"Tell me one thing that I should do but haven't done," asked a senior executive responsible for innovation in a European bank. She had a point. The bank had organised employee seminars, inviting motivational speakers to talk about innovation; set up corporate venture funds to invest in innovative startups; practised open innovation, posted challenges online; ran tournaments with external inventors; organised "design thinking" workshops for employees to rethink customer solutions outside the mainstream; and installed Lean startup methodologies that allow employees to fail fast in order to succeed early.

But no matter how widespread this innovation process within the bank becomes, she - as a business leader - still faces an unyielding organisation whose core business is being increasingly encroached upon by the day by Google and Amazon, if not Tencent or Alibaba or some other digital upstart. It seems that no matter how hard her in-house innovation experts try, the bank simply will not budge. The ship is just not big; it cannot be turned.

This is not just the peculiar observation of one banking executive, nor is it confined to the banking industry. Perhaps just as obvious for many executives in 2019 is the impetus to leverage connectivity and artificial intelligence as part of their corporate strategy. No carmaker, for instance, would speak to investors without mentioning "future mobility". BMW is "a supplier of individual premium mobility with innovative mobility services". General Motors aims to "deliver on its vision of an all-electric, emissions-free future". Toyota possesses the "passion to lead the way to the future of mobility and an enhanced, integrated lifestyle". And Daimler, the maker of Mercedes, sees the future as "connected, autonomous, and smart".