Blog
Where the Rainforest thinks, speaks, and dialogues
By Henry Doss. There is today an emerging distinction between “leadership” and “innovation leadership,” a new vision of what it takes to become an innovative leader and a leader of innovation. This new model of thinking requires a new way of preparing leaders, and a new way of thinking about leadership. The rules are changing and it might not be stretching the point to say there is actually a leadership revolution brewing.
By Henry Doss. Big businesses don't seem to be very innovative. An informal glance around the big business landscape won't reveal much in the way of innovation beyond perhaps the routine adoption of a new technology, a bit of chasing the most current business model paradigm or acronym, or maybe rejiggering organizational charts here and there. But, innovation? Not so much. It doesn't have to be that way.
By Henry Doss. If innovation is the topic, culture should be your first concern. If innovative practices, innovative execution, innovative output and innovation as a means to long-term excellence are a desired outcome, your attention should go first to culture. If innovation is a "strategic imperative" or some such other phrase or vision or story line, then culture change should be the path you pursue. Start anywhere else and shy away from culture, and at best you will likely achieve only incremental tactical and structural improvements.
Business challenges -- especially those associated with creating innovation at large-scale -- tend to be uniform across geographies, cultures and business lines. This was evident when Henry spoke at the "Future Leaders" meeting in Miami, FL, on April 15. The meeting was attended by Latin American business leaders, all of whom had a deep interest in how to leverage innovative practices for their businesses. "There are only so many competitive levers to be pulled in the 21st century," Doss noted. "And innovation holds promise as the key -- if not the only -- driver of efficiency, market/product expansion and sustainable growth. I think this is why so many business leaders want to better understand what innovation is, how it can be harnessed, and how more innovation can be engineered into their organization."
On April 7th, over 800 people gathered in a conference hall to hear a joint presentation by Henry Doss and Victor Hwang, addressing issues of innovation. The occasion was the EDA's annual meeting, bringing together hundreds of business people, economic developers, elected officials, and DC luminaries to meet, greet and talk about issues of economic development in the United States. Henry and Victor's plenary session address focused on the science and pragmatics of innovation -- what it is, how do you measure it and, most important, how do you actually engineer innovation into large-scale systems.
Victor Hwang, the Kauffman Foundation; Tom Guevara, EDA; Henry Doss, Rainforest Strategies.
"This was one of the more interesting and fun opportunities I've had in some time to talk about innovation," said Doss. "This was a particularly skilled and knowledgeable gathering and that gave me and others an opportunity to not only share ideas, but also to continue informal discussions well beyond the bounds of meeting rooms and conference halls. It was a blast!"
Interested parties can receive a copy of the slides from this presentation by writing directly to RFS from the contact page of this web site and asking for a copy.
There is a deep irony lurking about in any conversation concerning innovation. It’s always there, and it’s always influencing what you will do — or not do — with respect to improving innovative thinking and practice. Without recognizing and understanding that irony, it is next to impossible to ever develop a working model of how innovation works. It is a problem that is pretty easy to recognize, but much, much more difficult to understand.
