Today's Key Leadership Challenge: Making Innovation Everyone's Mandate

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Jan 11, 2012) - Innovation mastery remains elusive, despite decades of superb thinking and work on the topic. Too often, companies mistake creativity for innovation, turning it into a rarified thing only a few can attain. They put innovation into a silo and thereby limit the brainpower they apply to it. But today, because of the pace of fundamental change, everyone has to get better at innovation.

That's according to Scott D. Anthony, Managing Director and head of the Asia-Pacific operation of innovation consulting firm Innosight and author of the just-released Little Black Book of Innovation: How It Works, How to Do It (Harvard Business Review Press, January 2012). The book integrates some of the best and most tested innovation insights and practices into one easy-to-read volume and provides a 28-day program that can turn individuals and organizations into more successful innovators. Anthony also offers up pragmatic advice, such as: recognize your first idea is almost sure to be wrong; find insights in outlying data; understand the disability that comes with every corporate capability; and identify the critical assumptions you didn't know you were making.

"You don't have to be Steve Jobs to succeed at innovating. When companies fail at innovation, it's because the practical way to do it isn't clear. It isn't a mystical process, and it isn't reserved for geniuses. Innovation is achievable by -- and is the responsibility of -- nearly every department and employee," Anthony says.

"My work with companies, entrepreneurs and government leaders has led to a strong personal conviction that there's tremendous innovation energy within every individual and every company. And these days, innovation needs to be everyone's business. The good news is that excellent innovation tools and frameworks are out there for all to use," adds Anthony. He points out that the Internet and social networks have dramatically lowered the cost of creating and disseminating innovative ideas, making innovation accessible to enterprises of all sizes.

Anthony defines innovation simply: "something different that has impact." He distills past successes and failures, academic research and years of personal field experience into simple, actionable approaches that allow anyone to achieve that impact.

Cutting to the Heart of Great Innovation Thinking

Amazon.com lists more than 40,000 innovation-related books. Accordingly, even the savviest student of innovation will struggle to find the must-reads. Anthony does a good bit of this work for readers. He identifies a group of top innovation thinkers and practitioners and distills their most important insights. For instance...

• A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble. Lafley's "consumer is boss" mindset revitalized P&G's innovation efforts. Anthony argues that innovators should follow Lafley's lead and take an external focus -- investing the time to deeply understand current and potential customers.
  
  
• Richard N. Foster, innovation thought leader and Innosight lead director. Foster's research shows that long-term "survivors" tend to underperform market indices. To outperform the market, Foster says, you have to change at the pace and scale of the market, without losing control.
  
  
• Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and Innosight co-founder. Christensen's writing describes how doing everything right can leave a successful organization susceptible to attack from a disruptive innovator who changes the game with a simple, accessible and/or affordable solution.
  
  
• Rita McGrath, professor at Columbia University. Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that there is a wide gulf between your first idea and the right idea. McGrath provides practical ways to build and implement a "plan to learn" that helps to quickly identify which of your assumptions are off.
  
  
• Thomas A. Edison. While innovation may be more approachable than ever, studying Edison reminds innovators that it still takes hard work. Don't be afraid to sweat and work hard to create an idea.

Avoiding Innovation Pitfalls

In addition to the patterns and practices of the best innovators, Anthony points to "seven deadly sins" of innovation and outlines how to avoid them. The sins are...

• Pride, where an innovator does what they want, rather than what the market wants. Avoid it by taking an external view.
  
  
• Sloth, where innovation efforts slow to a crawl. Avoid it by turning innovation from an academic to an active activity.
  
  
• Gluttony, where too many resources ironically inhibit successful innovation efforts. Avoid it by limiting resources in the early stage of innovation to force hard choices and spur creativity.
  
  
• Lust, where innovators get distracted by "bright, shiny objects." Avoid it by carefully choosing the opportunities to pursue and by eschewing the rest.
  
  
• Wrath, where even smart risk-takers face severe punishment. Avoid it by recognizing that failure is part of innovation and rewarding behaviors that support innovation.
  
  
• Greed, where the lure of quick growth leads innovators to target mature markets populated by powerful incumbents. Avoid it by being patient for growth and focusing on creating new markets.
  
  
• Envy, where bad relations between the core business and new growth efforts poison innovation. Avoid it by celebrating both the core business and innovation efforts.
  

Twenty-Eight Days to Innovation

The Little Black Book of Innovation draws on the experiences of organizations like Procter & Gamble, CVS, Turner Broadcasting, Walgreens, Intuit, Indian appliance maker Godrej & Boyce and discount hair salon QB House that have built world-class innovation capabilities to lay out a 28-day program that can help any business or individual get better at innovating.

Week 1 involves discovering opportunities for innovation; week 2 is for blueprinting ideas; week 3 is for assessing and testing, and week 4 is for outlining how to move forward.

Each day's training is organized around answering a critical innovation question. For example, Day 19 helps innovators determine, "How can I get people behind my idea?" The combination of accessible case examples and practical how-to tips allows any reader to immediately put the book's ideas into action.

"We're fortunate: Decades of academic research and work by leading practitioners can now point the way to innovation success. You just need a practical way to turn all that insight into action," Anthony said.

To arrange a conversation with Scott D. Anthony of Innosight and/or receive a copy of The Little Black Book of Innovation: How It Works, How to Do It, contact Katarina Wenk-Bodenmiller of Sommerfield Communications, Inc. at 212-255-8386 or katarina@sommerfield.com.

ABOUT SCOTT D. ANTHONY
Scott D. Anthony is the managing director of Innosight, Asia-Pacific. Based in Innosight's Singapore office, he leads its Asian consulting operations and its venture-capital investment activities. He has worked with clients ranging from national governments to companies in industries as diverse as healthcare, telecommunications, consumer products and software. He is the author of The Little Black Book of Innovation (Harvard Business Review Press, January 2012) and The Silver Lining (Harvard Business Review Press, 2009). He is the co-author of Seeing What's Next (Harvard Business Review Press, 2004) and The Innovator's Guide to Growth (Harvard Business Review Press, 2008).

ABOUT INNOSIGHT
Innosight is an innovation and strategy consulting and investment firm with offices in Boston, Singapore and India. It works with companies to devise growth strategies, discover new, high-growth markets and create disruptive new products and services. Its comprehensive, end-to-end approach converts the quest for innovation and growth into a predictable and reliable process. For more information, visit www.innosight.com.