Much of the recent discussion surrounding innovation in the enterprise has been geared towards consumer-facing aspects of the business: crowdsourcing new product ideas, engaging the consumer in experiential marketing, or even asking the consumer to develop advertising or mobile applications for the business.
While these are all innovative ways to engage the consumer and garner some relatively cheap attention, business leaders often find themselves relying on “tried and true” examples of innovation, rather than harnessing it from within their organization. We often work with clients on internal crowdsourcing projects to great success, but as many of our clients and staff here at PulsePoint Group will tell you, the most glaring obstacle is often times the lack of an embedded approach to harnessing innovative thinking and practices within teams or throughout the organization. Sometimes the organization’s biggest hurdle to embracing innovation is simply not knowing how.
Businessweek published an article this week on GE’s five-year-old “Leadership, Innovation, and Growth” (LIG) initiative, employed by the company as a vehicle to jump start innovation and growth from deep within the organization. The initiative focuses on practical ways leaders and employees can instill traits within the company’s culture that foster the type of environment needed for organizations to get the most out of internal innovation projects like crowdsourcing platforms. Co-authored by GE’s VP of Executive Development and Chief Learning officer, Susan Peters, the article shares six practices GE has implemented within their organization as they work towards developing a culture where harnessing innovation is not a part of an exercise or project, but rather a way of running the business.
As innovation plays an increasingly important role across all factions of the enterprise, organizations that are able to create a culture that works, thinks, and executes with an eye towards the human aspects associated with an “innovation ready” culture will surely come out ahead of those who do not.
You can read Peters’ and GE’s execution roadmap here.
Can You Be Both a Tactician and a Counselor?
Bob Feldman
February 1st, 2011
Originally Published PR Week, January 28, 2011 (subscription access only)
Research among CEOs and line-of-business executives reveals that the single-most common criticism of communications professionals is that below the CCO level the function is primarily occupied by tacticians.
A common result: when divisional or business unit leadership meet to discuss strategy, the PR person — perhaps other than the CCO — is often left out.
Are most PR pros really not capable of engaging at that level?
Unlikely, but here are a few thoughts.
First, every CCO needs to be honest with his or her evaluation of talent. The most critical time is when hiring is done. If we’re candid, we often do hire tacticians. After all, we need to get things done.
We also tend to hire from a common pool, that is, people from within our profession.
The consequence often means a talent pool that doesn’t have the same academic qualifications and /or serious business experience as other staff functions.
Bottom line: Hire smart. Raise the bar. And, as the business we’re in gets increasingly sophisticated, there are plenty of high-ranking B-school grads, for example, who would welcome a career in our profession.
Second, and this is a tricky one, it just may be difficult to be both a tactician and a strategist at the same time.
Let’s be clear: We need to do a lot more than provide counsel. We need to get stuff done. The greater the demands and the higher volume of output, the more communications staffers get buried in the day-to-day. That may be reality.
But getting stuff done is a given. Flawless execution is a table-stake. No one earns a reputation for just doing what’s expected of them.
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Tags: Commentary, PR Education, PRWeek, Talent
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