In a recent interview with Innosight's Scott Anthony, a great point was raised. Namely, that CEO's and other corporate leaders talk a lot about innovation but when it comes to the hard work of actually allocating resources to it, they don't live up to the rhetoric. I was at an innovation related workshop earlier this week and saw this phenomenon in visceral terms. One of the company leaders, when asked about why a particular effort was not moving forward started visibly cringing at the pressure she was under to deliver to the numerical results promised by her senior leaders in the budget. As a result, an innovation effort that needed careful handling was being shoved through the existing channels, which is almost always a recipe for disaster in my experience.
We know so much about what makes growth through innovation work. It's sad that so much of what we know is just ignored by leaders who could really benefit.