Building Organizational Capacity for Change

Chapter 10

OCC Dimension 8

Innovative Culture

The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction.

—Lawrence Miller

Everything that can be invented has been invented.

—Charles H. Duell, Director of U.S. Patent Office, 1899

What Does It Mean to Be Innovative?

Organizations in all developed economies (and increasingly many developing economies) want to be innovative. While cost control, cost parity, or both are important to be competitive, organizations in developed economies simply cannot compete with the low cost advantages that developing economies offer. As a result, more and more organizations voice or attempt to embrace the 21st-century mantra, “Innovate or die.”¹

Many people ...