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• Finding #1: In a Fast Moving, Rapidly Changing World,
Innovation is the Most Sustainable Source of Competitive Advantage.
• Finding #2: Innovation is Growing Exponentially.
• Finding #3: The “clock speed” of the business world made a
massive shift between 1985 & 1995, changing the way
companies think and act about innovation.
• Finding #4: Breakthroughs in technology in the next century will
not be primarily from within industries & fields of thought,
but Between the Fields of Thought.
• Finding #5: Differentials in Thinking are the Principal Source of
Innovations & Breakthroughs.
• Finding #6: Alliances are one of the ideal mechanisms for creating
innovation streams between differing specialized fields,
industries, and companies.
• Finding #7: Very few companies have any policies, programs,
processes, or practices to foster innovation across boundaries
• Finding #8: Process Innovation is as equally powerful in creating
competitive advantage as Technology Innovation.
• Finding #9: While nearly every company believes innovation is a
key priority, only a handful of companies have anyone truly
responsible for innovation
outside the R&D or Engineering groups.
• Finding #10: Outside of Patents, very few companies measure
the amount of innovation that is created.
• Finding #11: Few companies see their supply chain as a source
of innovation, instead treating it as a source of cost.
• Finding #12: Innovation is usually killed when a large company
acquires a small dynamic company.
Conclusion:
After studying scores of companies and conducting interviews with hundreds of executives over the last few years, there is both a sadness and excitement about the matter of innovation.
The sadness lies in the failed initiative to preserve, protect, and defend the creative spirit of so many people and the companies that fostered their innovation. There is no way to measure the loss. The synergy of spirit to co-create is in-bred into the human psyche, it is among our deepest and most soulful yearnings. To kill this spirit by poor practices, neglect, and disrespect is akin to stifling the energy of youth.
But there is a note of optimism these findings. There are Best Practices and they work. Best Practices can and do create Engines of Innovation. The task ahead is not to belabor the failures of the past, but to build on the solid foundation of successful practices, which, in turn, will generate even more and better new practices. The risk is small and the reward is great.
Read on, and browse this site to find new ways to make innovation flourish and regenerate.
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