The Paradox Around Innovation in Business

“There is a very interesting paradox about innovation, because normally when we talk about innovation, people think about their strategy and their products, their services, their technology.

“For most people this is very very exciting, people smile when they think about innovation. They would like their company to be innovative, they would like to be regarded as a first mover, leading edge, being able to attract the top notch, most innovative people, so this is seen as something that is really really great – when it comes to technology. Do you recognise that?

“But when we start talking about management innovation, all of a sudden, especially the managers, are not so excited. Little bit more scary. Maybe because it comes closer to oneself, and I think also because we have so many beliefs about what works and what doesn’t work. It’s very difficult, especially for senior managers, to get out of this comfort zone, this zone where they are.

“It’s really a bit of a paradox because in both cases it’s about getting better performance, so the purpose is exactly the same, but again when we’re over here, we always get these questions immediately – ‘well, what’s best practice? We’re a company of 5,000 people and we’re this industry and we’re based in UK – what do others in our industry do?’

“You never get these kind of questions when you’re in the technology space, you would want to bypass your competitors and do something that’s different to ‘best practice’. But when it comes to management innovation, unfortunately people are insecure about what to put in place instead – and that’s where we try to help with events such as this.”