How can innovation be encouraged

Find people who can do it better than you. Since December , IBM has been working on a project called Blue Gene, which is a computer designed to model the protein-folding process in genetics. We can aim for this kind of breakthrough at IBM because the company places very few constraints on its researchers.

I try to create that same unconstrained environment in the project teams I oversee. I do, of course, try to provide focus, set reasonable goals, and map out timelines.

My main role, though, is not to draw the boundaries but to encourage people to keep reaching. John Talley is the vice president of drug discovery at Microbia in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He led the chemistry team at Pharmacia that found Celebrex, an anti-arthritis drug, and received the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Discoverers Award I have been able to foster among people on my team a passion for our work.

You need that passion because what we do is just so darned hard. A mandatory partner to passion is diversity. People with different scientific backgrounds will bring different frames of reference to a problem and can spark an exciting and dynamic exchange of ideas.

The science is just so much more interesting with passion and diversity. Look at what happened when we worked on Celebrex. Ever since aspirin was introduced in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, chemists have been trying to make better nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory compounds. So when a painkiller blocks inflammation, it also can cause serious gastrointestinal problems. Some of our colleagues had evidence that the form of the enzyme that induced inflammation was slightly different from that which protected the stomach, so we set out to find a molecular compound that would block only the form that induced inflammation.

We went down so many fruitless alleys and made a lot of dead-end compounds. We combed through mountains of literature to see if someone had once made such a compound and not known it.

Sure enough, we found a compound created in the early s that partially inhibited this enzyme. That was one of those eureka days. In fact, Celebrex had an almost record journey from the lab bench to the pharmacy shelf: seven years from the time we started work on the project. In an environment with these kinds of time frames, you need passion to sustain you. Before our chemistry team began working on what turned out to be Celebrex, we were working on a blood pressure drug.

Marcian E. One of the first employees of Intel, he is credited with being an inventor of the microprocessor. You have to be able to bend the rules. Back in the s, when I was with Intel, a calculator company named Busicom asked us to manufacture a set of 12 custom chips for some new calculators it was planning to introduce.

Each chip would be dedicated to performing a single function. I wondered if it would be possible to have one chip, a general-purpose central processor, that could be programmed to do all the functions. My frame of reference was some recent minicomputer designs, which were very simple but which enabled you to do a lot of complex things. Those managers allowed me to break a cardinal rule of business: Always do what the customer wants. We did something better. She is also the founder and former president of Cartoon Network Worldwide.

Both organizations are headquartered in Atlanta. A couple of years ago, the cable world was abuzz with talk of convergence, but nobody really knew what that meant. Since it was a brave new world, we recognized that we had to experiment with a variety of experiences for Cartoon Network fans that brought together on-air and on-line participation with the channel.

And then we tested everything—from simulcasting Web and TV versions of the same cartoon character premier to a live on-line viewer request weekend to a more interactive on-line action and adventure show. What prevents innovation? The dangerous brew of fear and complacency—staying where you are out of fear of failing, of blowing too much money, or of placing the wrong bets.

Daniel Vasella trained as a physician and is now the chairman and chief executive officer of Novartis, a pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland. One way we try to foster innovation—both the technological innovation that leads to new drugs and the organizational innovation that improves the way we do business—is to align our business objectives with our ideals. But I believe that people also do a better job when they believe in what they do and in how the company behaves, when they see that their work does more than enrich shareholders.

In the past few years, we have complemented our goal of economic value creation with another goal: good worldwide corporate citizenship. With this in mind, we founded a research center in Singapore that focuses on developing drugs to treat diseases such as dengue hemorrhagic fever and tuberculosis; in all likelihood, such drugs will be barely profitable at best. These activities have deep meaning for our employees and unleash their energy and enthusiasm.

With regard to our breakthrough cancer drug Glivec called Gleevec in the United States , for instance, our researchers overcame every obstacle to develop the drug, and our production teams worked around the clock to produce enough supply for clinical trials. The alignment of objectives, ideals, and values contributes greatly to the motivation and thereby the energy that employees at all levels, myself included, devote to their work.

In , the organization was named to Vision , a listing by British Telecommunications of the most innovative organizations in the United Kingdom. When I joined the British Geological Survey in , I found a hierarchical organization structured around the various disciplines and sub-disciplines in geology.

These had developed into competing empires, and collaboration on creative approaches to a customer problem was, at worst, unthinkable, and, at best, forced. And where should your employees present their research? Where better than in an employee forum? The most successfully innovative companies know that they are more than just their products and services. Instead of only defining your company by what it sells, identify your assets and strategic skills. As an added bonus, your employees will be inspired to feel that they are more than just their job roles, as well.

Beyond the myriad of health benefits associated with taking vacation, time away from work can actually make you more productive. Studies show that certain activities that foster a truly unplugged environment, such as hiking in nature, can actually boost creativity by up to 50 percent. Encourage your employees to use all of their vacation time despite work pressures so that they come back to the office refreshed and full of new ideas.

Innovation starts at the top -- leaders should be role models for workplace passion, positive outlook, clear direction and vision, and of course, embracing change. The future of your company is decided today.

If you feel your company is being left in the dust by fast-moving, innovative competitors, have no fear. Start small, with any one of the above ideas, and slowly layer in more until your company is a pinnacle of creativity and innovation.

Federico Re. Avner Mor. Meg Osman. Steve Taplin. David Walter. What starts as Cuban coffee talk often results in action plans for adopting new strategies. Do not discount the moments of small talk, whether at the watercooler or while having a coffee break — all moments when you are together and active listening are fertile grounds for innovation. Often we fail to innovate because we have too many options. This is why they say that necessity is the mother of invention — when you have just the right amount of restriction, you are able to get more creative with your solutions and create genius results.

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