Comments on Innovation Extreme Makeover

David McLeod — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:47 GMT

I agree that a company must be ‘fit’ in order to innovate… Imagination, Innovation, Creativity are available to all of us, but only when we are free and feel safe (in fit companies) to dig deep inside ourselves, where the creativity lives. When the a company is ‘un-fit’, we do not feel safe and thus access to creativity and innovation is blocked (both internally and from external companies).

Patrick Stapleton — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:36 GMT

Innovation is a topic very close to my heart and I must admit I had not considered that a fit company is more likely to gain from it than an unhealthy one. But now that I think about it of course your right and in fact I would go further to say that in many cases unhealthy companies are also less willing to accept innovation than their healthy cousins.

Personally I’ve been frustrated with the ability to innovate within many of the organizations I’ve worked for in the past. Rarely do you see processes in place to promote innovation or even enable the gathering of ideas from existing staff. Why should innovation be province only of management or highly paid external consultants? Surely staff with rich knowledge of their organizations business have something to offer as well?

Sometimes I think if I were a investment analyst I would weigh the long term value of a technology company heavily on the robustness and maturity of its innovation processes. Where none are in place or even worse considered unnecessary, my reading on that companies long term worth would be very likely negative.

Innovation is critical for technology companies and as such harvesting it should be high priority.

David Heller — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:51:57 GMT

Could it be more easily said that great innovation comes from people who have opened the boundaries of their minds. Creating spaces with open boundaries can happen through processes that allow for open ideation before evaluation is performed.

I think this is article expresses qualities that allow for open-mindedness … I guess I just wanted to add that it is an open mind that creates innovations.

sylvia o'brien — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:51:57 GMT

There’s something very innovative about the parallels in this article…....
I really enjoyed it, THANKS! Sylvia O’B.