Innovation means different things to different people. The definitions range from simply a new idea or invention to bringing that idea to life in a market or even restricting the definition to include only those things that achieve significant change in the world. We often think of innovations as things we couldn’t have imagined before […]
Interim Leadership: An Outside View Looking In
I have been in the executive search vertical for 18 years, spending over half of those years in the Silicon Valley and the remainder in the Midwest US. Over the years I have interacted with multiple companies conducting Board of Director, C level and VP searches for all types of companies. Those companies range in […]
Succession Planning & Murphy’s Law
Most of the best HR practitioners I know preach the merits of succession planning—and I’ll freely admit they are mostly correct. The active preparation of personnel for their next steps within an organization is critical to future success. However, succession planning is no panacea. I sat through many talent management review sessions where we worked […]
My R&D Manager Quit!
Imagine walking in to work on a quiet Tuesday morning and you notice your R&D manager Julie has requested a meeting with you at 10 am. You’ve got an open-door leadership style and it’s not unusual for your staff to drop in for a quick conversation. Your R&D manager is a bit more structured and likes to […]
On a Parallel Path: Innovation Emerging as an Organizational Competency
As innovation emerges as a new organizational competency, the path it is following is similar in many ways to the one followed by the field of quality many years ago. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, Quality Circles, Total Quality Management, and ‘Quality is Job One’ were the themes and slogans of the day […]