Innovation - A Fringe Activity?

One of the observations frequently made in discussions about innovation is that it is a fringe activity: an activity undertaken by entrepreneurs, creative types, the marketing department or the boffins in R&D.

This mirrors the complaint we hear so often from companies, "How do we make our organisation more innovative?" It's what organisations like the Hargraves Institute seek to address through networking groups of members with similar challenges. In fact, the ideal of a culture of innovation, spoken to by organisations like MYOB in the recent Hargraves Institute conference, requires systematic issues identification, leadership and change management. As far as London Business School academic and author Gary Hamel is concerned, achieving this all-pervasive innovation culture could actually require a fundamental change to the nature of management (The Future of Management).

Indeed, the entire topic of Management Innovation is still so new that Hamel points out that there are only few journal articles on this type of innovation. If, in fact, Hamel is correct, and management innovation yields lasting competitive advantage that is superior to that of strategic innovation, product/service innovation or operational innovation, surely part of the discussion in the context of our National Innovation System should address the types of resources, models and experimentation that is possible in management innovation.

Here are some questions to ponder:

1. What would it be like if the National Innovation System encouraged experimentation around management innovation?
2. If true management innovation could be achieved, would operational, product/service and strategic innovation increase by necessity to keep pace with management innovation?
3. Is Hamel's model of four types of innovation too simplistic or too sophisticated to be helpful in our analysis of Australia's National Innovation System?
4. Where does this concept of management innovation fit with our generally technological bias to government intervention in innovation?

Comments welcome :)