Booz & Company just released its annual Innovation 1000 Study, a survey of over 600 innovation leaders in every industry, that asks questions related to their innovation goals and strategies. The 18 page report, chock full of tables, charts, and infographics, begins by revealing the critical (yet not overly surprising) innovation success factors: alignment with the core business strategy and creating a culture that supports innovation.

While the study, like many other innovation-related studies, offers some sobering facts (half of all companies say their corporate culture robustly supports their innovation strategy; 36 percent of all respondents admitted that their innovation strategy is not well aligned to their company’s overall strategy), it fails to address just how those companies that do succeed with their innovation efforts go about establishing, monitoring, and promoting their innovative cultures.  To today’s business leaders, who find “the innovative culture” an elusive topic, the report falls short.  What’s needed are the strategies, processes, competencies, and best practices that make innovative cultures so compelling and successful. 

Like potty training a child or managing teams, it’s not enough to state the importance of it, what’s essential is how to actually do it.