Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dr. David S. Weiss is President and CEO of Weiss International Ltd., a firm specializing in innovation, leadership, and Human Resources consulting. Previously Chief Innovation Officer in a multinational consulting firm, David’s current university positions include Affiliate Professor at the Rotman School of Management of University of Toronto, and Senior Research Fellow of Queen’s University. David is a sought-after keynote speaker who has presented at over 200 conferences and is the author or co-author of four best-selling business books: Leadership Solutions (2007), The Leadership Gap (2005), High Performance HR (2000), and Beyond The Walls of Conflict (1996). For more information, visit www.weissinternational.ca.

Claude P. Legrand is the founder and President of Ideaction Inc., a consulting firm which specializes in sustainable innovation. For over 20 years he has been one of North America’s leading experts in practical innovation and is an acclaimed and frequent conference presenter. He leads a team of experienced consultants who help organizations become innovation-capable and deliver major innovation projects. In 2007, he was the founding Program Director of the Centre of Excellence in Innovation Management at the Schulich Executive Education Centre. For more information, please visit www.ideaction.net.

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Innovation is a key source of competitive advantage, but it remains frustratingly elusive for many organizations. Too many organizations try to improve innovation by focusing on one element at a time, particularly in the area of new products and services. They train individuals, hire more creative people, or create specialized innovation departments. Yet, for most organizations, these investments yield only disappointing results. They have not had sustainable solutions―practical and reliable programs that deliver long-term, predictable results. Instead, they have had an endless array of partial answers. They are left with an alarming innovation gap.

Innovative Intelligence answers the question: How can we close the innovation gap by making individuals and organizations systematically and sustainably innovative? The key to systematic success is to ensure that organizational practices and culture genuinely foster innovative thinking. Innovative Intelligence presents the case for a new focus for leaders centered on innovative thinking, and demonstrates how leaders can maximize the innovative capacity of their employees and teams. It shows how to embrace a culture of innovation and have it permeate throughout the organization, at every level.

Innovative Intelligence gives readers a clear roadmap and practical tools to make their cultures more supportive of innovation, identify and tap into the innovative intelligence in their workplace and develop leaders who can close the innovation gap for greater business success.

Aus dem Klappentext

Innovation is a key source of competitive advantage, but it remains frustratingly elusive for many organizations. Too many organizations try to improve innovation by focusing on one element at a time, particularly in the area of new products and services. They train individuals, hire more creative people, or create specialized innovation departments. Yet, for most organizations, these investments yield only disappointing results. They have not had sustainable solutions--practical and reliable programs that deliver long-term, predictable results. Instead, they have had an endless array of partial answers. They are left with an alarming innovation gap.

Innovative Intelligence answers the question: How can we close the innovation gap by making individuals and organizations systematically and sustainably innovative? The key to systematic success is to ensure that organizational practices and culture genuinely foster innovative thinking. Innovative Intelligence presents the case for a new focus for leaders centered on innovative thinking, and demonstrates how leaders can maximize the innovative capacity of their employees and teams. It shows how to embrace a culture of innovation and have it permeate throughout the organization, at every level.

Innovative Intelligence gives readers a clear roadmap and practical tools to make their cultures more supportive of innovation, identify and tap into the innovative intelligence in their workplace and develop leaders who can close the innovation gap for greater business success.

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Innovative Intelligence

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

"The problem is much more complex and challenging than we thought," the CEO declared to his executive team. "Initially, we thought our challenge was to sustain our leading position in the new competitive environment. We thought we were an innovative pharmaceutical company—but really we're only an innovative R&D company. And now our R&D pipeline has almost ground to a halt. Healthcare regulators are not approving our new products. Generic drug companies are contesting our patents through intense litigation. Doctors don't have the time to see us. We're facing unprecedented political pressure to reduce the costs of our drugs. It's obvious that we must become innovative throughout our company and not just in R&D. But how do we do that quickly?"

"We've trained our best leaders to focus on short-term problems and 'making'the numbers. We haven't trained them to think innovatively. Our few innovative leaders have left to join healthcare start-ups that appreciate their innovative thinking. So we don't have the skilled innovative leaders who can help lead us out of this mess."

The CEO raised his voice and challenged his executive team, "I'm not the only leader here. Together, we must radically change our culture and champion innovative leadership throughout our business to compete in our industry. Are you with me?" The executives saw the panic in the CEO's eyes and nodded in agreement—but they didn't believe they would make any meaningful changes—not because they didn't want to, but because they just didn't know how to do what the CEO wanted. And they didn't believe the CEO knew either.

It is stories like this one that motivated us to write this book. Many organizations are caught in the turbulent world of the knowledge economy. They may have good intentions to become more innovative—but not many of their leaders know how to do it. They recognize that innovation is a key source of competitive advantage. However, despite extensive efforts to change, many organizations are having difficulty achieving the levels of innovation they require. This dynamic is an innovation gap.

Innovation Gap The difference between the stated importance of innovation and the actual results in an organization

Our purpose in Innovative Intelligence is twofold:

• To provide business leaders and senior HR executives with an accelerated strategy to close the innovation gap.

• To supply a series of practical and implementable frameworks and tactics for developing leaders who can drive innovation in their organizations.

THE INNOVATION CHALLENGE

Let's begin with the challenge of innovation.

Frequently it is only after the crisis has occurred—after the competition has captured market share, after the market has dried up, after organizations have slashed costs—that organizations react. Then they say they need to "innovate"—as best they can under the pressure of the crisis. Too often, they overreact and confuse systemic innovation with unbridled creativity. This kind of creativity merely produces high-risk ideas with no pragmatic means of applying them and no built-in process to sustain them.

Organizations face three major challenges as they attempt to respond to the innovation gap:

1. Lack of a common understanding of what innovation is, how it happens, and what prevents it. Despite many attempts at defining innovation, a lack of consensus on a common definition still exists. Too often, leaders define innovation only in terms of technology or scientific research, yet organizations require innovation in almost all areas.

2. Lack of innovative leaders. Most leaders have never learned how to be innovative and how to lead an organization so that it becomes more innovative. They may understand that they have a key role in innovation, but they do not know how to systematically generate new and better solutions. They also do not know how to reinforce the right innovative skills for their direct reports and teams.

3. Lack of enabling organizational practices and cultures to reinforce innovation. Many organizations inadvertently discourage innovation through their organizational practices (e.g. planning, budgeting, rewards). In addition, many organizations have cultures that drive short-term results and risk avoidance. Without changing some organizational practices and building a culture of innovation, leaders will not close the innovation gap.

Today, innovation is often extolled; however, on closer investigation, far more talk than action occurs. In this context, the old adage "talk is cheap" actually becomes "talk is expensive," because organizations pay a hefty price if they do not practice what they preach. Failure to innovate can be terminal.

WHAT IS INNOVATION?

Let's first define innovation. Then, we'll explain the innovation gap dynamic and substantiate it with our evidence.

Most use the concept of "innovation" as either an outcome or a process. This book is not about innovation as an outcome, although a great deal of research describes the innovation gap that is associated with the lack of innovative outcomes in organizations.

Instead, our approach focuses on the process of innovation and how innovation happens. Here are some key aspects of the innovation process:

• The innovation process applies to everything an organization does or could do, as well as how it does it. For example, innovation applies to how the organization develops and implements strategies, creates new products and services, manufactures products and services, and ensures that internal functions support the business.

• It is an essential enabler of business strategies and goals—but it is not, in and of itself, the strategy or the goal.

• It is simply about innovating. It is a process that enables the organization to deliver on its strategies and its goals, in the same way that manufacturing, marketing, or accounting enables the organization to achieve its goals—no more and no less.

We use the word innovation in a very different way than the way we use the word creativity. Here are some comparisons of creativity and innovation:

• Creativity is about having new ideas, relevant or not, useful or not, implementable or not, while the output of innovation achieves defined value for an organization.

• Creativity is a stand-alone output, not a sustainable business outcome. On the other hand, innovation is directed toward achieving a sustainable outcome that can improve what people do or how they do it.

Our definition of innovation in a business context is as follows:

Innovation Applied creativity that achieves business value

The confusion between innovation and creativity has been costly to many organizations. Once, a CEO of a successful bank indicated he did not want more innovation (because it would be too disruptive). What he was actually referring to was not innovation but creativity without boundaries, direction, or a rigorous process for application.

It is difficult to blame executives for their anxiety with unbridled creativity. Many executives are...