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BUSINESS BUZZWORDS
DO COMPANIES SPEND TOO MUCH TIME SEARCHING FOR GROUNDBREAKING INNOVATIONS?
GIANPIERO PETRIGLIERI
INNOVATION
LEADERSHIP
TECHNOLOGY
Do you think companies spend too much time searching for groundbreaking innovations at the expense of incremental advances?
GIANPIERO PETRIGLIERI: Innovation is a strong contender for the crown of business buzzword of the decade. The term has all it takes. It is ubiquitous, mysterious and, like its acolyte “leadership,” it works alone and pairs well with many adjectives.
Is there a problem that transformational leadership and disruptive innovation aren’t invoked to solve? Is there a company whose failure is not explained by a lack of both?
People have long been both attracted to and afraid of novelty. These days, however, corporate leaders and management gurus urge us to throw caution to the wind and join in the romance with innovation.
Romance may fill us with hope. But it is not a state of mind that goes with much perspective or discernment.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not praising stagnation. I am suggesting that when it comes to innovation, time and type count much less than intent and attention.
The preoccupation with how much time our company spends innovating and whether changes are radical or incremental can blind us from contemplating why it’s innovating—and for whom.
The impulse to innovate is often driven, more or less consciously, by a perception of impending threat. Especially if we hold power of some kind we may try to change everything, as the old saying goes, so that everything remains the same. Innovation then becomes a glossy cover for a conservative project—preserving our position rather than solving someone else’s problems.
Look around. How many “groundbreaking” innovations, be them products, services or ways of operating, are thinly veiled attempts to firm the ground on which established powers stand or to jump onto it? How many make a positive difference that stands the test of time?
Genuine innovation is about renewal, not about preservation. It is often the product of imagination outside, and often against, the norm fueled by a cocktail of discontent, concern, curiosity and hope. It is not always, necessarily, universally beautiful and good.
For all their current romance, groundbreaking innovation and established leaders are strange bedfellows. And so they should remain. Progress occurs most easily if new and old remain in a dialectic tension, than if the powers that be sedate those who want to become by co-opting their work—and their words.
Gianpiero Petriglieri (@gpetriglieri) is associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, where he directs the Management Acceleration Programme for emerging leaders.
via Innovation Is a Nice, but Too Often Misunderstood, Buzzword – The Experts – WSJ.
