So how does a firm build its power and agility in innovation? The answer is simple and, to my mind, obvious – yet, it is not the direction in which most innovation-seeking firms seem to be channeling their efforts. Having designed and managed innovation programs in a variety of settings, I know that a company’s innovation capacity comes down to its talent pool, and its commitment to building knowledge and competencies one individual at a time.
Managers should invest in two kinds of education. First, they need to ensure that the professionals they employ are current in their fields. Every discipline is experiencing accelerated development, and the rapid knowledge obsolescence that goes with it.Second, organizations should give their people specific training in innovation. Hatching potentially valuable ideas and taking them to fruition is its own competency. It is not, moreover, an innate ability, but quite trainable. As in any subject, developing innovation skills requires learning some fundamentals and mastering them through repetition. But fundamentals of innovation are not usually taught as part of science and technology training. It befalls organizations to train their talent pool accordingly.
What has proved to matter is, again, the building of knowledge and innovation skills, which are much harder and take longer to get in place and maintain. Leading-edge competency in one’s area of practice is indispensable; practice at turning ideas into reality is a must.
The more you invest in your people’s knowledge, the more innovation you can expect to reap. IBM’s Founder Thomas J. Watson, Sr. captured it well: “There is no saturation point in education.”
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/10/if-you-want-innovation-invest-in-people/
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