Executives roundly proclaim the need for new ideas and products, but it's often little more than empty talk
Everyone knows that innovation is what drives business success in the 21st century, right? Well, sort of. While corporate leaders may intellectually accept the need for innovation and promote their commitment to innovation at every opportunity, many really don't get it. As a result, they can become a major roadblock in your own career path as an innovation leader.
For instance, the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, N.C., sought to identify leadership trends by surveying 247 executives and managers who supervised at least 500 people and had more than 15 years of management experience. Fifty percent of these leaders in the 2007 poll said their organization was "top in class" in innovation. (The results are impossible, of course, if you accept the standard definition of "top in class" as the best 5% to 10%.)
Yet even if we go along with the self-evaluations, there is still plenty of room for improvement. So wouldn't you assume that these leaders would pursue every possible avenue to improve their organization's innovation capabilities? Unfortunately, the responses to the next question show that's not the case. When asked what they were doing to promote innovation in their organizations, the most popular strategy, adopting "overt innovation processes," was named by only 25%. Only 17% said they were undertaking "talent/talent development," the second most often mentioned answer, and 13% said they had rewards/recognition programs to support innovation.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Why CEOs Don't Get Innovation - BusinessWeek
Author: Stefan
Lindegaard
