Is innovation really important to you?

Despite the importance of innovation in driving growth and creating new opportunities, many organizations struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of change. This article argues that to succeed in today's increasingly unpredictable and complex marketplace, companies need to establish a new model of change that embraces innovation as a vital link to their strategic direction. This means being more agile, aware, and alert to the new discovery of needs in the marketplace and customer base, as well as building a culture of ongoing change capacity. Key traits, actions, and activities that organizations can focus on include building more serendipity and random connections into their innovation processes, fostering a culture of curiosity and experimentation, embedding new routines and thinking, pursuing ongoing knowledge exploration and exploitation, investing in innovation capabilities and competencies, and leveraging new structures, attitudes, and motivation to drive innovation forward.