So, Who Should Control Innovation?

We need to bring in the mind set of small business start ups where are no departments but all together are the team. Swarming business models move their groups activities to the very aspects that demand attention. When combined with agile, scrum and squad approach you can achieve goals just in time with the highest quality and a surprisingly small group of collaborators.

I totally agree again AJ, great read! What I see as the best opportunity to disrupt this positively is to change the way we organise business activities in most cases. The problem is the silo's we did create with all their subcultures and conflicting interests and battles over internal power. And another root lies in the control systems we flew in with Lean, Six Sigma, Prince 2, ISO-certification and so on. We made humans brainless zombies who got to follow the system like robots or else they will pay the price. By the way, this system is interpret by every separate department differently causing cohesion and unity issues.

Very nice read AJ and I couldn't agree more! On the subject of innovation management I like to add: Innovation indeed shouldn't be controlled by marketing just as finance isn't controlled by marketing. Neither should it be the exclusive playing ground for research & development. Innovation is a business lifestyle, carefully cultivated in your enterprises DNA and running through the veins of the entire organisation, 24/7 pumped by the heart of C-level leadership and breathed by the lungs of all departments, the mindset of every single employee advertising the gospel of progress and business happiness. Innovation should be separately represented in the board room. Not to control it but to make sure that innovation professionals teach and mentor all other leaders and co-workers how to integrate and develop innovation in their own daily practice. As an example how not to do it I refer to Apple which I admire for blessing the world with some very awesome products. But Apple isn't an all over innovation incubator. In fact Apple buys a lot innovation but sells their products with this old fashioned model of terminating the competition and force the users to the exclusive usage of Apple products. And within a few years Apple will experience the same faith as what happend to Nokia. Today world market leader and tomorrow gone. For the first time since The 'Think Different' keynote of Steve Jobs Apple's core business shows seriously decreased numbers in sales. And when people stop to buy new Apple products soon their profitable 'service' division will also run dry. This scenario is not a matter of 'if' but is rather a matter of 'when'. Since Tesla, Uber and Alibaba Group came up and disrupted their markets consumers witness how real innovation is woven throughout an entire organisation, resulting in products, services and user experience that fit our latest needs. We don't want to be pushed around, we want to be free and we want a piece of the pie for ourselves. Business happiness no longer is set aside for some arrogant billionaires and share holders who play their poker game over the heads of consumers and employees.

innovation should be managed, framed, explained, and presented by Marketing. Once established, Excellent definition of innovation is then tied to branding through social media. Hyperbole is the presentation of rebranded offering masquerading as innovation, and all too often, presented as "better" solely because of brand recognition.

This is too go AJ