No Risk, No Reward: Innovation Quiz

A good CEO should make the CFO a little nervous. When the CFO is sleeping
soundly, the CEO is not reaching high enough and lacks vision.
If the CEO does not provoke people with an aggressive vision of organic
growth, someone at the firm needs to be appointed as the official risk-taker.
Without risks, there is no reward.
While a company can streamline itself to operational excellence, it still needs
to innovate to grow market share. You cannot realize true growth from cost
cutting alone.
Innovation requires a different mindset and behaviors than crafting an
efficient organization. Businesses need both operational excellence and
strategic innovation to prosper in the short- and long-term.
Does your business have a culture that fosters growth and innovation? So
many innovation efforts are merely puny attempts to pacify a board request.
Worse: when companies believe they are earnest in their innovation efforts,
but the culture of the business does not allow for real innovation to happen.
Is your company really innovating or just talking about it?
Take this short quiz by answering yes or no and find out.
_____People are tasked to plan how to push the boundaries of what seems
possible to ensure that we stay ahead.
_____Employees are comfortable asking provocative and unsettling questions
about company strategy.
_____Project teams apply offbeat sources in search of the breakthrough
solutions.
_____Our organization actively seeks solutions to stay ahead of the curve.
_____Project teams are given time and resources to learn about innovation
and trends.
_____We push for continual improvement, even if what were offering is the
industry-leading product or service.
_____Competitors change their offering to mock our business model and
market strategy.
_____Failure and smart risk taking are celebrated by our leadership. Efforts do
not have to be successful to be recognized.

_____There is an active, open culture of dialogue between roles, departments,

functions, and levels within the organization.
_____We know that we do not have all the expertise in-house, and partner
with firms outside the company to develop new ideas.
_____We purposefully hire people with diverse backgrounds and strive to
create teams that are comprised of a variety of disciplines to ensure a widesweeping perspective.
_____Good ideas are born from every corner and rank of the companyand
there is a formal way to present them and have them seriously considered.
Add up the yeses. Heres the score key.
10-12, rejoice. Your company knows both the wild joys and smart business
sense of innovating.
7-9, high five. Your company has a healthy innovation attitude and will be
around in the future to celebrate.
4-6, sigh. Well, your company suffers from wanting to innovate but not really
understanding how to implement strategic growth across the culture.
0-3, ugh. If you are an employee, you deserve more, hit Monster now. If you
own or run the company, it is time to get real. Your competitors will crush you
and your best people will leave, soon. Get help, today.