ROWAN GIBSON
Rowan Gibson is a global business strategist, a bestselling author and an expert on radical innovation www.rowangibson.com. His last book, Rethinking the Future, has been translated into over 20 languages. Rowan’s new book Innovation to the core (co-authored with Peter Skarzynski) was published in March 2008 by Harvard Business School Press. Rowan Gibson is a very popular keynote speaker all over the world. He may be contacted at rg@rowangibson.com
For innovation to become a core competence and a tangible cultural value, there has to be a substantial degree of internal consistency between processes, metrics, reward structures, rhetoric, and top management behavior. But it is precisely this synchronicity that is lacking inside most companies, says Rowan Gibson.
One of the most prevalent and dangerous misconceptions in innovation [...]
Corporate innovation has traditionally been driven from the technology side; from departments like R&D and engineering. It’s an approach that can be very successful. Indeed, it has often led to great breakthroughs. But if a company wants to win in today’s value-based economy, this is no longer the best way of doing things.
It never ceases to amaze me. I’m meeting with the executive committee of a major global company. I’ve just asked if innovation is one of their top strategic priorities. Their unanimous answer is “yes”. I then ask about their individual responsibilities. “Which one of you is the CFO?” “Who is head of HR?” “Where’s the CIO?” One by one their hands go up. Yet when I ask to see their global director of innovation, nobody raises a hand. Everyone just looks at me with a blank expression. So, sure, this company understands the innovation imperative. But nobody in its leadership team is directly responsible – or accountable – for making innovation happen across the organization. And they don’t even seem to be aware of the paradox.
Rowan Gibson explains how intellectual capital has become an outdated way to measure an organization's worth. What's needed are new measures used to create value today, such as imagination capital, entrepreneurial capital and relationship capital.
With many companies downsizing, rightsizing and reorganizing lately, human resources is about as popular as bird flu these days. But savvy companies have a real opportunity to rethink the role of HR - into the engine that drives the cultural changes needed to achieve sustainable innovation, according to Rowan Gibson.
If companies give innovation the thumbs-down now, exactly how and when do they intend to renew their offerings
The key to surviving the global downturn is to focus on strategic renewal - adapting your company and its business models and strategies to the new market conditions - according to author Rowan Gibson.
