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THE INNOVATION SERIES

TODAY WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2013

Management itself needs innovation

NATALIE TURNER

hen I say the word innovation, what pops into your mind? Great products like the iPhone or iPad? Breakthroughs in scientic drug research? Social-media platforms like Twitter or Facebook? Maybe others. But I doubt the eight-hour workday, popularised by Henry Ford in 1914, or the Management by Objectives concept, coined by Peter Drucker in the mid-1950s, comes to mind. They have been around so long that we take them for granted. In fact, we rarely think of management the practices of work, how we organise and mobilise people, and allocate resources as an area that could be ripe for innovation. Mr Gary Hamel, Professor of London Business School and one of the leading management gurus of our time, calls this management innovation the next area of competitive advantage. Product innovation, service innovation and even process innovation are areas that can be easily

At Gore-Tex, individuals, including the CEO, are voted into position. Gore-Tex employees are asked to pick who they are willing to follow. Pay is determined by individual contribution, as assessed by a group of peers, not seniority.
Natalie Turner is the founder and CEO of The Entheo Network, a global innovation and leadership company headquartered in Singapore. She works with Singaporean and international rms to help them build the skills and capabilities for sustainable innovation. This is part of a weekly series on Innovation every Wednesday. To read the previous articles, visit tdy.sg/ cominnovate.

traditional management not adaptive enough to address present and future realities. So what is required?
REWIRE FOR CREATIVITY

At Google, staff are given time to manage projects that are non-work-related. PHOtO: Reuters

copied by competitors. But, with the speed at which markets are changing, the rise of globalisation and digitisation, and shrinking product life cycles, even the most innovative organisations rarely stay ahead for very long. Many organisations are finding

themselves in a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, they have been built for efficiency and effectiveness, with the management processes that support these objectives. Yet, they are facing rapid discontinuities and uncertainties, and finding many forms of

As leaders and managers, we need to challenge the assumptions on which we make decisions, and really think about whether a management practice will help our organisation be agile and responsive to change. We also need to question whether, in todays fast-moving environment, efficiency and effectiveness are enough, and what we may need to do to rewire our rms for creativity and growth. How we manage, and the legacy, beliefs and assumptions we hold, could be preventing us from addressing the challenges of the 21st century.
COntinueD On PaGe 26

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