Defining innovation: Accion’s Michael Schlein

Ask a dozen executives to define innovation, and you’ll likely hear 12 different answers. Become aims to answer this question. This annual research, sponsored by Mastercard and based on the Harvard Business Review Analytic Services’ Business Innovators Index, provides actionable insights and roadmaps needed to spark innovation, informed by research and insights from business leaders across continents and industries.

This month, we hear from Michael Schlein, the president and CEO of Accion, the global nonprofit working to give people the financial tools they need to improve their lives.

Schlein builds partnerships with the public and private sector and encourages more energy, investments and action directed at creating a financially inclusive world. He discusses how empathy, integrity and trust are critical to bring more people into the formal financial world. “We also try to be accessible,” he says. “We have to be where our clients are and meet them where they are.”

Learn more about Become and what traits the most innovative companies share here.