A company’s big challenge with Innovation is seldom the volume of ideas. Indeed, in a survey conducted this year by my company, only 6 percent of corporate innovators said that their biggest problem was having too few ideas. But not all ideas are equal, and poor or highly derivative ideas might consume far too much attention. Frequently those ideas are related to emerging trends, involve more than the company can do on its own, require nurturing, and are cross-functional in nature. The real need is to ensure that the right ideas get ahead and get considered.
So, what do you do?
During the research for my book, The Innovative Leader: Step-by-Step Lessons from Top Innovators for You and Your Organization, four pillars of innovation became apparent. Together with my co-authors, Jennifer Luo Law and Hari Nair, we interviewed 50 leaders across a variety of industries, from tech giants at Google and Microsoft to the CEO of Singapore’s largest bank and the head of an elementary school service. We observed patterns of successful innovation repeating across highly distinct settings.
Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.