Innovation is everybody's business

I have been in dozens of strategy meetings with CEO's and other senior executives and have seen their blank faces when the discussion moved to innovation. Many would even find excuses to sneak out of the conference rooms using stupid excuses like "I have to check my email," or "Need to make a few phone calls," and some even more creative ones.

When I have confronted these people about their discomfort with innovation, I have heard even more interesting excuses like, "Oh, I have a great R&D group," or "Our CTO is on top of this," or "I need to focus more on sales and growth."

Ladies and gentleman, you have it upside down. If you are a decision maker in your organization - particulary, if you are a CEO - it is YOUR responsibility to drive innovation within your organization. Leaving the techies alone in-charge of innovation is not the best strategy - I have seen hundreds of cases of R&D group developing offerings that the customers did not want. Result: money/time wasted, business opportunities lost.

While keeping on top of sales and income should clearly be the #1 priority for any business leader, if you are not in charge of innovation, very soon you will be fighting with the Chinese on price. And that's no business - that's a dog fight that you won't win.

And in case you did not notice, the theme of TiECON this year is "Innovating in a flat world."

Relted reading

Innovation in biotech sector

- By Jay Dwivedi
Photo courtesy: PP Digital