Hacking Leadership: The 11 Gaps Every Business Needs to Close and the Secrets to Closing Them Quickly

Chapter 8

Hacking the Innovation Gap

A lack of innovative thinking is the precursor to a brand in decline.

The need for change exists in every organization. Other than irrational change solely for the sake of change, every corporation must change to survive. If your organization doesn’t innovate and change in accordance with market-driven needs and demands, it will fail—it’s just that simple. Leaders who don’t become very skilled at hacking the innovation gap put their organizations on the fast track to obsolescence.

Agility, innovation, disruption, fluidity, decisiveness, commitment, and, above all else, a bias toward action will lead to the creation of innovation and change. It is the implementation of change that results in evolving, growing, and thriving companies. While most executives and entrepreneurs have come to accept the concept of innovation management as a legitimate business practice, and change leadership as a legitimate executive priority in theory, I have found very few organizations that have effectively integrated innovation and change as core disciplines and focus areas in reality.

What’s particularly interesting to me is the number of companies who were once dominant brands, based upon their ability to innovate, that ceded their market-leading positions to others when they failed to sustain innovation. There are countless examples of companies throughout history that have either failed to embrace disruptive business models, or have failed to maintain their ...