Having worked with a variety of technology companies, most of them claim to be innovative but it is very difficult to be truly innovative.

In general, companies don't practice innovation more regularly because often times, they are bogged down with operational, revenue, or engineering issues. Technical debt built up by previous engineering practices can hamper innovation. Broken operational issues to keep business processes in place can destroy innovation by the "we have always done it this way approach." Companies often times are also focused on revenue issues and are trying to find that stability before they can truly practice innovation.

Long story short, a lot of companies need to be in a stable state of mind with an agile culture (not necessarily cash flow positive or profitable) to practice innovation. In my 7 years of experience speaking with hundreds of companies, only a handful have been truly innovative. Happy to jump on a call to talk through more detail with you.