Innovation: Essentials from Leader to Leader

EXECUTIVE FORUM

 

LEADING IN THE INNOVATION ZONE

Tom Koulopoulos

Talk about innovation is everywhere today. In many ways it reminds me of an atheist undergoing a deathbed conversion and finding religion. It’s all just a bit over the top and too late to save many companies that have ignored the imperative to innovate until a crisis forces them to.

Although innovation often takes center stage during the extremes of an economy—the tough times when it is ignored most, and times of great prosperity when it seems to be in abundance—it needs to be a systematic behavior of an organization, supported throughout the valleys and peaks in the economic cycle. Otherwise an organization may stave off economic bankruptcy during a downturn just to face technological ...