An important characteristic of a pacesetter company is that it emphasizes management innovation not as periodic events but as a general and constant theme, an ongoing process, a prevailing attitude.This orientation defines the organization. The company emphasizes innovation in order to increase its business value for customers and key stakeholders.
These are management innovations, such as lean production, robust product development, team organizations, just-in-time management, and quality management.The business leaders understand and believe in the nature of such innovation, management process improvement, and the human and teamwork commitment they require, and lead and encourage their development.
The force behind this innovation is what we have termed a company’s management capital. This is a strategy for capitalizing the management power of a company’s leaders to recognize, develop, accumulate deploy, and measure the capacity of its total resources to sustain and accelerate its growth and profitability. Management innovation is central to this success.
An increasing and evolving emphasis on developing and implementing management capital is the root of success in sustaining growth. Innovation has long been recognized as a principal determinant of economic growth. In recent years the importance of management innovation has become one of the most significant influences on economic performance.
Here are three lessons to learn from this experience:
Innovate: Understand the importance of the constancy of management innovation.What worked well in the past may not work now.
Learn from other companies: Know how your competitors are working any advantage. Understand how companies in other industries lead the others.
Avoid obsessing over an initiative: Realize the danger of becoming too fond of any business leadership initiative, no matter how popular. Be careful about not sticking with any one initiative for too long.