Randy Fredlund's Posts
Not quite live or from New York...City, that is
The world is driven by innovation in product design, process, marketing, technology, and on and on and on. But according to Gary Hamel, we are still managing our business activities with methods devised by Henry Ford and his contemporaries over a century ago. And those methods that were created to make semi-skilled workers able to produce products repeatedly are ill suited for building highly adaptable organizations.
A pair of Venture capitalists spoke about their perspectives on fostering the creation of innovative companies. Both were as interested in the team as they were in the technology. Amanda West stated that you can't expect people to be looking for the brave new world and while they're executing on their operational job. David Berry indicated that most "Big Company" people aren't suited for creating new opportunities. They just don't want to take the necessary risks.
But I haven't addressed what should have been the first question. What is innovation, anyway? It wasn't until the last speaker, Andrew Zolli, that I heard any definition at all. And what he said was that,
So I ask both you and myself, have we done anything innovative lately?
Comments
Posted By: John (4/15/2008)
Comment: The issue is not the innovation of the individual contributor; it is the inability of the organization to be to decide if there could be any future demand. Try to get a sales person to commit to a product forecast!
Posted By: Rafael (4/15/2008)
Comment: Randy, I believe that big company people can be as creative as anyone. As a matter of fact, it may foster more creativity as they have large level of diversity. What they may lack is the ability to implement their creations in a profitable way when they have internal barriers that prevent breaking processes that have been developed to control spending, etc. It is the idea that that a particular innovation does not fit with the company culture. Innovation is an attitude. Have fun!