Happy Fall!! Over the summer, I watched my firstborn graduate from high school and then sent her off to college on the other side of the country. And I got married. Amidst this tide of change, IdeaFlow got very quiet. Hopefully the major changes are over – and the quiet, too!

On Monday I returned to my desk after a meet-the-new-in-laws trip and found in my email in-box this quote from the daily Fast Company “Fast Impressions” email:

"Companies that rely too heavily on creativity flame out." — Howard Anderson, Founder, Yankee Group

Well, that got my attention. Not the least because it perfectly describes a new direction I’d like to take IdeaFlow over the next few months. That direction is away from creativity and idea generation in and of themselves and toward a discussion of innovation as it drives strategy and execution, and as it also helps develop strategy and execution.

I went to the Fast Company article the quote came from -- If He’s So Smart…Steve Jobs, Apple, and the Limits of Innovation -- and took a look. The article spends a fair amount of time on not-new news regarding Apple’s business practices and other innovative business failures, such as Xerox PARC. I’m not interested in Apple-bashing or rehashing, but what I did get interested in was the rest of Howard Anderson’s quote from above. The whole thing says:

"Companies that rely too heavily on creativity flame out. In many ways, execution is more important. Apple is innovative, but Dell executes."

What this says to me is that creativity and innovation per se are not always that important. The innovation process must start further back – uncovering unmet customer needs and figuring out how to meet them. And figuring out what will meet these unmet needs is more of a challenge than it looks. If a company comes up with a new product to meet a consumer need, and it turns out that what will best meet that need is some kind of customer service process innovation instead, then clearly that company is barking up the wrong innovation tree.

This, to me, is the strategy and execution issue with innovation. Knowing what to do, then figuring out the best way to do it.

Here’s some more interesting reading on the subject of innovation strategy and execution:

Good Ideas Are Not Enough (Accenture white paper)

Strategy, Execution, and Innovation (Fast Company)