Okay...so the ugliness is starting to appear in the form of report after report of failed innovation programs coming out of organizations that only did it half-assed anyway.  This time its about Nortel in a new BusinessWeek article titled, "Why Innovation Could Not Save Nortel" by Matt Vella.

I'll let you read the article to make up your own mind about Nortel's "innovation" approach, but this line stood out like a sore thumb...

"Twenty-eight months is hardly very much time to change a company culture," says Jeneanne Rae, president of innovation firm Peer Insight in Alexandria, Va."

Are you freaking kidding me?!?!  TWENTY-eight months!  Yep...you did read that right.  I don't care what size organization you work for...if you can't lead by example, communicate the vision and explain the steps along the way in TWENTY-EIGHT months, it is grotesquely apparent that your "innovation strategy" is just a facade of buzzwords and lip service.  You deserve to be left along the side of the road. 

This wasn't a failure of innovation management...it was a failure of leadership...and sadly, for the thousands of employees at Nortel, it also means a painful bankruptcy.