Category: Leadership of Innovation

Innovation starts with a Vision

Peter Drucker ‘Every organisation must prepare for the abandonment of everything it does,’ said the great management guru Peter Drucker. What does he mean? In ten years time your business will be completely different from now. There will be more change in the next ten years than in the last thirty. Every product or service you provide, every method, every process, every partnership or delivery... Read More--

Great Leaders have a contained ego.

Trevor Bayliss To succeed in any field you need enormous self-belief.  Trevor Bayliss, inventor of the clockwork radio, said that he needed ‘an ego the size of a truck’ in order to keep going in the face of the doubters and cynics who criticised his ideas.  Successful people have a great store of self-confidence.  They know that they have something special to offer and that they can achieve... Read More--

People will not follow an unenthusiastic leader. Be passionate.

People will not follow an unenthusiastic leader. They will follow someone who has a vision and is passionate about it. Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela showed great passion for what they believed – it was what made them great leaders. The sales training expert Robin Fielder says, ‘Never, ever forget that people are more persuaded by your convictions than by your... Read More--

How can you measure your innovation? What are the best metrics?

How can you measure how well your organization is doing with innovation? What metrics can you use? Most corporations find it difficult to measure innovation in any satisfactory way. But there is help at hand. There is some useful information in a piece of Boston Consulting Group research on the subject. The British Quality Foundation carried out an innovation metrics web survey. These surveys show... Read More--

Two Great Questions for Leaders

If you run a company then you are probably burdened with a plethora of troubles. You have all sorts of headaches, problems and surprises to sort out every day. It is hard to stand back and focus on the big strategic issues – but that is exactly what you have to do. Here are a couple of thinking exercises to help you approach the challenge afresh. 1. Imagine it is your first day. This method is... Read More--

The 10 Worst Flaws of Poor Leaders

The flaws of bad leaders are examined in an article by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkmanin the Harvard Business Review. They focused on the most prominent shortcomings of poor leaders. They examined 360 degree feedback reports on over 11000 leaders and analysed and prioritised the reasons given for poor performance. The results are as follows: The worst leaders: Lack energy and enthusiasm Accept their... Read More--

Which are the best Countries for Innovation?

Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (a specialized agency of the United Nations) co-publish The Global Innovation Index.  It compares five input metrics of the national economy that enable innovative activities: (1) Institutions, (2) Human capital and research, (3) Infrastructure, (4) Market sophistication, and (5) Business sophistication. Two output metrics... Read More--

Leadership tip – Change the corporate culture with well-directed praise

If you want to change the culture of the organisation then one of the best ways to do it is to praise the behaviours you want to see. If you want your people to be more adventurous, more entrepreneurial and more innovative then make a point of singling out for recognition those people who are acting like that. Catch someone doing something good and make a fuss of them. Say you have a culture which... Read More--

Five Things the Government can do to boost Innovation

It is generally agreed that the best way for Western economies to compete with China and India is on innovation not cost. What steps can the Government take to improve innovation?  Here are some practical suggestions. 1. Make it as easy as possible to start a new business. Most radical innovations come from start-ups and we need a lot more of them. It is already reasonably easy to start a new business... Read More--