At Google, the mandate is that each staff member must spend at least 20% of their time on innovation. Can you afford to spend one whole day a week on innovation? More importantly, can you afford not to?

what they know? Do you have a system by which all of them can share, blog, put challenges to the organisation and get answers back on developments?

If you look at the organisation’s connectedness with the region you need to define relationships with institutions such as the Technology Transfer Offices at your local Universities. Do you have a system in place to create and maintain a network or do you wait for the right people to walk through the door? How do you connect on a local and global level? Are you networking with the Indian Inventor’s Society? Do you use any social networks to stimulate innovation?

ideas to market. Which tools do you use to absorb ideas generated outside your organisation? For this absorption to be successful, you need procurement on board, you need IP lawyers, and you need a system that says this is how we contract with these innovators. You also need to streamline aspects such as budget, human resource and communication internally.”

The final questions revolve around whether you are an innovation leader or a follower. It is paramount to spend purposeful time thinking about innovation. Not just as a staff member in an innovation department, but across the board. At Google, the mandate is that each staff member must spend at least 20% of their time on innovation. Can you afford to spend one whole day a week on innovation? More importantly, can you afford not to?

Secondly, you need to determine how you get

8 Management Today | September 2011