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“Innovation - inside an old shoe box”
07/21/08
Do you remember when you were a child playing with your family’s old cardboard shoeboxes? In our backyard, we would sit for hours creating all sorts of wonderful new objects with those boxes: sports cars, fire engines, closets for Barbie dolls, a bird nest cage and on and on. While these boxes bring back fond memories, they also did something much more. They taught us early on how to use our minds creatively, to be innovators – to see the unseen, to be spontaneous, to have that “Ah, Ha!” moment.
With so much planned out today, it’s more critical than ever to carve out time to be spontaneous, creative and to innovate. Innovation is moving to center stage in our country. Our need to excel in today’s quickly changing global competitive marketplace is demanding more of us. Like Tiger Woods on the golf course at the recent US Open, America is under pressure and looking for its next big win – and it can happen through innovation.
In getting to know the playing field of innovation, there are several key conferences charging ahead to promote innovation that are available for you to consider. HSM offers the “World Innovation Forum” held annually on both coasts. There are The Innovation Summits sponsored annually by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Silberman College of Business and the Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies. There is also Innovation Immersion’s annual conference and the Front End of Innovation conference held by the Institute for International Research, NY. If you’re looking to learn more about innovation for your organization, the Council on Competitiveness is an excellent resource. These are just some of the resources available to assist your company in staying ahead of the pack in your competitive landscape.
Finding an executive who is talented in innovation is more complex and challenging than searching for talented executives in many other functions. A majority of these individuals come from a very diverse career path of functional, industry and even geographic “shifts”. These “shifts” teach them how to not only adapt, but prevail in their current careers and industries. This zigzag type of career path allows an individual to see windows of opportunity and new ideas that might otherwise pass right by other people. One article that discusses innovative talent is in the HR Management magazine titled “Seven creative ways to innovate your talent acquisition: Innovation attracts the innovative!”.An important aspect of attracting talented innovators is by creating a company culture that advocates innovation from inside the organization.
So when you are looking for that “Ah Ha!” moment to happen in your company, that new product or service that’s going to forge your business ahead of the competitive crowd, you may want to keep an old shoe box in your office for inspiration.
If you would like more information on recruiting top talent in innovation, contact:
Author: Karen N Pinkman
President
KNP Associates
www.KNPAssoc.com
KPinkman@KNPAssoc.com.
As an advocate of innovation, KNP Associates, a retained executive search firm based in NYC and CT, is launching a Specialty Practice in this key field. Their service collaborates with their clients to identify, assess, and secure senior level executives who are “subject matter experts” in envisioning, creating and delivering new products, services, business models and methodologies in various industries.