If you’ve always thought that innovation is mostly about products, then take a read of Gary Hamel’s article “The Why, What & How of Management Innovation” (sub. required) in the Feb 06 edition of HBR. The article provides an excellent discussion of how innovation in management (“how to organize, lead, coordinate, or motivate) is just as important, indeed perhaps more important than innovation in products and services.
Innovation is about creating value from implementing new ideas. Those ideas don’t have to be just about what products or services customers might need. Value creating ideas can be about a host of things such as using technology in operations, who and how to recruit or the way the business is organized.
If you’re worried that your business isn’t innovative in bringing new products or services to market, perhaps its because you’re not innovative in management.
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Paul:
Great points about the need for internal innovation in management. But it seems to me that managers AREN’T worried enough that their business isn’t bringing in new products or services. (I’m speaking here about the professional serivces arena.) This is precisely the type of manager who won’t shake things up because s/he hasn’t bought into the need for innovation in the first place.
I definitely agree with Suzanne that many managers, especially in professional services, don’t see product/service innovation as a priority. Growth is all too often focused on simply riding the markets inherent growth and/or fighting for market share rather than seeking to create new markets.
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