Friday, September 22, 2006

More than words

Do you wonder if your senior executive team is serious about innovation? Most CEOs and senior executives are talking about innovation. It's clearly the buzzword of the month (week?)

Most senior management teams understand that they've cut just about everything there is to cut, other than their pay packets, so there's not a lot more room for cost cutting. That means profits will flatten or get worse, since there is some inflation in some inputs like energy. So, to hold profits steady or grow them, there's got to be some new products and services offered that command higher prices and margins.

But with all the talk about innovation - how can you tell if your management team is serious? What's going to keep them from coming around next quarter and reading you the riot act for that one penny miss on the forecast? Well, really not much is going to change that.

Here are a couple of key indicators to tell you how serious your CEO and senior executive team is about innovation:

- They actively encourage risk taking and meet regularly with people who are innovators, to demonstrate support for the innovators. This demonstrates that the senior team is willing to spend their time on innovation.

- They change the compensation structures and metrics on their reports to reflect an urgency around innovation. Has the way you are evaluated and compensated changed? Jack Welch once said - show me a sales person's time card and I'll tell you how they are compensated. What's your motivation to innovate?

- They spend money on innovation initiative and projects and encourage broad participation to gather and evaluate ideas.

- They celebrate and recognize successes and failures from innovation

- They create specific, measurable goals for the firm - eg 30% of our revenue will come from products introduced in the last 3 years or 50% of our new products will be the result of ideas or technologies from outside the firm.

If you are confused about the real purpose of innovation in your company, simply look at what your senior team says and does when it comes to innovation. The folks who are really on board will be doing these things and many more and it will be visible and meaningful. If your senior team is not doing these things, they don't really mean what they say about innovation or don't understand innovation at all.
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
posted by Jeffrey Phillips at 2:09 PM

19 Comments:

Anonymous Harga Jual Blackberry iPhone Laptop Murah said...

Harga Jual Blackberry iPhone Laptop Murah - I like this one :)

By:Harga Jual Blackberry iPhone Laptop Murah

See my post:Harga Jual Blackberry iPhone Laptop Murah

2:18 AM  
Anonymous wisata kuliner bandung said...

i like this too..

6:51 AM  
Anonymous delayed orgasm said...

great information..

6:54 AM  
Anonymous delaying ejaculation said...

like this :)

6:55 AM  
Anonymous how to avoid premature ejaculation said...

thanks for share..

6:56 AM  
Anonymous how to prolong ejaculation said...

like this too..

6:56 AM  
Anonymous Invertir en oro said...

Used. Case is a bit worn but contents in good condition.

9:39 AM  
Anonymous stop pre ejaculation said...

Thanks a lot for this time sharing of Innovation about More Than Words. This is really the best blog i have ever read.

8:08 AM  
Anonymous cure hemorrhoids naturally said...

I look forward to another article. It would be nice to have, too.

3:12 AM  
Anonymous konsultan perusahaan said...

I think people fear idea management and innovation because there's a significant number of ideas that simply won't plan out.......Nice statement.....keep posting

10:29 PM  
Anonymous belajar internet marketing said...

this day I've been searching for information on various issues, this I found very good and I would like to congratulate you for your work.

10:29 PM  
Anonymous parcel lebaran said...

I think that this post is one of the best that i have read in my life, congrats you did a great job,.

10:29 PM  
Anonymous delayed orgasm said...

the difference between the content spammers and most corporate innovators is that the smaller

10:30 PM  
Anonymous how to avoid premature ejaculation said...

I'm writing to you because I just came across a business that I think has great potential. It lets you save money on almost everything. Make money from almost everything,

10:30 PM  
Anonymous konsultan seo said...

If growth is important to a firm, and if growth is dependent on offering existing products and services to new customers

10:30 PM  
Anonymous tabungan pendidikan said...

innovation is very natural and happens in the "real world" as new plants and animals colonize new ecological niches.

10:30 PM  
Anonymous mengecilkan perut said...

I wonder how you got so good. This is really a fascinating blog, lots of stuff that I can get into. One thing I just want to say is that your Blog is so perfect

10:30 PM  
Anonymous how to teach dogs tricks said...

We generally think most specifically about the risk associated with a new product introduction

10:31 PM  
Anonymous easy way to get pregnant said...

I would be aware that as somebody who really doesn’t comment to blogs a lot (in actual fact, this may be my first put up), I don’t think the time period “lurker” is very flattering to a non-posting reader.

10:31 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home