You might see innovation as a top corporate objective but when it comes to executive responsibility nobody seems to have a clear responsibility for innovation. You might argue that everyone in the organization is responsible for innovation and that very thought leads to mediocre outcomes with innovation.
You may not necessarily have a Chief Innovation Officer as an executive role, but having an executive leader (could be CTO, CIO, or any other CxO) with a clear responsibility for leading innovation efforts is the key initial step towards innovation success.
To innovate successfully across the organization, there are three key pillars innovation leaders must focus on: Give, grow, and guide.
- Give the organization engagement opportunities to educate, inspire, challenge, and provide resources.
- Grow the business with new products/services, new verticals, acquisition, and similar outcomes of financial and operational benefit.
- Guide teams by offering a suite of opportunity playbooks and overall guidance via best practices, technology solutions, idea-generation techniques, and partnerships.
Thinking Space 