Innovators are not Specialists
Many people go around and think and analyse the market and the world around them to invent a new product or idea so it can revolutionise the world. Today we do have many examples of inventions which we use daily. At the moment you are using the Internet and computer to read this blog which wasn’t possible two .decades ago. Nearly every adult carry a smartphone and is reachable 24/7. Another invention is social pages such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+. None of us now can go back to the time when we did not have the Internet and smartphone but maintaining a modern life or run a competitive business.
The nature of an invention is that once it is implemented, we cannot reverse its impact. It is possible to go over to a different invention, but we can never go to the time before the creation of the initiated invention. An invention or design changes our world forever. That what has occurred many times in human history and we have never looked back again, and it will occur again.
Many businesses and organisations whether they are for-profit, not-for-profit and even government agencies are continually challenged to look for new solutions and ideas to make their organisation more efficient or create new products to increase their revenue stream.
I have seen businesses employ specialist daily as an executive and hope that those professionals invent an idea which benefits their corporation.
I believe specialists are essential to implement, maintain and to refine ideas and inventions, but they are not inventors. The executive people are expected to be the person who takes the business to enhanced directions. We see specialists occupy many executive positions. This kind of appointments of high-level posts may be devastating for an organisation in the long term. Practically the organisation is employing a maintenance person. They do not hire someone who can take the foundation in a creative and positive direction.
I have found that those who are innovators have a few features that the specialist does not possess some of them;
- They are visionary
- They are persistent
- They are open-minded
- They do not know how to give up
- They are prepared to go out from their comfort zone
- They can see the use of their invention
- They see a failure as a lesson learned
- They are creative
- They can see the big picture
- They see a problem as a challenge not a bump in the road
- They can view things from different perspectives
I believe organisations whether they need to grow or survive need to have inventors as part of their executive team. How many inventors do you have in your organisation?
Kamal Askari
Principal Consultant and Director
Creative Directions Management Consulting Group