Future Focus
Companies whose chief executives talk about the future innovate more than those that don’t.
Companies whose chief executives speak about future events and external activities innovate more than those whose chiefs don’t, a U.S. university study says.
“By simply counting the number of future-oriented sentences in annual reports we can predict future innovation by the firm,” said marketing Professor Rajesh Chandy of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
CEOs who focus their attention on future events and external activities lead their firms to early adoption and invention of new technologies and greater and faster development of innovations, said Chandy, whose study appears in the next issue of the Journal of Marketing.
United Press International – NewsTrack – Business – Future-focused CEOs bring innovation.
Now, I don’t think that this is a case where just speaking words make you more innovative. I think that the analysis of the words indicate that some people are just simply more future-focused and innovation focused than others. The words are indicating how they already think and act.
Also, employees are impacted by what their employers value. If the bosses are taking about the future and innovation more, then employees get the idea that innovation is important to the company and respond accordingly. On the other hand, if the bosses are always short sided and value short term thinking, then the employees will respond to that, also.
So, the best business leaders will concentrate on innovation and then, naturally, talk about it.
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Another factor: Executives who are bogged down in operating details are probably less likely to talk about the future. Except for very small organizations where operations generally are part of the exec’s job, the execs focusing on operation details are more likely to be trying to keep a struggling company afloat, or to be micromanaging a company to death.