Monday, March 20, 2006

Who is responsible for innovation?

In most firms, there's a clear leader for any important business function or process. The CFO is responsible for finances. The VP of Sales is responsible for the sales pipeline and managing the sales team. What remains unclear to me is - who is responsible for innovation in your firm?

Now, most people will quickly point to the head of R&D if the organization has one. That's probably not a bad first choice, except that it argues that all ideas will come from only one group or business function within your organization. Do you really want to stake everything on just one organization? What if your business partners or customers have suggestions or ideas? Will they naturally funnel to the R&D team?

Or, to look at it another way, suppose there's a great idea to improve a business process. That idea, surely, doesn't belong to the R&D team. No, it should belong to the person responsible for the function or business process that needs to be changed. So here's a good idea without a clear owner - or maybe ownership is passed around as the focus of the improvement changes.

Suppose the CEO decides to innovate a service delivery or the business model of the firm. Who owns that change? Who is responsible for ensuring that your organization is considering ideas to improve your products, your services, your business model and other ideas? Certainly all of these ideas are not relevant to the head of R&D.

This is another example of the dysfunction around innovation. Since ideas can come from anywhere, and can reflect anything, it's hard to categorize and assign responsibilities for good ideas. So in any business, there are good ideas for new products being evaluated by R&D and marketing and product management, and good ideas to improve processes being evaluated by the heads of several functional groups. How do you determine which ideas have the most merit and which to fund? Who is responsible for the succcess or failure of these ideas?

Short answer - a lot of different people, who have a lot of other things on their plate. Long answer - really, no one. Perhaps its time to identify the Chief Innovation Officer in your business. This person should be responsible for implementing the tools, processes and culture to help each function record and evaluate ideas and move the best ones forward. He or she could apply funds or resources to nurture great ideas and to provide some assistance to teams within the organization. He or she should report an innovation pipeline, consisting of ideas that relate to products, and processes, and services, to the senior management team.

Innovation should be pervasive across your organization, so yes, we probably are adding another layer of management. However, as the speed of innovation increases, only by surfacing the idea and gaining management buy-in and resources will you be able to consistently innovate.
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
posted by Jeffrey Phillips at 4:58 AM

22 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good design!
[url=http://opyspxjk.com/qchn/fzsv.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://stkcfids.com/xrxu/izbl.html]Cool site[/url]

8:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well done!
http://opyspxjk.com/qchn/fzsv.html | http://ufsyhwps.com/szni/gsee.html

8:36 AM  
Anonymous premature ejaculation training said...

Vary Nice Blog,
I like.......
Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well being related to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity.

4:43 AM  
Blogger pedro velasquez said...

With more than 20 years of technical and management experience,dominical costa rica tours
Phil has led countless Lean Six Sigma, DFSS and change initiatives. His extensive consulting background includes clients in aerospace, automotives, oil and gas, health care, retail and high tech, as well as regulatory agencies such as Environment Canada, the Alberta Research Council, and the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
http://www.dominicalcostaricatours.com

2:05 PM  
Anonymous Prince Perlmutter said...

Please, can you PM me and tell me few more thinks about this, I am really fan of your blog...

2:36 AM  
Anonymous Besa Lighting Wall Sconce said...

Hello Guru, what entice you to post an article. This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.

11:20 AM  
Anonymous Charles David Platform Sandal said...

Keep working ,great job!

11:58 AM  
Anonymous Chinese Laundry Womens Flat said...

Hi there, I found your blog via Google while searching for first aid for a heart attack and your post looks very interesting for me.

12:34 PM  
Anonymous cachcach kids Dress said...

Please, can you PM me and tell me few more thinks about this, I am really fan of your blog...

1:09 PM  
Anonymous Diesel Kids clothing said...

Hello to all :) I can�t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Help me, please

1:49 PM  
Anonymous Property Investment Melbourne said...

His work of art is amazing. I truly admire how he has put in his ideas to his work. Everything is simple but fun.

12:40 AM  
Anonymous Billabong men said...

haha � the one who is posting the comments :D

6:19 PM  
Anonymous logo design said...

I recognize the content so interesting about this article. I like it so much .

3:16 AM  
Anonymous Invertir en oro said...

Used. Case is a bit worn but contents in good condition.

9:36 AM  
Anonymous female viagra pill said...

I liked this blog, i think is very interesting, most of all for the new ideas that this blog talk.

2:33 PM  
Anonymous stop pre ejaculation said...

Thanks a lot for this time sharing of innovation about WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR INNOVATION. This is really the best website about innovation i have ever read.

6:23 AM  
Anonymous best organic seo services said...

Hi buddy, your blog's design is simple and clean and i like it. Your blog posts are superb. Please keep them coming. Greets!!!

4:32 PM  
Blogger mark said...

cost effective advertisingThanks for the informative writing. Would mind updating some good tips about it. I still wait your next place. ;)

8:54 AM  
Blogger Imran said...

That is very good comment you shared.Thank you so much that for you shared those things with us.Im wishing you to carry on with ur achivments.All the best.
Buy sildenafil

5:31 AM  
Blogger iori said...

I agree with you. This post is truly inspiring. I like your post and everything
you share with us is current and very informative, I want to bookmark the page
so I can return here from you that you have done a fantastic job ...

organic vitamins

3:39 AM  
Blogger saim said...

This blog post is really very pleasant as it is well written and has suggested a lot of useful aspects and information about the topic.



buy curcumin

9:59 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing with us, I conceive this website truly stands out . I feel strongly love it.mirza maqbool | Maqbool mirza

3:34 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home