The Critical Obstacle to Innovation

February 28, 2017Ken WredeCorporate Culture, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational Culture, Turnaround ManagementNo comments

Everyone agrees that innovation is the magical key to the future, a strategic activity that cannot be ignored.

A major topic of CEOs and MBA programs world-wide.

The biggest obstacle to innovation in any organization has absolutely nothing to do with innovation.

The biggest obstacle is that very few organizations create the strategic group culture needed to nurture innovation.

You may find a Senior VP for other “strategic” areas (think finance, marketing, operations, and even human resources), but you rarely have a SVP for innovation (or for that matter, leadership).
If the CEO does not take a personal hand in proactively promoting an environment for innovation, it just becomes an annoying buzz word that will be addressed “sometime in the future.”

(Thanks to Rajesh Singh, Vice President – L&H Products Strategy & Ops at Swiss Re5d, for posing an interesting question.)

Ken Wrede

K.W. Wrede is a speaker, business consultant, and leadership coach. After spending 27 years overseas in the military, start-up companies, and in a variety of industries primarily Europe, he's now helping clients become effective leaders. He wants to save 5 million companies in the US alone, find out how. When not on the job, he lives in St. Petersburg FL.

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