In this week’s thought leadership roundup, we take a look at the hyperbole of innovation, expert advice from FleishmanHillard’s Kristin Hollins, and the big shortcoming in our collective viewpoint on innovation.
The Rhetoric Of Innovation
From Forbes:
“[The] language of command is not the language of innovation. If we are to talk precisely about innovation, in a shared language and a shared nomenclature, we need to realize that innovation requires a domain all its own. Innovation requires a distinct rhetoric and its own realm of meaning and nuance and distinctions. Speaking about and to innovation is not the same thing as speaking about or to specific outcomes. When we speak about innovation, we are speaking about states of being, of system conditions, of potential. The language of innovation is a language about culture, and for this reason, it must be a language of narrative, and stories and tales.”
Our take: This is an important distinction that’s regularly glossed over in the name of participating in the global innovation conversation — one, that innovation at large is vastly different from applicable innovation; and two, that one formula will work for all organizations. Rather than treat innovation like a vague, one-size-fits-all necessity, it’s critical that leaders vet information and translate it into useful conversations and approaches that fit their specific company needs.
Read the full article or Tweet this!
Ask An Expert: Kristin Hollins, SVP & Senior Partner, FleishmanHillard Public Relations
From the LinkedIn Marketing blog:
“Brands are a promise, and increasingly your stakeholders want to understand those promises more deeply as part of their decisions to purchase, partner, join or even invest in companies. Stakeholders want to know things like what a company believes in/stands for, where company executives think the industry is headed and what the company is doing to lead new advances.
It is for these reasons that it’s important to have thought leaders who offer engaging perspectives that go beyond a specific product or service and encompass the vision and values of the organization and broad industry leadership insights.”
Our take: Once again, the real value of transparency makes itself known; and in today’s market, it directly impacts how your customers and prospects react to — and interact with — your products. People want to know that the companies they’re loyal to don’t just make a great commodity, but that the culture and people behind it are driven to keep innovating, which is essentially a promise to consumers that you’re committed to continued excellence.
Read the full article or Tweet this!
The Fundamental Shortcoming with How We View Innovation
From the Fast Company:
“Corporate history is a litany of excessive and often regrettable crazes. Some, like the 1990s embrace of Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR), left only bruised egos and battered balance sheets. Others, like Robert McNamara’s attempt to apply the quantitative rigor that was beloved by 1960s management practice and had served him so well at Ford to the Vietnam War, led to pure tragedy.
But the emergence of CINOs specifically and the increasing interest in innovation generally feels different; mainly because this growth is driven by push factors as much as by pull factors…To put it more bluntly, every company — whether they like it or not — is now both a technology and innovation firm. While few might shed a tear at the demise of many Fortune 500 companies, this trend affects almost all organizations and arguably everyone’s future.”
Our take: Buzzword-y as it seems these days, innovation is not just a trend that will one day go the way of the QR code; and that means somebody in every company needs to take charge of innovation initiatives. Enter the new era of the Chief Innovation Officer, a supposedly increasingly necessary leadership role that has the power to make or break a company’s position in the marketplace. But does it really, or are we simply trying to pass responsibility onto broader shoulders?
Read the full article or Tweet this!
The post Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: Innovation Rhetoric, Advice from Kristin Hollins, and a Fundamental Shortcoming appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad.