scenarios is dropping drastically, which profoundly changes the way decisions can be made. In light of this, he proposes a simple and provocative question for any leadership: what can we do differently now that we have a powerful simulation machine in our hands?
What is the role of leadership in creating an innovative environment?
Leadership plays a central role in pointing out relevant problems, identifying opportunities, and creating a safe environment for experimentation.
Adobe executive Cynthia Stoddard pointed out that innovating is not just about adopting new technologies, but about the ability to ask the right questions, encourage debates, and allow trial and error to be part of the process. For innovation to happen consistently, it is essential to build a culture where a certain level of failure is acceptable.
She shared that Adobe created a unified data source to make information available to all teams, encouraging the sharing of internal databases. However, she emphasized that this initiative was only possible thanks to efficient change management, capable of clearly showing people what they would gain by adopting this new model.
How is data access changing the nature of innovation?
Innovation tends to depend less on rewriting software and more on how data is accessed, integrated, and shared.
Clara Shi, CEO of Salesforce AI, explained that the nature of innovation is changing rapidly. In the future, many transformations may occur without the need to rebuild entire systems, as long as data is accessible and collaboration across areas is encouraged.
She pointed out that, historically, companies have operated mostly with structured data. Today, with the ability to also explore unstructured data, the opportunity arises to significantly expand the volume of information available to people. For this to happen, however, it is necessary to face integration challenges and break down organizational silos that still limit the flow of data.
How to get people on the innovation bandwagon?
Engaging people requires trust, proper incentives, and a corporate structure that does not penalize mistakes.
Alex Balazs, VP of Intuit, stated that one of the biggest challenges for traditional organizations is precisely creating the necessary conditions to innovate. Large companies, in general, do not deal well with mistakes and rarely have metrics and incentives aligned with experimentation. Therefore, rather than looking for external references, it is essential to look inward and rethink leadership systems, criteria for success, and recognition.
Susanna Holt, Autodesk VP, added by emphasizing the importance of balance. For her, it is essential to value current solutions—often responsible for the company's success—while encouraging the building of something new. One of the strategies adopted is to promote joint projects between older and newer teams, ensuring that everyone works connected to the same mission.
Cynthia Stoddard added that the continuous education of teams is another essential pillar. This includes both formal initiatives, such as courses and clear goals, and informal spaces for people to freely experiment with new tools and learn by doing.
How to deal with legacy systems without demotivating the teams?
Integrating legacy systems with new technologies is a technical challenge, but above all a human one.
Rohit Chauan pointed out that a large part of enterprise revenue still comes from legacy technologies, which remain robust and functional. In most cases, it does not make sense to discard them, but rather to integrate them with new approaches to generate additional value.
Susanna Holt drew attention to the human impact of this process. Professionals who work on these systems may feel undervalued or threatened by innovation. Therefore, it is essential to clearly communicate the purpose of the change, the path to be followed, and the strategic role of these teams in the organization's future.
Alex Balazs reinforced this view by stating that talents who deeply understand legacy systems must be seen as part of the solution. Training, empowering, and motivating them is an effective way to evolve—or even transform—core systems, leveraging knowledge that cannot simply be replaced.
What type of leadership does this scenario demand?
This context requires ambidextrous leadership, capable of balancing the present and the future at the same time.
It is necessary to value the systems that work today, understand what needs to be adjusted, and recognize what will be transformed more deeply over time. All of this demands joint work, clear missions, and distinct objectives for each part of the technology stack, but always aligned with a common vision.
Throughout the panel, the leaders reinforced challenges quite familiar to large organizations: misaligned incentive structures, cultures still resistant to innovation, the need for prepared leaders, and secure access to data and the right technologies.
At the end of the debate — just like in many other moments of GTC 2024 — it was evident that we are living through a period that is both stimulating and challenging. Companies of all sizes and maturity levels cannot miss the opportunity to rethink their businesses now, in the face of the new possibilities opened up by technology.
