CEOs Say Innovation Is Most Important Factor For Growth

Among the "Seven misconceptions" regarding innovation that PwC's 1200 worldwide CEOs identified, there are five that are particularly important [my comments are in italics]:

Innovation can be delegated. Not so. The drive to innovate begins at the top. If the CEO doesn't protect and reward the process, it will fail. So many CEOs either "don't get innovation" or cannot get past their finance-focused mindsets. If we can't get the CEO engaged around innovation, the odds against innovative success are extremely low. Great innovation inevitably requires great internal "selling" of the idea in order to build political support among top management.

Middle Management is the ally of innovation. Managers are not natural champions of innovation. They to reject new ideas in favor of efficiency. Middle management is all-too-often incentivized to achieve efficiency, and that means a preference for repetition of what is already working well. It is not that they are obstructionists, the entire "culture" of a successful incumbent organization is built (unwittingly) to resist innovation. Don't blame middle-management, rethink & reset the culture when big innovation is needed.

Innovative people work for the money. Establishing a culture that embeds innovation in the organisation will attract and retain creative talent. Talent is probably our most-wasted resource. Most employees don't believe that they are looked to for innovation. Good ideas are abundant within our workforces, but we don't invite them in.

Innovation is a lucky accident. Successful innovation most often results from a disciplined process that sorts through many ideas. Thomas Edison is the best example of how discipline is the natural ally of innovation, but only if it makes innovation easier rather than more difficult. The most effective discipline is when it is ingrained in "the way we work around here", and that means strong top-down leadership to authorize, encourage and support innovative activities throughout the organization. In our "Virtuoso Teams" project, we found that the best innovation occurred when the innovators believed that they had "absolute freedom" to contribute their ideas,  while top management believed that it was in "complete control"; at exactly the same time!

The more open the innovation process, the less disciplined. Advances in collaborative tools, like social networking, are accelerating open innovation. Responsible and successful open innovation is like a tsunami rushing across the innovation landscape of both B2C and B2B companies. "Open" does not have to mean "undisciplined." Social networking can help, but there are many forms of "open" innovation that are built around strong and "intimate" partnerships as well.

Thanks to Bill Fischer / Blogs Forbes
http://blogs.forbes.com/billfischer/2011/06/04/ceos-say-innovation-is-most-important-factor-for-growth-voxy-co-nz/