Where do great ideas come from? Everywhere... From internal experts – marketing, R&D and customer support. From external experts – customers, salespeople, service providers. From non-experts – people who are neither lead users, lag users nor any other kind of user. Instead, these disassociated innovators combine patterns from other products, services or processes to reveal new uses, new enhancements, new markets for your products.

The source of ideas is not the issue. The real issue is where they go. Organizations like Pfizer, Nokia, HP, GE and many others have formal processes to generate and nurture innovation from idea to realization. But in many more organizations, the process is not formalized or even recognized as a critical role.

Innovation is the strategy organizations often turn to when something has gone wrong.

A competitor turns the industry upside down with a new offering, catching everyone else unprepared. A change in customer preferences leaves your product on the discount shelf. A change in the cost of resources or a shift in your supply chain alters your value proposition.

Organizations focus on metrics, deadlines, benchmarks and a host of other measures. But, innovation is hard to quantify. Therefore, it's hard to justify. Employees are subjected to competing directives of immediate, measurable results, versus longer term innovation development. In my experience, the short term deadlines win every time. That was also the point clearly made by Rob Spencer of Pfizer Global Research & Development when he spoke at The Front End of Innovation conference. His point was echoed by a number of other speakers.

Innovation is an initiative in itself and deserves a dedicated team of people with no competing objectives. Ideas are nurtured, prioritized, explored and enhanced by multiple stakeholders from key areas of the organization. It’s an ongoing process. In effect, it’s an offensive process which assures that you keep your competition off balance. It is better to be the initiator of change, than to continually react as competitors determine the direction of your market.

Innovation initiatives are not a luxury, but an essential function of effective leadership. There are no accidental leaders, but many followers through lack of intention.