This article outlines the characteristics of innovative organisations.

Key findings:
 

Enduringly innovative organisations display four characteristics:

• They have a clear innovation purpose
• They recognise the vital role of incentives and performance management in stimulating innovation
• They involve young people in decision making
• They have fostered an open culture that embraces enquiry and ideas beyond the narrow boundaries of their own organisation and industry.

On 29 October 2010, Ian Davis, former Managing Director Emeritus of McKinsey & Company, gave a powerful lecture on the global challenges facing the UK economy in the next decade. This article is adapted from this lecture:.

What are the characteristics of enduringly innovative organisations?

Organisational economists and business people have long debated this question, because they know that innovation is a key factor in driving productivity and growth.

In his lecture, Ian Davis offered some personal perspectives on the defining features of innovative organisations based on his 30 years of working with companies in the private, public and social sectors across the world. 

Author:
Ian Davis