Innovate or die. In 1997 American business writer Tom Peters coined this famous phrase. It was true then and rings even more true now. For CEOs worldwide it’s obvious: Innovation is critically important to an organization’s success, and it is imperative that it remains a key corporate strategy.
To move beyond survival and actually thrive, leading organizations know that innovation is the way to supercharge an organization and shift it to growth. In fact, 33% of global business leaders rank “the innovation of new products and services” as their companies’ top focus in the next three years, according to a recent study by McKinsey. But the reality these organizations confront, notes McKinsey, is that innovation faces ongoing challenges, such as increasing global competition, short-term priorities, and the need to integrate it into key organizational objectives. As a result it remains elusive, and leading organizations are looking to uncover every possible way to boost their I.Q.—i.e., their innovation quotient.