The Daily Innovator

Innovation disconnect

Last Friday, the NussbaumOnDesign blog at Business Week Online shared some headline results from a recent BCG survey that reveal what I regard as a troubling disconnect between how corporate CEOs and their managers and employees view innovation. Here are the key points:

• Some 81% of CEOs believe innovation is a top priority for their companies while only 63% of lower-level execs share this view.
• Some 76% of CEOs believe their companies foster a culture of innovation, but 51% of lower level execs and employees disagree.
• Some 66% of CEOs say their senior management teams share a common view on managing innovation but only 53% of non-CEOs agree.
• Some 56% of CEOs believe their companies have the right organization structure already in place to generate innovation. But 56% of lower-level people do not agree.

Troubling, but not terribly surprising.  I think it is fair to say that most CEOs are out of touch with what is actually happening inside their companies, so some difference of views on innovation is to be expected. Nevertheless, I still find these results quite concerning because they reflect some real gaps between leadership intentions and organizational reality that ultimately hurt our customers and damages our companies' prospects in the marketplace.

The challenge for the daily innovator is clear:  we must  take steps on our own initiative to begin closing the gaps reflected in these survey results.  The more we can do to fill the void by helping to create an innovation-friendly culture or an actual process for supporting innovation, the better off our organizations will be in the long run.  We already know that this isn't easy work, but we now have some additional evidence that confirms why it is so important.

Innovation book I just found

This weekend, I received a book I ordered through the self-publishing website, Lulu. (I am working with some colleagues on a book and we are thinking about using Lulu for it.)  I discovered We love innovation! so long as it's nothing new while exploring the Lulu site, and it was very exciting to find a brand new innovation resource!

The book is by Jeffrey A. Carlisle, and anybody named Jeff is okay by definition in my "book" (no pun intended), so there was no question I had to buy it.  I've only started looking through it, but I can already see that I'll be blogging often on We love innovation!  It includes interesting innovation stories from the author's personal experience, as well as great quotations. I'll put up my first post on Carlisle's ideas in the next few days.

Inside Web 2.0: Part I

I want to point you to Tim O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Meme Map on Flickr.  It is an excellent representation of the ideas that are driving the current evolution of the Web to which we're all contributing.  As a daily innovator, it is is important that you understand the implications of these ideas.  I'll discuss my own take on some of them in future posts.  In the meantime, here is Tim's recent article on Web 2.0, which also includes the meme map.  Very interesting reading!

The double challenge of innovation

Thanks to Chuck Frey of Innovation Tools for pointing us to an article by Dr. Joel Orr, VP of Business Development for KollabNet, Inc. The article, "The Double Challenge of Innovation" explains that in addition to the typical resistance to innovation embedded in the DNA of most organizations, innovators must also overcome an inherent cynicism with respect to innovation that emerges when managers feel threatened by the possibility of innovation success.  Despite preaching the virtues of innovation publicly, these managers may actively try to thwart it at every turn if they feel their status is on the line, simply because they couldn't produce the same success prior to the introduction of the new idea.  As Orr writes:

Innovation is an unnatural act. It induces fear, unmitigated by the promise of great gains in productivity. The fear is fear of personal loss - prestige; power; respect. The promises are of gains for the organization, not for the individual. 

It would be like screaming at the night to suggest that those who fear innovation should get over it.  But that is truly how I feel right at this moment.  It's pretty frustrating to have to constantly confront the naysayers on what feels like their terms, i.e., from the premise that we must prove to them something that may be unprovable just to get the chance to try something new or different.  Of course, if it doesn't work out, the naysayers will be more than happy to point out that they "told us so."  Orr now gives us something to have to worry about, namely the real concern that even if an idea succeeds, a so-called leader might still pull the plug on it simply because he/she feels personally threatened by that success.  It is amazing how tied up in knots we allow ourselves to become!

My advice: illegitimi non carborundum. Be proud to be a daily innovator and don't let anyone else's insecurities deter you from your mission.  Despite the obvious frustrations, I urge you to remain confident in your commitment to innovation, as well as the certainty that you will prevail in the long run!

Recommended reading for TDIs #1

I am more than halfway through John Battelle's excellent book, The Search:  How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Google, in the search industry and in technology innovation.  Personally, I have found it very readable and extremely candid in its exploration of its subject matter, and John is to be commended for pulling no punches.  I will be writing more about the book on my new blog, Googleology, which I anticipate will go live in early October.  I'll keep you posted on that schedule.

In the book, John mentions Andy Bechtolsheim, a co-founder of Sun, who was one of Google's earliest investors.  Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google, did a demo of the early search engine beta for Bechtolsheim in 1998 and, within minutes, he pulled out his checkbook and wrote them a check for $100,000, double the amount they requested.  These first dollars led directly to the legal incorporation of Google on September 7, 1998 and, as they say, the rest is history.

In today's New York Times, Bechtolsheim, who has returned to work at Sun, is now quoted as saying, "writing checks and watching companies grow is not my cup of tea."  Good thing for Larry, Sergey and, well, the rest of us, that he didn't discover his "cup of tea" back in 1998! 

The Search is filled with the well-worn lore of Silicon Valley, as well as other great stories that I've never heard before.  (Of course, since I'm not a part of that world, I found them especially interesting.)  So, without question, I'd say this book is worth picking up.

UPDATE:  The Financial Times has named The Search as one of its six finalists for the best business book of 2005, along with The World is Flat, Freakonomics and others.  See, I told you it's worth picking up!