What is vital to building a culture of innovation? There’s one word – leadership!
A recent Industry Week article showed several examples of innovation success – the key is that executives must be committed, patient and ready to lead by example. Doesn’t this sound like something we should do anyway? Absolutely! I think it is amazing how often the best client results come from the simple, straightforward projects – the difference is not in some sort of groundbreaking idea but in the FOCUS and COMMITMENT on achieving the result. Then, innovation naturally emerges.
Doesn’t this sound easy? Yep – but it’s not. When an R&D project begins to require more resources, time and/or money than expected, it is quite natural for the plug to be pulled. However, this is exactly why executive focus and commitment are vital. Then they’ll stay the course in order to achieve the end objective. Of course I’m not advocating staying the course in an obviously bad situation. Leadership is about not only knowing when to stay the course but it also about knowing when to stop, even if it was your idea.
I recently wrote a newsletter feature article on innovation. There are several ideas about how to build an innovation culture: click here.
I have NO doubt that those individuals and companies who pursue innovation will achieve significantly greater results than those who don’t.