Innovation and Aligning Priorities

The Innovation Survey, from the Council on Competitiveness and New Economy Strategies released their survey which asked leading corporate executives to share their views on the changing nature of innovation.

The survey’s main finding---that innovation is going global---should come as no surprise.

However, the survey did uncover some fascinating results.

For example, when asked to rank the most important factors in their firm’s ability to innovate, corporate leaders cited access to a science and engineering talent pool, close supplier and customer relations, entrepreneurial managers, and a good communications infrastructure.

When asked to identify factors that would disqualify a region for new corporate investments, the list sounds pretty similar.

Executives were also asked to identify the biggest barriers to corporate innovation.

• A majority (61%) cited competing internal priorities due to finite resources.

BOTTOMLINE: Corporate innovation, or simply another way of stating problem solving, can be further enhanced when alignment of internal priorities takes place.

Check out a step-by-step approach of identifying misalignments, aligning processes, policies, measures, technology and people, in Discipline III. Align Systems, in "Six Disciplines For Excellence".