Innovation should be the key driver behind a CEO's key business decisions
and responsibilities ± developing the right strategy, allocating the appropriate
mix of resources, leading the organization, and ensuring a steady and
consistent stream of earnings. Similarly, a company must have innovation as
the core of its business strategy. Marketing strategies, capital investments,
manufacturing plans, and R&D expenditures must be developed, built, and
allocated around innovation ± not the other way around. Innovation should
be positioned as the centerpiece ± it should be the heart and soul of the
growth strategy.
Compensation should be directly impacted by the rise or fall of successful
innovation. CEOs should be held accountable by their boards of directors,
and ultimately by their shareholders, for the achievement of an innovation
mindset and the resultant fruits of innovation. Many other key players make
up the innovation team, but the ultimate responsibility for innovation lies
with the CEO.