The Challenge of Investing in People
Have you ever heard a board member, or perhaps even a CEO say, “The Company sure invests a lot in trainings, meetings, and “feel good” stuff, and I wonder if more of those resources and energy went into focus on results whether we would be better off?” When we ask the CEO to focus on [...]
Leadership: The Philosopher’s Stone of Innovation…? (Part 2)
The other end of the spectrum re strategic decision-making is where it is totally driven by the leadership of the company. This is very often the case with start-up, early-stage and founder-run, privately held firms. The potential advantages are somewhat obvious: strategy is driven by a focused vision, factors which may not be effectively quantifiable [...]
Leadership: The Philosopher’s Stone of Innovation…? (Part 1)
I had the opportunity to speak before the Association for Strategic Planning this week on the topic of Innovation - an inherently rather broad and deep subject, so my approach was one of surveying the various paradigms of innovation (creativity/ideation, invention, implementation, value-creation, etc.), and that all of these conceptual frameworks for understanding [...]
The Potential Trap of Innovation Metrics
“Be careful what you wish for measure … you just may get it.”
As my library of books on Innovation grows, I am seeing two somewhat conflicting themes emerging in regards to the role of metrics in Innovation. One sees up-front metrics as a key determinant of establishing efficient distribution of a firm’s resources across all [...]
Improving Your Company’s Velocity - Practice, Practice, Practice
Not only is it a way to get to Carnegie Hall, but focused, repeated practice of your firm’s best business processes is one of the ways to improve your overall velocity. In sports, it’s called establishing “muscle memory” by the repeated execution of a golf or tennis swing (for example), first working on the [...]
The Importance of Execution: IBM’s Innovation Man Commercial
Have you seen IBM’s “Innovation Man” commercial? I think it’s a real hoot and for those of you who haven’t seen it, I’ll try to capture it’s essence…
Scene: Outside an office building, female business professional walking away from building towards an inbound middle-aged, rather paunchy guy in a superhero outfit with a large “I” across [...]