The Designful Company

Part 3. Levers for Change

A Flywheel of Innovation

The corporate mission-scape is crowded with platitudes: “Our number-one goal is innovation.” “Our vision is to develop innovative solutions.” “Innovation is our only business.” Unfortunately, you can’t simply stick “innovation” in your tagline and expect magic to ensue. If you want to innovate, you have to build a CULTURE of innovation.

With the efficiency of a flywheel, a culture of innovation builds momentum with very small inputs, but can release large amounts of stored energy when needed. A culture of innovation combines a deep bench with a lightning response time.

Of course, it’s one thing to build a company from scratch on this principle. But how do you transform a going concern? The ...