Innovation Isn’t About Ideas
It’s about solving problems and doing hard things first
Every enterprise needs to innovate. It doesn’t matter whether you’re are a profit-seeking business, a nonprofit organization, or a government entity. The simple truth is that every business model fails eventually, because conditions change over time. We have to manage not for stability, but for disruption — that, or face irrelevance.
There is no shortage of advice on how to go about it. In fact, there is far too much advice. Design thinkers will tell you to focus on the end user, but Harvard’s Clayton Christensen says that listening to customers too much is how good businesses fail. Then there’s open innovation, lean startups, and on and on it goes.
The truth is that there is no one path to innovation. Everybody has to find their own way. Just because someone had success with one strategy doesn’t mean it’s right for the problem you need to solve. So the best advice is to gather as many tools for your toolbox as you can.
Here are four facts about innovation that you’ll rarely hear, though they’re critically important.
1. Your Success Often Works Against You
For the most part, managers aren’t responsible for innovation. As the title implies, they’re…
