Advancing Innovation

PART IInnovation—A Call to Action

Some men look at things the way they are and ask why? I dream of things that are not and ask why not?

—Robert Kennedy

I believe the call to action around innovation has never been stronger than it is today. Why? Because in addition to IMA’s research on innovation, there is other research and discussion that talks about how companies wish they could innovate more, better, and faster and generate more value creation. A 2015 McKinsey poll stated that “94% of the managers surveyed said they were dissatisfied with their company’s innovation performance.”¹ And 3M has declared that “Innovation is a survival issue.”² Clearly, as businesses look inside their four walls, they are not happy and feel the pressure to innovate.

But the really scary fact of this call to action is what is happening externally. The world is moving faster than ever before! It seems like every generation says “We are going through a rate of change faster than ever before.” I think that has probably been true—technology, globalization, and other factors have had us on a perpetual treadmill that seems to go faster and faster each year, month, week, and day! A general rule of thumb in business used to be that you need to reinvent your value proposition about every 10 years to stay relevant, profitable, and competitive. Of course that varies from industry to industry, and disruptive technologies, legislation, and political environments can all cause turbulence; but, as a rule, 10 ...