The first official day of KMW08 and talk about information overload. As I move from session to session, take notes, ask questions, and network with other participants, I can’t help but think, “Boy am I glad I have a blog to informally capture some of my thinking around what I’m hearing and seeing in order to share it with others.”
The day starts off with the opening keynote, Dr. John Kao. Author of Innovation Nation and guest of The Colbert Report, he’s been called the “Innovation Sherpa” who, I take it, will help us climb Innovation Everest. What is innovation? It’s not as simple a Creativity + Value. According to Dr. Kao, its more like Capabilities + Desired future. It’s a definition that I find interesting because its far more realistic and forces you to hold a mirror up and ask yourself, do I have the capabilities to reach my desired future? Anything that slaps you silly as a wake up call for change is fine by me.
My take away from Dr. Kao’s session has to be that countries need an innovation strategy. Frequently citing Singapore, Finland, and China as prime examples, Dr. Kao argues that the work of the invisible hand to drive innovation is dying out. He advocates for national systematic innovation. Unfortunately, in the same breath, he reminds us that Singapore and China are very modern nations because they have Starbucks and Apple stores around every corner. Wait a second? Aren’t those innovative products of the invisible hand approach?
For me, Dr. Kao’s argument falls short since I believe in inspiration rather than systematization. I say, make sure you have an good playground with enough sand, get authority figures to become advocates for innovation and promote other role models of innovative thought, and let nature take its course. Dr. Kao’s approach to get a crack team of innovation strategists working around the clock to make sure that a country is well aligned towards its preconceived innovative goals places too many restrictions on innovation and would result in way too much bureaucracy. But I’ll give Dr. Kao the benefit of the doubt and perhaps his book treats the subject more comprehensively.
What about organizations? Systematic approach or invisible hand?
#1 by Dale Arseneault - September 24th, 2008 at 05:01
I think a “systemic approach” at least to my definition, presumes that the outcome is generally known beforehand, and generally yields “incremental improvements” through overly stringent controls. Seems counter to the notion of real innovation to me. What makes more sense is systemically creating the conditions for innovation, and importantly, serendipity. (maybe what I’m talking is the invisible hand made partially visible.)
“It’s amazing what happens when you let it.” – Dale Arseneault