In the corporate world, what does innovation mean and why is it important?
Innovation is the gateway to differentiation. When rivalry soars and commoditization threatens profit margins, competitors can escape deadly price wars thanks to innovation. Without continuous change and innovation, long-term success is a mirage. Moreover, remember that innovation must not be confused with mere problem solving: real breakthroughs cannot be shoe-horned into the problem solving format. Can today’s rising executives learn how to be innovative, or are they too set in their ways? The problem is not the rising executives themselves: as human beings, by nature, they are creative creatures. The problem is with corporate obsession with monitoring and control. Today’s corporations boast highly structured processes, budgets and control systems (ERP, Six Sigma, and so on) that can easily deter innovation. All these systems are designed for optimization, whereas ambiguity is the critical resource out of which new ideas emerge. Is innovative thinking simply a question of expanding o
