How to Hire to Lead Innovation

Written by James A Gardner

Wednesday, 10 March 2010 09:12

A key question to be resolved at the start of an innovation effort is who to hire to lead.

by JamesAGardner

A key question to be resolved at the start of an innovation effort is who to hire to lead.

This is an especially important decision, because whether you've determined to have a central innovation team or a distributed one that builds an innovation culture, everything that happens will be dependent on what mentality the leader brings to the table.

One possibility is to hire an entrepreneur. Such individuals have usually proved they are able to make small ventures successful. They know how to run an enterprise on a shoestring and are able to match limited resources to big problems. Entrepreneurs have usually proved they can take an idea and turn it into something valuable.

Or, instead, do you hire someone with lots of experience managing a portfolio of projects, who knows how to start-stop-continue things, but doesn't have much depth in the intricacies of making individual projects successful? Someone who's more like an investor than a project manager?

Given the choice, most stakeholders will hire the former. It seems a sensible choice to make: why not choose someone who has at least proved that when they focus on something, they'll get it to work?

Unfortunately, this is not always the best choice.

Entrepreneurial innovation leaders are highly motivated to make their personal choice projects successful no matter what it takes. This, after all, is a proven formula for them. They are experienced in taking good ideas and driving through to value, often because of personal heroics. It is not unusual that their whole careers have been based on a few lucky successes.

Individual heroics are one thing, but the fact of the matter is most innovation projects fail for one reason or other. This happens despite the amount of effort applied. Entrepreneurs accept this intuitively, so they cancel a projects which don't seem to be progressing well. They live in the hope that their next project will be a hit.

For innovators in corporate situations, though, this is a very bad strategy. Innovation teams usually last about 18 months before they are disbanded, so doing things in a sequential order means time runs out way before there are decent results. The implication is that hiring someone with an investment mentality, rather than an entrepreneur, is usually sensible.

Investors have an intuitive understanding of the fact that the real name of the game in innovation is avoiding concentrations of risk to get to a predictable return. Usually, that means a light touch on a large number of simultaneous innovations, rather than a deep concentration on a few.

About the Author:

Is this the time you start an innovation program and are mulling over your recruitment options? James Gardner's free online resource has detailed advice on how to hire an innovation leader.

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