Saving the World—Through Innovation

Two innovation experts suggest companies could learn from President Kennedy, who aptly declared a space program, accounted for it, and tracked its success

by G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón

President Bush recently announced a plan to stop the growth of greenhouse gases in the U.S. by 2025, acknowledging the need to head off serious climate change. For many, the fact that he has actually admitted there is a problem is revolutionary.

Regardless of your political views, it is clear this is a major public policy initiative, one that reminds us of another announced 47 years ago. In 1961 President Kennedy declared: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project…will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important…and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.…"

Show of hands: Who thinks President Bush's announcement will lead to innovative change?

Sadly, just as there was under Presidents Clinton, Bush 41, Reagan, and Carter, there has been a lot of talk about a radically new environmental policy, but very little action. (In fact, the inconvenient truth here is that Bush's policy actually allows for a continued growth of carbon emissions until the 2025 deadline.)

Still, there are great lessons for leaders here. Why was Kennedy successful at mobilizing the country while subsequent Presidents have not been? And to broaden the question, how do the most innovative organizations (and their leaders) move past the rhetoric and actually produce results?

From our experience, effective innovation leadership involves three elements: a bold declaration, accountability, and tracking key metrics. Let's take them one at a time.

Declare It

People love to be led, to envision, to aspire, and to dream. We naturally gravitate to a cause. Revolutionary companies chase big dreams. Microsoft (MSFT) pictured a computer on every desk; Wal-Mart (WMT) envisioned affordability for the masses. Each started with a bold declaration. Each declaration came from a person (Bill Gates, Sam Walton) who was committed to following through and keeping the leadership around him accountable.

Account For It

That accountability is key. It has been reported that President Bush has met every day since September 11 with his national security adviser to review the top 20 on the most-wanted terrorist list. He is committed to fighting terrorism. As President he is clearly accountable. We may not have found Osama bin Laden, but to date there has been no further terrorist attack in the U.S.

A committed leader asks the same question in every meeting: "How does this help us get to our vision?" That's what happens after you make a sincere declaration. (Based on Bush's latest declaration, he doesn't need to have another meeting on greenhouse gas for 17 years. What are the odds that anything is going to improve?)

When it comes to accountability, the question to ask is this: Who is the one person in charge of turning the big idea into reality? Our experience is that if you don't have a single individual who is accountable your declaration is in trouble.

Your chief innovation officer or whoever is accountable must institutionalize the processes, the comparable models, and the behaviors that lead to a culture of rigor, risk, and results. Innovation can give you an amazing competitive advantage. But without accountability, it becomes an expensive and demoralizing exercise.

Track It

Finally, if you want to see progress, you need to employ Peter Drucker's famous phrase: "What gets measured gets done."

So if you are serious, here are some items to measure and evaluate:

People/Policies/Culture

• How many people are dedicated to innovation?

• How much training is there on innovation?

• Does leadership sponsor innovation initiatives?

• Are incentives aligned to drive innovation?

Process/Resources

• Is there a formal process in your organization?

• Does your process track—and allow for—successes and failures?

• How much time does an innovation project take from idea to profit?

• Is the innovation part of your core capabilities/resources?

• Is there a system to track innovations, ideas, success stories, case studies, etc.?

Results

• How much does each innovation initiative drive ROI ("return on innovation") portfolio management (revenue, margin, time in market)?

• Which metrics for each of these that are born from the nuances of your business, and are assigned thoughtfully and monitored closely, will change your future?

• Said differently, will they make your declaration reality?

The Fruit of your Declaration

President Kennedy made a declaration and NASA helped see it through. And there were countless benefits as a result. We're sure you've heard of Tang and maybe even Tempur-Pedic, but everything from better water purification systems to improvement in the flight of golf balls can be traced to work initially done in the space program.

And admire them or not, both Bill Gates and Sam Walton made the lives of hundreds of millions of people better. For your country, and your company, you need to create an innovation program that is both daring and tracked closely, otherwise you will just join the long list of people—many Presidents among them—who made sweeping announcements that were doomed to be forgotten, because nothing was done to ensure they happened.

Mr. President, may we suggest a "director of homeland innovation?"

G. Michael Maddock is founding partner, and Raphael Louis Vitón is president, of Maddock Douglas, a company that invents, brands, and markets products "for companies driven by innovation." .