The relationship between innovation and leadership

2. INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP
• Lotfi Saibi, Founder of 4D Leadership House,
• Consultant in the USA and MENA
• University Lecturer and public speaker
• Business Coach
• Professional of leadership development
• Graduate of Harvard University with a Masters
Degree in Operations Management & BS in
mathematics
• lotfisaibi@4dlh.com (216) 29 156 157

3. WHERE ARE THEY NOW
• AOL, Kodak, Blackberry and
MySpace, E F Hutton, Compaq,
General Foods, MCI WorldCom,
Eastern Airlines, Pan AM
Were all industry leaders that either refused to
innovate FDH, did not innovate, or invested in
the wrong areas  THEY ALL VANISHED

4. INNOVATE OR DIE
• “It is not the strongest or the most
intelligent who will survive but
those who can best manage
change.”
― Charles Darwin
• The greatest single threat to a business’s
survival is lack of innovation.

5. WHO OWNS INNOVATION
• Innovation  “something new”
•  products and services,
•  business processes, product/service
delivery, business designs, or
•  new ways of managing.
• If leadership is about looking into the future
 a Leader = an Innovator

6. MYTH about INNOVATION?
• When it comes to innovation, the myth of the
lone genius dies hard.
• But the truth is most innovations are created
through networks -- groups of people working
in concert.

7. EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION
A LEADERSHIP ISSUE
• Excellence in leading innovation has far less to
do with the leader having innovative ideas; it
has everything to do with how that leader
creates an innovation engine:
• Culture,
• Values,
• Organizational Structure and Processes
• The case of two US auto makers

8. ENGINE
• Engine allows us to reach CRITICAL MASS OF
INNOVATION SUSTAINABILITY and achieve a
competitive advantage
• Risk Taking - encourage curiosity, disruptive
innovation – Google, Sony)
• Challenging the Status quo – focus on the why
and less on the how - Apple
•  Freedom of Expression – idea bank @Google
• Focus of capabilities as well as competencies
• Navigators not mechanics of the engine

9. ASK AND YOU WILL RECEIVE
• Do they believe what you believe?
• Do they have trust in the leader and one
another?
• Are people motivated (emotions, actions)?
• How people want to lead and be led?
• The function they can best serve to add value;
and
• The required tools to adapt to change in positive
and meaningful ways.

10. IF IT IS THIS EASY WHY ISN’T
EVERYONE DOING IT?
Two common themes reveal themselves as
major obstacles to innovation:
• NO COMMUNICATION: The failure to
effectively leverage the expertise of
employees, and
• BAD GATEKEEPERS: The failure to react
effectively when new ideas do arise.

11. COMMON HEADACHES
• No Communication:
– Org. structure (i.e. teams divided by expertise)
– Physical setting (different locations)
– Silos effect (task definition)
– The reward structure (personal or department
objectives)
– Example of the Telecom company

12. COMMON HEADACHES
• Bad Gatekeepers:
– When “expertise” becomes the currency
 Experts become best “judges” for good ideas
 Egos get in the way
 Information is not available or distributed in a
timely fashion
 Too much focus on R&D and not enough on
people
expertise in one area may blind them to innovation
in other areas.
– Good to Great and L5 types

13. SOLUTIONS
• People with complimentary talents need to talk more.
• Rapidly test and refine ideas-bottlenecks sap the
energy and demotivate the right people.
• Small is good – rapid and agile (new metric/google per
employee revenue/timetomarket)
• Think twice about who to promote to leadership
position
• Synergy and energy
• Be an early adopter of new technologies
• Listen to your customers more – Steve Jobs

14. Thanks for listening
And wish you the best of luck
Lotfi Saibi