At YPO EDGE in Sydney, Stella Clarke, a development engineer at BMW Group since 2007, delivered a powerful message to CEOs and senior leaders. Breakthrough innovation rarely begins with certainty; it begins with curiosity, discomfort and persistence.
Truly disruptive ideas are born from daring to think differently. “Words don’t move people – prototypes do,” she emphasizes.
By making ideas tangible, leaders can transform skepticism into belief and mobilize organizations around bold possibilities.
The starting point of innovation
However, for Clarke, it was far more personal. The inspiration came from a device many use every day: the e-reader.
She marveled at how electronic ink technology required energy only to change color, not to maintain it. “For an engineer, it’s the closest thing to magic that you could imagine,” she says.
Clarke wondered if this technology could transform the surface of a car. But having the idea was only the beginning. As a “work-level engineer,” she had to navigate skepticism from herself and others.
— Stella Clarke, Development Engineer at BMW Group share
“I often have to fight a little harder, think a little longer, prove mostly to myself that I belong in the room,” she says.
This mindset reflects a reality many innovators face inside large organizations. Breakthrough ideas often come from individuals who are not in positions of power.
The implication for leaders is clear: Innovation depends on empowering curiosity at every level.
Transforming disbelief into belief
The bridge between an idea and a project is the prototype. Clarke’s early attempts at local makerspaces were far from perfect.
“The first samples were not convincing,” she admits. “The first feedback was, overwhelmingly, skepticism. And with skepticism, it’s hard to not let that carry over into failure.”
To scale innovation, leaders must give their teams permission to fail as well as the time to pivot.
“If you invest so much of your time and energy into something, you feel every failure, but with every failure you learn,” she notes.
What Clarke learned was that the technical aspects weren’t reaching people. She needed to appeal to their emotional side. Instead of showing graphs, she invited management to imagine.
“I would say, ‘Imagine you got into your car and it looked like this,” she says. “Imagine if the flowers could change colors, they could fall off the branches and you could simulate the seasons.”
Clarke helped them visualize the possibilities and sparked their curiosity. “They could understand how color change could transform our products,” she says.
Risking reputation for the vision
In March 2020, Clarke was set to present her work at BMW’s internal innovation exhibition, an opportunity for engineers to showcase their ideas and gain management support.
It is open to employees at all levels. “Everyone has a chance, regardless of who you are,” she says.
Just three days into presentations, COVID-19 hit and the exhibition was canceled.
Rather than abandoning her project, even temporarily, Clarke took a risk by conveying her idea to those who missed the exhibition. She created a “really embarrassing” video pitch, speaking to the camera like a YouTube star, and emailed it to the largest group imaginable within the company.
“It took me two weeks to make the video, way too long to write the email, but pressing send was the hardest part,” Clarke says. “I risked my reputation with this ridiculous video. I risked not being taken seriously as an engineer at a company known for fast cars and great motors.”
Her courage paid off. The video circulated to the top of the hierarchy and leadership asked a pivotal question: “Can you really do this on a whole car?”
Scaling the impossible
When an idea moves from a small-scale prototype to a full-scale product, the technical challenges multiply. Turning the electronic-ink concept into reality proved far more difficult than anticipated. The material was temperamental. Carbon would disperse and short the conductive layers, preventing the color switch.
“Finally, we got one segment switching,” Clarke recalls. “We just needed to do this 240 more times. But at this point, I knew this would work.”
Having the time and resources to test and solve for unforeseen technical hurdles is essential to scaling an idea. The trial and error and discomfort was worth it.
— Stella Clarke, Development Engineer at BMW Group share
The BMW i Vision Dee, featuring advanced, full-color electronic ink technology, was unveiled at CES 2023. “The world was shocked and delighted,” Clarke says. “And it’s not easy to shock and delight people.”
By the time Clarke collaborated with South African artist Esther Mahlangu on a later iteration, the complexity had grown to 1,349 individual segments, each capable of 32 different colors.
Transformative innovation does not require permission, title or perfection. It requires curiosity, courage and the willingness to embrace discomfort.
“Next time you have an idea and something doesn’t feel comfortable, hold on to it,” Clarke advises. “You may be where innovation starts.”
