Edition No. 15
Innovation, the Company & Career Success
by Lauryn Franzoni
Innovation may be the most critical factor in success - both for companies and individuals. What is innovation? The guru of business strategy, Peter Drucker, describes it as "the specific instrument of entrepreneurship, the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth."
The United States may be facing a crisis in innovation. There is concern among educators and government experts that we are losing ground in terms of technical prowess to Pacific Rim nations. There's also growing pool of international talent available for outsourcing. How does this affect your company and industry? Read on to find out.
The Innovation Factor
In a Cisco Innovation 2005 Study survey, business and information technology leaders cite innovation as the most critical factor in a company's success. Fifty-three percent of the 635 respondents surveyed by the independent research firm Momentum Research Group said that innovation has the greatest impact on competitiveness. (Twenty-six percent cited increasing employee education and skill levels.)
Other key findings:
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Cutting-edge technologies are clearly on the radar screen of business and technology leaders. While adding communications capability to a product or service was the most likely desired innovation at 32 percent, it was closely followed by location technology (24 percent) and data storage (22 percent). This indicates the emerging realization of what radio frequency identification (RFID) and global positioning satellite (GPS) technology will have on the future competitiveness of businesses.
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The overwhelming majority of business and technology leaders surveyed want to focus on modernizing and fixing the healthcare system. Healthcare was identified as the economic sector most in need of innovation by 53 percent of respondents. And just over 70 percent of those polled say that improving the system is the priority, not new medicines and treatments.
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Given the focus on innovation, it is not surprising that many business and technology leaders are seeking improvements in the education system. In particular, a solid majority of 58 percent cited a need for greater creative thinking and problem solving skills from students. A third of those polled called for stricter student requirements to accomplish this goal.
Innovation & Career Success
Branding yourself as an innovator and passing your creativity
onto others is a great way to enhance your career. Success as an
innovator is directly tied to your ability to accurately assess
current trends. You also need the capacity to evaluate the impact
of emerging technologies, government regulations, developments in
the competitive landscape and even changes in the leadership of
your own organization.
Is there anything you can do to enhance your ability to predict
career change and hone your innovation skills? Yes. Change Leaders
Inc. founder Marjan Bolmeijer offers the following suggestions to
help your "innovator makeover":
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Gather information about your company's culture and about the level of risks the culture is willing to take around innovation.
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Don't look at your CEO as a role model. CEO behavior is not a good indicator of the level of acceptable innovation. The CEO of Oracle takes visible risks during ultra competitive sailing races. The CEO of Virgin Airline rides hot air balloons and takes more risks than most of us. However, what a company's public figure does is not always a reflection of the level of risk the organization is willing to accept.
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Take 5 to 10 percent more risk than the organization is willing to take. Not 25 percent, because that will be regarded as "unsafe" and you will come across as unreliable.
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Become an expert in selling your ideas internally and assisting others in overcoming initial resistance.
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Don't just rely on your good work to position yourself. Write for your company newsletter or develop an intranet site featuring all innovative ideas within the company.
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Your reputation as innovator will be rock solid once you have earned the right to focus on the strategic organizational question, "How do we attract, create and develop more innovators in the company?"
Conclusion
The benefits of becoming an innovator reach beyond self- interest.
History is full of innovators who have died broke or unknown. When
managers can recognize who on the team can take ideas to market
and who can deliver business value, they find success.
This article, written by Lauryn Franzoni, is reprinted with
permission from Bongarde Media, sponsors of SafetyXChange, an online
community where safety professionals can go for new ideas, workable
solutions and fresh perspectives. To learn more about SafetyXChange,
visit their website: http://www.safetyxchange.com
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