The last few years (during the crisis), quite a few companies scaled back on innovation initiatives — and an argument heard was that innovation projects was a luxury good for good times. Preaching (as I was doing) that the opposite is in fact true, was hard in the face of cost control, downscaling, etc. So it has been very encouraging to see how the findings in the big CEO Study survey from IBM is resonating with my clients and students:
According to the IBM survey (http://www.ibm.com/ceostudy) of more than 1.500 Chief Executive Officers from 60 countries and 33 industries worldwide, chief executives believe that — more than rigour, management discipline, integrity or even vision — successfully navigating an increasing complex world will require creativity.
Global complexity is the foremost issue confronting enterprises. Less than half of global CEOs believe their enterprises are adequately prepared to handle a highly volatile, increasingly complex business environment. CEOs are confronted with massive shifts – new government regulations, changes in global economic power centers, accelerated industry transformation, growing volumes of data, rapidly evolving customer preferences – that, according to the study, can be overcome by instilling “creativity” throughout an organisation.
The CEOs see a large gap between the level of complexity coming at them and their confidence that their enterprises are equipped to deal with it. A world of increasing complexity will give rise to a new generation of leaders that make creativity the path forward for successful enterprises.
More than 60 percent of CEOs believe industry transformation is the top factor contributing to uncertainty, and the finding indicates a need to discover innovative ways of managing an organisation’s structure, finances, people and strategy. The CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future.
See the full survey here: http://www.ibm.com/ceostudy
Lars Lundbye is a futurist and innovation evangelist with over 20 years of experience working with international companies and municipalities on sustainable strategy and radical innovation within cleantech, architecture, infrastructure and urban development. Lately Lars has been focused on global water issues as Executive Strategist for Grundfos and development of water sensitive and sustainable villages, on new sustainable architecture and for 3XN, and urban planning, and on radical redesign of public services in municipalities for Lejre Kommune among other major clients.
Lars is renowned for his ability to energise and motivate change and organisations, and his out-of-the-box thinking, that has inspired global businesses as well as numerous social services and innovative startups. With solid academic research behind him, miles and miles of walking the talk in live businesses, and decades of active practice in creative arts and mental development, Lars excels in crossing borders between deep research, hard business, the arts, and mental training; bringing unseen synergies and unique insights to clients’ projects.
Lars has founded and chaired several successful companies, and sits on several boards. Both a practitioner and an academic researcher on innovation, Lars is Lead Faculty on innovation at CBS-Executive (Copenhagen Business School), and is a popular keynote speaker on sustainable innovation, co-creation and integral leadership. He holds an executive MBA from SIMI, a cand. phil. in Literature, and as a former dean of the Danish School of Television and co-founder of the Workz agency with the film company Zentropa, Lars has extensive experience working with storytelling and communicating purpose driven business strategies.
Lars lives to create and enable revolutionary projects that empower people to be creative and innovative in creating a more sustainable, equitable and beautiful world. He is a passionate evangelist for holistic and integral thinking, and is a founding partner of Transition World in collaboration with The Club of Budapest and HeartMind Academy, training global top executives in new sustainable paradigms of development and leadership.
