The rules governing the market are changing at dizzying speed. To succeed, or even just to survive, original and risky ways to compete must be sought. Ideas about how this might be achieved sometimes arrive out of the blue, a process we like to call serendipity. You can sometimes be lucky and come up with a random discovery that’ll produce a market success, but this is rare. If you want ideas to develop, you have to be ready.
Businesses and professionals who aspire to innovation leadership have to understand that innovation is not the direct outcome of finance, but the result of human creative energy. Investing resources in R&D is essential, but it is not enough by itself. You must be prepared to extract the maximum return from this move, which means that anybody who wants to stand out from the background and grow in spite of the turbulence must learn how to efficiently manage their intellectual capital and creative energy. In other words, they must find out how to hone their business acumen at the same time as they unleash their passion for innovation.
The Passion Factor provides the formula for doing just that. It explains how to apply the Innova 3DX methodology which stops creativity from leaking away and catalyses creative energy so that the “innovation engine” is on full throttle. Supported by facts and data, it reflects on the importance of extracting the maximum potential from both genders, as learning how to capitalize their difference is essential to become a leader in the field of innovation.
This book has two parts; the first one, from the first to the twelfth chapter, deals with the efficient management of innovative behaviour; and the second part, the last two chapters, covers the profitability of women in the workplace.
Chapter 1 explains the part played by innovation in the building of a new global economic order shot through with uncertainty and new challenges, yet also opportunities that must not be ignored. It shows that innovation has become established as an essential tool for facing current challenges as well as those still ahead in the future. As you would expect, it reveals the way that innovation has become a vital instrument for companies battling to regain the road to growth.
Chapter 2 introduces the Innova 3DX method, which sees innovation as an essentially human process that must be managed via three routes: the creative ecosystem, innovative potential and passion, the biological engine that drives us to act. From another angle, we see how we are conditioned by our environment, our skills, our creative blocks and our motivation for innovation.
Chapters 3, 4 and 5 focus on the nature and the operating mechanisms of the first dimension, the creative ecosystem, plus the three factors that shape it: corporate culture (as regards innovation and technology), the work climate and leadership and management style.
Corporate culture includes the values, standards and thought patterns that define and shape behaviour in a company, which means that it is one of the factors that best identifies its essential nature. A culture that genuinely values and encourages change is essential if the whole of the company’s individual creative potential, and hence organizational potential, is to be released. Equally vital is a culture which understands that the new technologies are more than just a passing fad – in other words, innovative (sub) cultures and technological (sub) cultures will need special attention.
The work climate is the factor that includes the measurable elements of the environment which in turn, influence commitment and motivation in the workplace.
This covers the physical space, ethical and moral framework, emotional and spiritual aspects. Businesses that lack any of these factors will be afflicted by an ailing culture that will oppose innovative behaviour and inhibit the efforts of all those who possess talent and the skills to use it.
Leadership and management style is the factor that defines how the strings of the organization are pulled. The most innovative companies will be those with innovative leaders. This calls for any leadership style that is based on orders and supervision be set aside in favour of an example-based approach demanded by this new era. What are needed are professionals who lead by example and have the ability to intelligently catalyse the creative energy of their teams so that they produce profitable ideas. This change will not be easy for leaders who are used to spending their time ensuring that things are done the way they would do them themselves. Now, it will be a question of survival for everybody.
Chapters 6 to 9 focus on individual innovative potential, and this is monitored in terms of three factors: creativity, technological profile and psychological profile (self-esteem, optimism, locus of control and learning orientation). This way, a holistic view of creative capacity is incorporated, since we now step beyond the traditional focus (creativity-centred) to take in the internal forces that lead to the release of our total energy – or, of course, stifle it.
The primary factor (chapter 6) in this dimension is creativity, a concept very similar to innovation. Given that an innovation is the result of an idea with application and market entry, the line that divides them is very vague: potential profitability. It is this which has led to a large number of businesses launching actions aimed at encouraging individual, and hence corporate, creativity. And these have often achieved good results, but with a wider perspective, they could have aspired to much greater things.
Factor number two (chapter 7) concerns your relationship with new technologies. Since they are without question the main engine of innovation within a company, efforts must be made to ensure that every single staff member is prepared to build them into their everyday activities and, of course, that they are able to use them to channel their creativity.
The third factor (chapters 8 and 9) is the psychological profile, a concept which includes those features of the personality that are able to paralyse your creative power – or give free rein to innovative energy to the extent that it reaches its own limits. Being aware of this and correctly managing it (including self- management), empowers individuals, as well as groups, getting the best from everybody but also creating synergies from their team actions. In the world of open innovation, where all drive and all are driven, it can be no other way.
Chapters 10 and 11 cover the third dimension of the method: the passion for innovation. This represents the biological engine which, given a creative ecosystem and a certain level of innovative potential, will drive us to act, to attempt to innovate and to create. Its power is determined by your motivation and the braking effect that derives from your fear of failure. What this means in real terms is that you are driven by hopes that your efforts will pay off and the emotional value you place on the results you hope to achieve. And you’re similarly held back by the fear of something not turning out well.
Many companies are already aware of the importance of these factors, and are therefore investing a great deal of money and effort with the aim of promoting innovation. In most cases these organizations concentrate their efforts on concrete dimensions or factors, such as creativity and corporate culture. They are definitely looking in the right direction, but to achieve 100 per cent calls for a wider perspective. This is why Chapter 12 explains how the procedure can by monitored using an overall viewpoint. It includes a step-by-step guide that shows how to develop a diagnostic of the brakes and catalysts involved in the procedure; a tool which will allow you to proceed safely and securely along the road to innovation leadership.
The chapters devoted to the factors that comprise the method follow the same content and layout plan. Initially, Silvia Leal sets out an academic, research- focused view – the outcome of her doctoral studies. Specifically, she offers a theoretical outline of the nature of each factor and includes a number of examples to explain their essence and how they work. She goes on to describe how they affect innovative behaviour and she includes a simplified version of her self-assessment tests which reveal the situation’s status and the need for possible corrective actions.
The second part of the chapter covering these factors is the work of Jorge Urrea, who adds his insight management, a term that refers to the self- management that arises from an in-depth and clear perception of the environment and of oneself.
The style of this section is somewhat profound, brought to life by stories about the writer’s ancestors, painters, dictators, governors, entrepreneurs, managers, customers and non-customers, and illuminates different, authentic action approaches that teach us powerful lessons for life and work. He includes introspective disquisitions on innovation, self-esteem, fear of success or failure, managing your own life, motivation, culture, optimism etc. All of this is examined from a wide range of cultural viewpoints and disciplines (Taoism, Zen, gestalt, phenomenology, philosophy, history and/or economics).
The second part of the book focuses on the financial risk of under-use of female talent. Chapter 13 explains how to capitalize the female workforce, together with quantifying the financial impact on organizations. The Insight management section consolidates this approach and acknowledges women’s value from a social dimension but above all, due to profitability.
Chapter 14 covers the importance of women in new technologies. In this chapter, false assumptions leading to the phenomenon of female depopulation will be exposed together with the solutions for a problem that, believe it or not, has an easy remedy.
And of course the book is coloured by the gender perspective, because men and women are not the same, and it is essential to learn to manage these differences effectively.
The Passion Factor is the outcome of a long, detailed research project in which thousands of companies and professionals took part. The interesting but unexpected conclusions, which were commented on by international publications such as Forbes, are of interest to all.
The key to emerging strengthened from all kinds of crises is in the book in your hands right now. We make one suggestion for those choosing this pathway: passion and insight. The rest is just a matter of time.