Systematic Inventive Thinking

Innovation Management is an online magazine offering best practice and inspiration to innovation management practitioners. It sources and provides articles in collaboration with experts in the field of innovation management from leading business schools, companies and universities worldwide. The online magazine seeks to be the best source of best practice for innovation management practitioners.

Here is the text of my recent interview with co-founder and chief editor, Karin Wall.

What is innovation management to you?

Innovation management is three things: 1. Creating innovation competencies, 2. Allocating resources to innovation projects, and 3. Managing an innovation pipeline from idea to market launch.  I believe many people focus too much on the last two and not enough on creating the skills and talent needed for innovation.  Leadership teams must take the responsibility for  training and development, recruitment, and reward systems that elevate the innovation competency of the firm.

What’s the most satisfying part in your job?

I enjoy seeing people’s reaction to learning innovation.  I love it when they create their first idea using a structured process.  They get a big grin on their face.  It is very gratifying when my students “get it” and see how this ability to innovate will make them an enormous resource to any company that hires them.

And the most frustrating parts?

When people learn the skills of innovation, they face their next big challenge – how do I convince my boss to use this method on a regular basis?  How do I persuade the organization to see innovation as a systematic process?  It is frustrating to see students frustrated.  So we train additional skills of influence and organizational alignment.  We try to create “innovation evangelists.”

What’s your next big challenge

My next big challenge is getting the word out on what works and what doesn’t work in innovation.  I taught innovation to a group representing five multinational companies recently.  They were convinced that the method (based on patterns) works and can be used in a variety of ways.  But one of the participants asked, “Why am just hearing about this now?”  That is a good question, and more needs to be done to make people see innovation as a set of skills that can be taught and learned by anyone.