The DNA of Innovation

Purpose A survey by Gary Hamel's company (Strategos) identified that over 80 percent of senior managers agreed that innovation creates a strong source of competitive advantage, and 90 percent indicated that innovation is highly valued. Yet these same companies rated themselves poorly at innovation. This paper sets out to consider behaviors and traits that will help organizations to successfully innovate. Design/methodology/approach Recent articles have attempted to use the concept of scientific DNA as a metaphor to describe characteristics of an organization. Many of these are descriptive and refer to basic core activities that managers need to concern themselves with. This article presents an analogy of DNA for the business perspective. There are certain behaviors and traits – call them innovation genes – that are foundational to innovation. It is believed that the sequence presented is this paper represents the basic building blocks for organizational innovation. Findings The paper finds that the innovation DNA sequence includes employee centric traits of knowledge management, cluster management, value management, and alignment. The context shaping innovation includes employee constituency and empowerment. The outcomes include strategic architecture to support innovation, innovation mapping of strategic initiatives, and value creation. There are competitive and positioning advantages of innovation DNA that promote a sustainable competitive advantage. Originality/value Embedding innovation DNA into the organization's fabric elevates organizations to being innovative in everything they do ‐ from knowledge management to value creation, and execution. Its application is universal as it elevates the least common denominator respecting how employees think and act; behaviors which lend life to innovation. As a result, the innovation imperative will only be as good as the organization's lowest common denominator in this respect.