Governing innovation at scale
Transitioning from capability building to system-wide impact in Saudi Arabia
As innovation becomes embedded across government, the focus shifts from building capability to how it is applied and governed. This paper introduces a structured Innovation Management System, with clear implementation levels, to help apply innovation more deliberately and effectively across entities with distinct mandates.
Overview
Innovation is now an established capability across Saudi Arabia’s public sector. As this capability matures, the focus is shifting towards how innovation is applied, governed and translated into tangible outcomes.
Our findings indicate that while investment in innovation has strengthened capability, impact is often constrained by inconsistent application, limited alignment to mandate and a lack of clear outcome definition. This creates a disconnect between innovation activity and realised public value.
Addressing this requires a more structured and differentiated approach, one that aligns innovation with institutional roles, clarifies governance and focuses effort where it delivers the greatest system-wide impact.
The shift
Public sector organisations are moving towards a more deliberate approach to innovation:
From capability building to governed execution:
Moving beyond developing innovation skills and tools towards embedding clear governance, accountability and decision-making structures that guide how innovation is applied.
From isolated initiatives to system-wide coordination:
Shifting from standalone projects to more aligned and coordinated efforts across entities, enabling shared priorities, reduced duplication and stronger collective impact.
From activity to measurable outcomes:
Focusing less on the volume of innovation initiatives and more on the value they deliver, with clear metrics linked to performance, service quality and public impact.
This shift reflects the need to align innovation with mandate, reduce duplication and ensure efforts translate into tangible impact.
Why it matters
A more structured and role-based approach to innovation enables organisations to focus effort where it creates the most value. It strengthens alignment across entities, improves coordination and supports more effective delivery of national priorities. Ultimately, governing innovation at scale is not about doing more innovation, but about doing it with greater clarity, purpose and impact.
Download the report
Governing innovation at scale
collaborators:
Ranad Megdad, Senior Manager
Zain Al-Hammouri, Senior Associate
Layal Jaber, Senior Associate
