Innovation Engine: Driving Execution for Breakthrough Results

CHAPTER 2

Assess Innovation Readiness

Assess organizational readiness for innovation: Many organizations skip this step. With a better understanding of your organization's propensity to innovate from a structural standpoint, a highly customized roadmap for innovation can be developed.

In a recent report by IBM, CEOs said they feel ill-prepared for today's more complex environment.1 Increased connectivity has also created strong, and too often unknown, interdependencies. For this reason, often the ultimate consequence of any decision is poorly understood. With few exceptions, CEOs expect continued disruption in one form or another. The new economic environment is substantially more volatile, much more uncertain, increasingly complex, and structurally different. An industrial products CEO in the Netherlands summed up the sentiments of many when he described the last few years as a “wake-up call,” adding that “it felt like looking into the dark with no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Many leaders complain about the past failure rates of strategic initiatives during implementation. However, few realize the manner in which they contribute to the failure rate. A key element to the challenge of change is understanding how sponsors inhibit their own efforts to successfully execute important initiatives.

The recent economic cycle has not helped the situation and, in fact, has made it even more challenging for leaders to have clarity and better prepare their organizations for the future. ...