"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results." - Benjamin Franklin

The results of the 2008 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Innovation Executive Survey are in...and the findings are not only predictable, but disappointingly predictable.  Just check out this "key finding" from the executive summary of the report:

• "Executives consider lengthy development times, a risk-averse corporate culture, difficulty selecting the right ideas to commercialize, and lack of internal coordination - ALL OF WHICH ARE DIRECTLY UNDER THEIR CONTROL - (emphasis added) to be the biggest factors driving down the return on innovation spending."

As we've stated here time and time again, only true leadership and courage will push an organization successfully through the inertia of status quo and toward a true innovative culture.  But this strong leadership and courage is hard to come by when the markets are unpredictable, economies are weak and credit is tight. 

Somehow though, corporate innovators, including all of the organizations listed within the report as "Top Innovative Companies," find the courage, the passion, the true understanding of acceptable risk, the key processes that support and encourage the pursuit of creative ideas, the strong leadership, the willingness to accept a prototyping failure as a learning opportunity and the desire to push customer satisfaction to new heights.

Let's be brutally honest here...executives are under the gun to find any positive financial news within their organizations.  When an environment like that exists, the view of the horizon becomes obscured.  Future vision becomes quarterly zoom-in.  Organizational strategy becomes "making the numbers."  Even long-term initiatives like innovation/idea management, research & development, new product development, etc. are judged with a short-term view.  Things like ROI are examined closely.  Innovation projects with five-year roadmaps of positive ROI are pushed to deliver in two years.  Findings of "disappointment with ROI" are shown on surveys like the one BCG conducts.

Measuring ROI of your innovation efforts makes sense, if your organization has a mature enough innovation management program to provide confidence in the ability to deliver the ROI.  But many, if not most, organizations do not have such maturity.  They continue to believe that measurement equals improvement.  They are wrong.

So we have a "triple witching" of poor executive support for an innovation culture, combined with a short-term financial view of long-term strategies followed by an unwillingness to display true leadership by differentiating in a time of financial protectionism.

My prediction is that we are finally seeing the "fad jumpers" jumping back off of the innovation train toward something else.  That is just fine with me.  It is far more enjoyable working with organizations that understand growth via innovative differentiation is the key to success.  Setting up processes, developing training, changing behaviors, measuring how organizations mature...all leading to a successful and self-sustaining idea/innovation management program are what make me tick. 

Finally, with respect to the BCG Report...they provided a number of absolutely FANTASTIC leadership "abilities" that, in my opinion, were kind of a "tweak" to executives to wake up and start leading:

• The ability to tolerate ambiguity
• The ability to assess and be comfortable with risk
• The ability to balance passion and objectivity
• The ability to change
• The ability to command respect, even among those who are skeptical

If you do not have these abilities...find them.  If you can't find them internally...buy them.  If you aren't willing to take on and demonstrate these abilities...STOP saying you are innovative.