Successful innovation requires not just finding great new ideas, but taking advantage of them too. This means that we have to strike a balance between executing older ideas and searching for new ones.
Many organisations try to increase innovation by copying the successful techniques of other firms. This rarely works. Instead, you need to develop your purpose first. It’s this underlying philosophy that drives success, not tools.
I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life, and many of them have been lousy. We need to make work better. Scott Berkun’s new book, The Year Without Pants, gives us some guidance in trying to make management more effective.