Innovation Perpectives - All of the Above

This is the fourth of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Rocco Tarasi

There are a lot of easy answers to this question, but the easy ones are not necessarily the correct ones.

The first easy answer is "the CEO", because they are responsible for the strategy and direction of the business, are presumed to know more about their business than anyone, and are responsible for promoting a culture of innovation. But the CEO isn't on the front lines of most businesses - they aren't stocking the shelves with Proctor & Gamble goods at the grocery store, or working at the mall kiosk selling Blackberries, or greeting customers at the Citibank checkout window You can't trend-spot without the "spot", and it is difficult to do any spotting locked in the corner office. Plus, they probably have more than a few other things to do.

The second easy answer is "everyone." This is great in theory since they have the bandwidth and are on the front lines, and in a perfect world with unicorns running through rainbows this would be the answer, but in reality there are two big problems. First, it can't be everyone's responsibility when they already have "real" responsibilities (making sure the shelves are stocked, the right phone is sold, and the right bank account is credited) and they are compensated and evaluated based on those responsibilities. Second, most people probably don't care about innovating their job or their company, as much as we wish they did.

The final easy answer is "a designated manager/executive", probably someone with "innovation" in their title. This person would be the most motivated, since it would be their primary responsibility. And they could presumably put themselves into a position on the front lines talking to customers, suppliers and partners to identify trends. But the bandwidth of one person would be way too limited to be truly successful anywhere but the smallest of companies.

So the answer must be "D" - all of the above.

• "The CEO" can promote the right culture, and when given good information can make the right strategic decisions.
  
• "Everyone" is in right position and has the bandwidth to identify new trends, even if only a small percentage of people actively take the time to look.
  
• The "designated manager" has the motivation and incentive to foster ideas from "everyone", analyze those ideas and put them into context for the CEO.

So while the answer seems pretty clear, why is everyone bemoaning our country's innovation deficit?

• Hubris leads many CEOs to believe they don't need any help with innovation from the rank-and-file.
  
• Most companies don't have the culture or infrastructure to support those employees that are actually self-motivated to find trends and be innovative.
  
• Few companies designate a manager/executive with innovation responsibility. The CIO, if there is one, is often incorrectly presumed to have or share this responsibility but in reality spends 100% of their time managing the company infrastructure and reacting to fires.

Most of the media spotlight on growing innovation is on education, financial incentives, and political support. While those are all important factors, most companies have control over their innovation capability through a combination of the right culture, useful supporting infrastructure, and clearly defined responsibilities.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

Image Credit: EssjayNZ on Flickr

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Rocco Tarasi was an accountant, investment banker, and CFO before becoming a technology entrepreneur. He writes about innovation at www.InnovationMinute.com with a focus on "everyday" innovations in business models, sales strategies, products and services.