I‘m the first to admit that I don’t know much about anything but I know quite a few incredible people who do! And that is what makes my life interesting and exciting.
Realizing that I’m surrounded with leaders who are doing amazing things in the world I decided to begin a treasure hunt for gems of wisdom regarding innovation and leadership from their point of view.
Leadership and innovation are broad concepts, meaning different things depending on the industry and organization. Therefore, they are also very rich for research and insights. In order to capture stories about extraordinary experiences, I’ve been interviewing CEO’s and Executives representing many different sectors because innovation happens everywhere and in many forms.
This is my effort to explore, chart and share how innovation is being defined by CEOs, and what leaders consider as the crucial human elements to stay innovative in the rapidly changing world. In other words, my interest is in exploring the human side of innovation. The gems I will share here will be a convergence of quotes and perspectives from the interviews, things what I’ve learned at the innovation summits in 2012 and 2014 and my work as a leadership coach and consultant to many highly innovative leaders over some 20 years.
While I’m writing a book about about the subject, I will be sharing some nuggets or quotes of their insights with you. They will be varied – just as the people and their respective fields of work. I hope they will either provoke our thinking or deepen all of our understanding of innovation and leadership. Stay tuned!
Here is a quote from a well-respected, award winning leader Deanna Oppenheimer, CEO of CameoWorks – previously chief executive at Barclay’s in London – from my interview with her just last week:
“In my experience, when we were creating whole new channels of distribution and whole new products, whole new ways of doing things, the team was the most important element for an effective, scalable innovation. Let me underscore scalable. There are many, many examples of disrupters that have great ideas today. They have gotten funding for great ideas, but will they be scalable and sustainable innovations? To do that, the people are absolutely essential and crucial.”