Here’s how you know it was a good conference: A majority of the attendees were still there very late in the afternoon of the last day, to hear the last keynote speech. And this one was well worth it. Louis Geeringh of Deloitte Touche spoke on “Making Innovation Part of the Corporate DNA: How To Capitalize on Disruptive Times.”

What was most interesting about this is that not only does Deloitte consult on innovation, but much of Louis’ remarks had to do with the innovations Deloitte has put in place for its own company. Louis’ division (Deloitte-Touche, South Africa) began a program called InnovationZone and doubled the size of their division in two years. Now InnovationZone is a company-wide effort.

Again, more information on how innovation is a top concern for today’s CEOs: Louis cited the 6th annual global CEO survey conducted by PwC in conjunction with World Economic Forum (2003), which suggests that ability to innovate is the most important factor contributing to future growth. He also cited an Accenture survey in which CEOs acknowledged that innovation is key to competitive advantage, although 50% admitted that less than 20% of their promising innovative ideas are commercialized.

With these comments, Louis launched us back out into the real world ready to innovate:

• Innovation thrives at the end of the empire. But it’s not about innovation [per se], but about finding the next wave of profitable growth.
  
• In an environment of chaos and change, such as we face now, innovation is very important, and flexibility is very important…[at times and in industries] when long-term planning is 2 months, you’d better not cast your strategy in stone.
  
• Strategic planning is dead – strategic innovation and discovery are not. Innovation needs to be made a business imperative, part of the business strategy.
  
• In order to remain in business it is necessary to master both incremental innovation (which is the responsibility of line management) and disruptive innovation (what you need to get from “normal” to a stretch target). Disruptive innovation is part of senior management responsibilities and is best managed outside the core business, and in fact, a separate innovation process is required to bring ideas to market. You need a focused team, clear revenue targets, measured ROI, to report directly to senior management (“you don’t make friends when innovating”), and the latitude to make decisions.
  
• Louis described the innovation gap (see chart here) and asked the question: What is the profitability number you’re chasing? If it’s a substantial increase you won’t make it without breakthrough innovation.
  
• The greater the need for breakthrough innovation, the less you’ll find it inside the organization.
  
• The very question you can’t answer for a disruptive innovation is: How big is the market?
  
• Consensus is innovation’s evil twin, and makes for mediocre ideas. Innovation Boards are unhelpful for that reason.