Face it... Leadership Matters #3

This is the final post in a 3 part series for me on why leadership matters

Recapitulation...

In the first post of this series the question was posed… “Are you convinced and committed?” It was relevant to Business Acumen, Purpose and Strategy, where in questions were asked about organizations and leaders. In the second post we touched on the “E” word (ENGAGEMENT) for employees and customers. The question was posed as a leader, do you see the link between employee engagement and customer engagement? Finally we'll touch on innovation.

Innovation

As a leader, leveraging innovation is one definite way to long term sustainability and growth. Innovation broadly falls under two categories. Firstly, is routine innovation. This is where everyone in the organization is always looking for ways to improve processes, reduce costs, solve recurring problems. Basically, what renowned scientist, Thomas Edison said “There is always a better way of doing it. Find it.”

The second category of innovation is strategic innovation. Here, the organization creates and implements an innovation strategy which is aligned with the business strategy. There are three basic tasks in creating and executing an innovation strategy. The first task is finding an answer to the question “How will innovation create value for our customers and for our company?” and then communicate that to the organization. The second task is allocating resources and execution.

The final task is recognizing that innovation strategies must evolve. Similar to the process of innovation itself, an innovation strategy requires on-going experimentation, learning, and adaptation.

Let’s stop and ask: Do we have a innovation strategy?Do we know the innovation process?Do we want to do it or not

Summing up, every organization needs to have leadership that can drive the fundamentals of business acumen, purpose, strategy, employee and customer engagement and innovation to demonstrate that leadership matters.