BUSINESS | INNOVATION
Why Businesses Need to Embrace Continuous Improvement
Constant reinvention is crucial for survival
Companies fail because they don’t innovate. They fail to exploit opportunities.
Businesses today need to embrace continuous improvement.
They need to reinvent, constantly.
To do this, companies need innovative leaders in place. Leaders with a powerful vision and influence to guide the organization.
Innovation lacks credibility, resources, and legitimacy at too many large organizations.
Its a sub-department.
In some cases, innovative leaders are a couple of tiers down the hierarchal pecking order, beneath another leader, so their voice is muted.
They lack influence.
This is the biggest challenge that innovation teams face.
Lack of Influence
If innovation teams are not visible, or lack status, innovation projects are deprioritized.
This sends the wrong message.
This oversight can have severe long term repercussions.
The two cultural-roadblocks that cause this are:
- Fear — Employees fear that taking risks will damage their career. This can impact retention, talented workers who choose innovation as a career, to leave for greener pastures.
- Vulnerability — High potential projects are vulnerable in this environment. Many die because innovation is not prioritized. Those that do get approved lack resources, so fail to scale.
Also, at some large corporations, innovation roles can be perceived as a risky career move. One that could potentially kill a career.
So What's The Solution?
Hire a Chief Entrepreneur Officer and Intrapreneurs.
Innovation must feature at the top table in order to have an impact.
The CEO (Chief Entrepreneur Officer), responsible for innovation, must have direct access to the board. Plus the time and resources for innovation.
A visionary leader with full ownership for the exploration of future opportunities.
Others can look after the existing business.
Intrapreneurs should be appointed too.
A Chief Entrepreneur can manage a team of intrapreneurs. A group of empowered creatives to undertake experimentation to discover new products, services, markets, and business models.
To create a new value proposition, a Chief Entrepreneur has to have a team and the same power as the CEO.
