Is innovation an essential business discipline? Yeah, probably. Any size organization needs to innovate in order to stay relevant these days. Titles in the c-suite are direct evidence of enterprises recognizing this importance. For instance, titles like Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). Who is tasked with leading and driving innovation, but that is a big statement. That is a job that spans traditional business disciplines and touches the meta workings of an enterprise like culture. Requiring management of ever growing complexities of innovation opportunities, and then matching those opportunities and issues with potential solutions.
In my experience that is an imperative role that many organizations do not emphasize. Take a look at Figure 1, a generalized view of the innovation hype cycle for major enterprises:
Right now I see a lot of my customers trying to innovate but success is still elusive. This can be for many reasons but a common one is the lack of buy-in. As with all business disciplines, stakeholder support is a key to success. Having an operating unit or project team create an innovation that is data backed and field tested is useless if leadership will not give them the support necessary to productionize. All layers of the enterprise need to be aligned in order to realize the value of an innovation, regardless of where it sits. The CIO in partnership with enterprise architects can help foster these needs.
Another key component of elevating the potential of innovation within an enterprise is adopting the learning’s from other fields. For instance, behavioral sciences. Which again is gaining popularity and recognition with degrees like Industrial Organizational Psychology, bridging the gap between business, and academic psychology. Leaders need to be open to these new concepts. Satya Nadella says it best “The learn-it-all does better than the know-it-all.”
References:
- Fenn, J. (2012). Meeting the Information Needs of the Chief Innovation Officer in 2023. Gartner.
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