Innovation should be like breathing

If I had read “The Innovation Edge: How Large Companies Lose It and How to Get It Back” earlier, I would have included it in my “Building the in-company change muscle: intrapreneurship, innovation, transformation & strategy” — a book about books about innovation and transformation. The “Innovation edge” hits all the notes.

The age of innovation

At the beginning of this twenty-first century, we are entering the dawn of a new age — the Age of Innovation. The twenty-first century will be notable as a period of time when professional managers learn how to produce innovation consistently and repeatably. Innovation Leadership, however, goes beyond that. Innovation Leadership is about taking an organisation to a point where it develops the repeatable ability to move to new paradigms. That becomes the ultimate form of renewal and sustainability. It becomes the Innovation Edge.

Forget incremental

Innovation cannot be some program that is “bolted on” to the side of the organisation. It is more than just telling the members of the organisation that they can spend 10% of their time on new ideas, as some organisations have historically done. Incremental innovation will also not get the organisation out of the stalemate it is in. It only helps optimise it.