Innovation has been in the air – consulting firms who help companies become more “innovative,” have been springing up like mushrooms after a heavy rain. Many have devised “new processes,” to jump start innovation. The managers of aging and antiquated firms have been turning to innovation experts to “move” their companies again. Even academics have been writing about how innovation can be jump started and the venerable “business review” and “management review” magazines can’t stop talking about it.
This is misguided. Innovation is not a process, it is a culture. It cannot be jump started by shock treatment. There is a reason the generation Z is more creative than the generations before them. They do not have the baggage of the 80s and early 90s. They did not live in companies with pyramidal structures and disheartening politics. They understand the value of innovation and care little about next quarters’ earning per share. The latter takes a measurable GDP of the country in measuring, tracking and reporting. I am sure the pyramid makers had similar efficiency metrics – perhaps, how many people were needed to move a block of rock a few yards and it is likely that they employed many to measure, track and report it. In the process, nobody asked if the pyramid was really needed (1).
Jump starting innovation by the application of older business processes is a myth. It is time that the kings of the metro jungle and the brains of the ivy campuses understood the reality.
1. Flexibility : Flexible Companies for the Uncertain World.
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