THOUGHTLEADER PROFILE
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George Chen, Strategos One explanation for this may be that too many companies attempt to merely copy the innovation strategies of more successful companies, a serious mistake, says George Chen, a Director at Strategos, a global strategy and innovation consulting firm and the Strategic Services division of Innovaro. What holds companies back from profitable innovation, George adds, is often a deeper issue than something that can be solved with a one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter. In an article written for the American Management Association called “Identifying and Removing Barriers to Innovation,” George notes that many companies “ layer the copied processes and tools on to existing infrastructure without first addressing what’s keeping them from being innovative in the first place.” One CEO, for example, summed up his company’s dysfunctional approach to innovation in this rather succinct way: “We say innovation is our top priority but we don’t effectively allocate our time, resources and efforts to walk the innovation talk.” George explains: "Other executives tell us that ‘innovation is risky’ and that the urgency of quarterly earnings drives out the less urgent need for innovation. Thus many companies, their employees report, actually ‘punish’ failures.” An experienced strategy and technology consultant, George’s deep front-line experience in starting and managing new businesses has helped launch numerous start-up, technology-centric and service-oriented companies and keep them renewed and vibrant. He is particularly passionate about the complexity of nurturing start-up organizations within mature companies , advocating systemic innovation thinking that develops a holistic solution. “If you want sustainable growth, you have no choice,” he says, “but to proactively improve your organization’s innovation effectiveness. However, unfortunately there’s no ‘magic bullet’ for effective innovation. It can’t be accomplished overnight.” The good news, however, is that a company can succeed in building an innovation competence, especially if it is clear on the reasons why it is innovating, as well as which areas must be focused on and how each area’s innovation effort should be approached. In this vein, George and the Strategos team take pains to fully understand their client companies’ existing cultures so as to customize strategies that maximize their clients’ innovation opportunities. Before coming to Strategos, George was a Principal and the Strategy Practice Leader at The Revere Group, a middle-market centric consultancy. He was also a founding member of Cambridge Technology Partners a leading systems integrator, and held various consulting positions with Ernst and Young's Strategic Advisory Services and with CSC Index. At Strategos, he oversees the Chicago office and the firm's marketing function in addition to directly serving clients. His client projects range from energy, life science, financial services, media, as well as consumer products and other verticals, all with an aim to developing industry transforming strategies, frame-breaking new products and services, and sustainable innovation competence. A prolific thoughtleader, George writes and publishes articles for major business publications, plus rallies, motivates and coordinates the publishing efforts of his thoughtleading colleagues at Strategos. He’s been published in Strategy and Leadership, Top Consultant, CIO.com, Industry Week Online, IndUS Business Journal, CP Wire and US Industry Today. In addition, George is an ongoing contributor to CEO Refresher, a high-level knowledge site visited by 30,000 decision-makers every month, and he authors the firm's quarterly Strategos-wRatings Innovation Index report. George earned an MBA (with high honors) from the University of Chicago, an MS in Computer Science from Brown University and a BS (with honors) in Electric Engineering, also from Brown. Learn more about George Chen, Strategos and Innovaro at Strategos and Innovaro. about emerson consulting group Ken Lizotte, Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO), 978-371-0442 Email Us |
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For many companies, innovation is only an abstract concept, not the profitability engine it could be for ramping up a company’s potential. In fact, Business Week has reported on the difficulty many organizations encounter when attempting to introduce innovation into their established systems, even suggesting that “innovation shortfalls” were a key contributor to the onset of our current financial crisis.