Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Deep and Wide

Innovation, like other business initiatives and functions, requires support and direction from senior management. To be sustainable, any business function needs a cross-organizational process. Innovation requires both deep and wide support.

Deep support means that innovation is sponsored and organized and encouraged from the top of the organization to the lowest levels. The CEO needs to be out in front, helping people understand the direction and rationale for innovation. This does NOT mean, however, that the CEO or his or her immediate subordinates should dictate "what" the innovations should be, only that they should provide the direction and encouragement for innovation, and ensure that people are appropriately encouraged, motivated and compensated for their efforts.

Innovation, as we've seen recently, can mean changing the corporate culture, introducing more risk taking and the potential for failure. If the CEO or other senior sponsors don't get involved, then there's little chance of a sustainable innovation culture taking root. Innovation needs support from the top down, and that support needs to be deep and sustaining.

Wide support means that the organization needs to understand and implement processes and procedures across the organization to enable innovation and innovative ideas. Rather than a "skunk works" in the corner, innovation should be treated as a sustainable business process and become part of everyone's focus. There should be broad understanding and involvement in innovation and idea management across the organization.

Right now, most firms have shallow and thin innovation. Senior managers are talking about the importance of innovation, but get quickly distracted by other important aspects of the business. The people in the trenches understand that innovation is not important if the CEO cannot retain his or her focus on it for any length of time. Innovation has thin support throughout the organization in most companies. Little pockets wrestle with innovation without broad support, and there are too few consistent processes and systems to support innovation.

Yet, I am told constantly that CEOs consider organic growth important, and innovation as a key factor for organic growth. There's an inconsistency somewhere. If innovation is important, it should be treated as such, with broad mandates and strategic involvement. Occassional support and disparate attempts at innovation will definitely lead to disappointment, and in our quarter-driven business environment, will quickly lead back to cost-cutting and outsourcing.
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
posted by Jeffrey Phillips at 3:01 PM

17 Comments:

Anonymous how to stay erect said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:35 AM  
Anonymous wisata kuliner bandung said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:36 AM  
Anonymous belajar internet marketing said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:41 AM  
Anonymous delayed orgasm said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:42 AM  
Anonymous delaying ejaculation said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:42 AM  
Anonymous how to last longer in bed said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:42 AM  
Anonymous how to avoid premature ejaculation said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:43 AM  
Anonymous how to prevent premature ejaculation said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:43 AM  
Anonymous how to prolong ejaculation said...

i agree with you. i had similiar problem and i used what you ave taught and it worked like magic

5:43 AM  
Anonymous Invertir en oro said...

I think that this post is one of the best that i have read in my life, congrats you did a great job,.

7:56 AM  
Anonymous Harga Alat bantu Dengar said...

This post gives the light in which we can observe the reality. this is very nice one and gives indepth information.
Madu-asuransi kesehatan-alat gula darah-Alat Gula Darah

7:13 PM  
Anonymous Aqiqah said...

Really great post, Thank you for sharing This knowledge.Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same level of content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up!

6:25 PM  
Anonymous Percetakan Jakarta said...

very cute outfits! youre so good at making cute stuff..

6:27 PM  
Anonymous Sari Kurma said...

I am going to say what everyone else have not said above, but i must say , you are genuinely well-informed.I cannot believe how much of this I just was not conscious of .Thanks for submitting more data on this topic for us .I’m truly happy and really impressed.

6:30 PM  
Anonymous Baju Anak Profesi said...

You’re blogging has really come on when I look back over previous posts. Actually I arrived here from a forum on an unrelated topic. Worth surfing sometimes. Thanks.

6:31 PM  
Anonymous stop pre ejaculation said...

thank for sharing this innovation part deep and wide, this is really a great blog

7:47 AM  
Anonymous cure hemorrhoids naturally said...

It's nice to have situations where you can make them fun.

3:18 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home