Innovation Leadership In Practice

Innovation Leadership in Practice provides a unique source of new insights on the role of innovation leadership and effective practices through conceptual models, empirical case studies, development interventions, and tools.

A leader's ability to discover and implement innovations is crucial to adapting to changing technologies and customer preferences, enhancing employee creativity, developing new products, supporting market competitiveness, and sustaining economic growth. Gliddon and Rothwell provide an exciting and comprehensive resource for readers that are currently seeking to build success in organizations with new ideas. Innovation leadership involves synthesizing different leadership styles in organizations to influence employees to produce creative ideas, products, services, and solutions. It is a practice and an approach to organization development and organizational change. Innovation leadership commonly includes four basic stages, which are: (a) support for idea generation, (b) identifying innovations, (c) evaluating innovations, and (d) implementation. There are two types of innovations, including: (a) exploratory innovation, which involves generating brand new ideas, and (b) value-added innovation, which involves modifying and renewing ideas that already exist. The two fundamental leadership theories that are generally necessary for innovation leadership are path-goal theory and Leader Member Exchange theory. The key role in the practice of innovation leadership is that of the innovation leader. However, there are currently multiple perspectives on the definition of an innovation leader. An individual in an organization, a group within an organization, the organization itself, and even a community, state, or nation can be considered an innovation leader. The book explores each of these perspectives on the definition of an innovation leader.

Why can some organizations innovate time and again, while most cannot? You might think the key to innovation is attracting exceptional creative talent. Or making the right investments. Or breaking down organizational silos. All of these things may help—but there’s only one way to ensure sustained innovation: you need to lead it—and with a special kind of leadership. Collective Genius shows you how. Preeminent leadership scholar Linda Hill, along with former Pixar tech wizard Greg Brandeau, MIT researcher Emily Truelove, and Being the Boss coauthor Kent Lineback, found among leaders a widely shared, and mistaken, assumption: that a “good” leader in all other respects would also be an effective leader of innovation. The truth is, leading innovation takes a distinctive kind of leadership, one that unleashes and harnesses the “collective genius” of the people in the organization. Using vivid stories of individual leaders at companies like Volkswagen, Google, eBay, and Pfizer, as well as nonprofits and international government agencies, the authors show how successful leaders of innovation don’t create a vision and try to make innovation happen themselves. Rather, they create and sustain a culture where innovation is allowed to happen again and again—an environment where people are both willing and able to do the hard work that innovative problem solving requires. Collective Genius will not only inspire you; it will give you the concrete, practical guidance you need to build innovation into the fabric of your business.

"This unique text integrates a variety of viewpoints on leadership attributes and abilities that guide organizations and people through the process of advancement to successful innovation outcomes. This contributed text integrates a variety of viewpoints on leadership from both healthcare and business settings and provides the tool sets necessary to ensure successful innovation."--Back cover.

Innovation leaders promote and address the innovation agenda in their company. Through personal conviction or competitive necessity they are obsessed with providing superior value to customers through innovation. They know how to mobilize their staff behind concrete innovation initiatives and do not hesitate to personally coach innovation teams. For innovation to occur leadership has to be collective. To create a momentum for innovation in their company, leaders from different functions need to team up, to build innovation networks. Innovation leadership is not just an innate talent that can be selected at the hiring level. It can be developed within an appropriate company culture through careful leadership development, typically achieved through career management and coaching. Innovation leaders also need to stay on board and it is the responsibility of the top management team to create an attractive climate to develop and keep its innovation leaders. There are plenty of books that deal with innovation, or with new product development, or with leadership; this is different in its focus on the specifics of innovation leadership – that particular form of leadership that stimulates and sustains innovation. This book maps the broad territory of innovation leadership and contributes new thinking on the focus of the emerging leadership role of the CTO; distinction between ‘front end’ and ‘back end’ innovation leaders; the concept of aligning leadership styles with strategy; and the chain of leadership concept. Combining practice-based and empirical research-based observations with simple conceptual frameworks, illustrated by many company examples and case stories from a broad range of industries in the US and Europe, this is a systematic presentation of innovation drivers and their implications in terms of what leaders need to do to make it work.

This book focuses on the process of creating and educating innovation leaders through specialized programs, which are offered by leading academic schools. Accordingly, the book is divided into two parts. While the first part provides the theoretical foundations of why and how innovation leaders should be created, the second part presents evidence that these foundations can already be found in the programs of ten top-level universities. Part one consists of six chapters following a rigorous plan of content development, addressing topics ranging from (1) innovation, to (2) the settings where innovation occurs, (3) innovation leadership, (4) the need to change education, (5) a taxonomy of advanced educational experiences, and (6) cases of positive vs negative innovation leadership in the context of complex problems. Here the authors show that a new kind of innovation leadership is urgently needed, how it can be created, and how it is put into action. The second part is a collection of invited chapters that describe in detail ten leading academic programs: their objectives, curricular organization, enrollment procedures, and impact on students. Selected programs include four North American institutions (Stanford’s d.school, Harvard’s Multidisciplinary Engineering Faculty, Philadelphia University, OCAD’s Master of Design on Strategic Foresight & Innovation), five European institutions (Alta Scuola Politecnica of Milano and Torino, the EIT Master Program, Paris’ d.school, Brighton’s Interdisciplinary Design Program, Aalto University) and the Mission D program at Tongji University in China. The book is dedicated to all those who recognize the need to provide stimuli regarding innovation and innovation leadership, primarily but not exclusively in academia. These include, but are not limited to, professors, deans and provosts of academic institutions, managers at private organizations and government policy-makers – in short, anyone who is engaged in promoting innovation within their own organization, and who feels the need to expand the intellectual and practical toolbox they use in this demanding and exciting endeavor.

This book is a must-have resource for those engineering professionals seeking out best practice in engineering leadership and innovation. It is underpinned by years of applied experience in engineering settings, and is designed to develop and prepare engineers as leaders to accept the technical and managerial challenges that they will face as professionals At a time when engineering and innovation in technology is of importance on so many fronts, this text encourages engineers and technical professionals to become effective, socially conscious leaders and innovators. The text and course material is designed to create an environment of interactive, high-engagement learning that will produce lifelong skills. Some of the many benefits of this book include: Accompanying notes, instructor’s manual, sample syllabi for qualifying textbook adoption; A complementary website with a wealth of ancillary resources; Case studies in STEM contexts; An international approach, underpinned by years of experience in US settings; Practical advice on how to distinguish yourself as an engineering leader; A solid grounding in ethics and professional responsibility. Drawing together best practice in engineering leadership education, and current research in the field, this book is an essential read for those wishing to develop expertise in engineering leadership. Current professionals in the field, educators as well as students of engineering wishing to excel, will all be particularly interested readers.

Innovation is a key source of competitive advantage, but it remains frustratingly elusive for many organizations. This book shows you how to close the innovation gap by making individuals and organizations systematically and sustainably innovative. You will learn how to embrace a culture of innovation and make it permeate every level of the organization. You will find a clear road map and practical tools to redefine your workplace's culture, identify and tap into the existing innovative intelligence, and develop leaders who can close the innovation gap for greater business success.