McKinsey Report's Late 2019 Research Points to Leading People in 2020
McKinsey: “Simply put, the ability to develop, deliver, and scale new products, services, processes, and business models rapidly is a muscle that virtually every organization needs to strengthen.”
McKinsey research shows a growing gap between company “winners” and those that “merely muddle along.” Their points included:
1. The strong, positive correlation between innovation performance and financial performance.
2. Innovation winners are extending their lead most conspicuously in two areas:
One: The ability to set a bold yet plausible aspiration for innovation that is grounded in a clear view of the economic value that innovation needs to deliver.
Two: The ability to make tough resource-allocation choices about the people and funds required to seize innovation’s value at a scale sufficient enough to make a difference.”
This article focuses on these two essentials—aspire and choose—not because the other six are any less important, but because without these two in place, innovation investments often become scattershot and are more likely to disappoint. Setting aspirations and making tough resource-allocation and portfolio choices also are areas where a company’s top leaders play a unique and disproportionate role in creating change.