Leadership Innovation and Culture
Business life would be a lot simpler if the CEO of a company could dictate that everyone should innovate, and then the entire workforce went off and created the services and products of tomorrow!
But human beings don’t function like that.
Leadership of innovation means creating the cultural context where all staff want to (and do) create. The first task is therefore to understand what the employees understand by innovation. A common misapprehension is that innovation is only product innovation, whereas in fact research by the Doblin group, (www.doblin.com) has identified a framework of ten different types including services, process, network and brand… The question to ask therefore is where will I have the best return on investment for my innovation? On product technology? Or supply chain, or brand or networking? The results of their analysis may surprise you.
How to apply Leadership on Innovation:
At Enact we teach the understanding of value, both tangible and intangible, together with basic finance principles such as Net Present Value, ROI or lifetime customer value. This helps identify where to prioritise innovation. But we also concentrate on the attitudes and behaviours towards innovation. In his book The Innovation Manuel (eu.wiley.com), INSEAD professor David Midgley analysed successful and failed innovation and concluded that the biggest succes factor was not the quality of the idea or the amount of money but the quality of innovation leadership.
Innovation Leadership is part the rational understanding of the need to innovate and part dealing with the feelings associated with change. For example, a common attitudinal challenge is that innovation is seen as the exclusive responsibility of the R&D department. Another might be fear of getting things wrong and more broadly, attitudes to risk. There may also be fears and inhibitions linked to one’s idea of oneself that can prevent innovation. Often it is the relationship with superiors and the atmosphere at work.
Innovation happens regularly when both soft and hard skills are aligned. We need a holistic solution.
