The message from myself and many others banging the innovation drum is relatively simple. Embrace innovation and you have a unique competitive advantage. You will be able to fully exploit the skills of your workforce, develop new products, services or processes according to your type of business and most importantly of all you will create a business that is sustainable and which will survive not only the current economic crisis but any that may occur in the future. So why do you not take action, why do you think the risk is too high – or to put it another way, what are you scared of?
First of all, let us look at risk. What is it? In its simplest guise it is just circumstances or events about which we know nothing or very little. So the more we know about something, the smaller the risk. Actually the likelihood of something bad happening may not actually change as we acquire knowledge ,but the fear associated with the potential risk may decrease or vanish. So CEOs may in fact be suffering from a fear of failure or looking foolish rather than actually considering the actual risks or benefits to their organisation.
What can be done to help? If we could provide you with the following, would that help?
- An understanding of what is involved in leading an Innovative organisation – let’s remove the surprises
- Support in providing awareness and education for managers and staff – everyone must know where they fit in
- A proven methodology/framework so that you know what you are doing
- A method of measuring innovation directly so you know where your money is being spent
- New techniques to help you predict and plan for the future
- Provision of some ongoing support
Would this help alleviate the risks so that you can harvest the benefits of Innovation? If not then Innovation may not be for you and sadly your long term future does not look too rosy.
Over and out!