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A fast-growth business means lots of hiring. And it’s very easy to underestimate the time and direct costs of hiring lots of new people—and the right people. You will need to spend considerable time developing job descriptions, posting help-wanted ads, sorting through resumes, conducting and arranging phone and in-person interviews, and checking references. Even if you are very busy with other issues, you can’t afford to skimp on the amount of time required to conduct a careful hiring process. If you hire someone who can’t perform the job satisfactorily, your business performance will most likely suffer. If you have to fire someone you will engender bad morale and run some legal risks. Or you may hire someone who can adequately perform the task, but has an attitude problem — the hiree might want to be doing something else or working at another firm. This type of person will not perform to his or her full potential and may quit. Either way, you will have to go through the entire time-consuming hiring process again.
In reality, innovation management is really just a form of looking into the future, being creative and imaginative so that you can carve out a new niche before your competitors.
Business must look ahead, not behind. It's not just the big companies that need to do this. Every business must innovate to compete. They must create new products and services for new markets. They must be creative, and come up with new ideas that never would have been thought of before. This is the new management paradigm. Get used to it, it's not going away anytime soon. Here's what will happen. Everything will speed up. Processes, functions, data, inventory turns and speed to market, will force employees to learn a whole new language called innovation. Business as usual doesn't cut it any more. Enter innovation management.
The proven management tools, techniques and clichés once embraced, are being challenged and shelved for a new set of rules and a new way of doing business. The management style of the future is no longer command and control. That ship has sailed. Today, in order for businesses to succeed, management must trust in the technologies and open leadership styles that are sweeping boardrooms, the C-suite, office suites and cubicles everywhere.
In fact, today's companies are implementing new job titles that are rapidly appearing on business cards and office doors. So, which one will you hire next? Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Ideation Officer or Chief Digital Officer? Ten years ago, you would have been laughed out of the building if these were printed on your business card. Not today.
