The best technology in the world remains useless if it is not incorporated into products that people want to buy, or which will otherwise answer one of the world’s needs (e.g. climate, environment, health etc.). Such pathways to impact involve business and leadership skills.
Delivering business value from innovation is about striking the right balance between vision and discovery. The balance between blind and sighted innovation is something that I have written about in more detail in one of my essays about creativity in entrepreneurship. In strategic terms, innovation can either push new product capabilities to the market, or it can be pulled by new customer demands, or both. Many strategic business decisions are of crucial importance when it comes to innovation: make vs buy, intellectual property protection vs open sourcing, adaptive vs radical innovation, options available to maintain or renew competitiveness. As a director of R&D across companies of various sizes, I have developed the ability to analyse, decide and communicate on these aspects. Part of my toolkit comes from studying the strategic management of innovation at Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), and having obtained the Innovation Management Certificate of Achievement (IMCA) from the Cambridge Judge Business School (more details in my CV).
Regarding the importance of leadership skills, there always comes a point where achieving growth, success and innovation becomes more than a single person’s job. Modern operational models de-emphasize middle management in aid of less hierarchical and more direct servant leadership roles. The manager empowers a team to express the best of each member’s expertise, and fosters a work culture based on trust, mutual support and inspiration. As a multi-cultural person myself, I have deeply enjoyed growing multiple R&D teams and mentoring other staff members across various positions at companies large and small.
The kind of books I read on the management of technology and innovation include:
If you are interested in the strategic and managerial aspects of innovation in business, please contact me for more information.
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