According to
research
from a 2017 corporate longevity index, the average life span of S&P 500 companies has dropped from almost 60 years on average in the 1950s to an average now of less than 20 years. The survival rate among small companies looks even worse. The main culprits are, of course, technology with the disruptions its rapid development has caused, as well as unprecedented volatility.
Who hasn’t seen them — the mission statements and corporate values that are literally presented as the “writings on the wall” of companies around the world? They're statements like, "We are innovative." "We think outside the box." Or sometimes they're even phrased as a command: "Think." "Think differently." "Think outside of the box.”
I recently had the honor of attending the 175th Anniversary celebration of Miss Porter’s School, where a high caliber panel of neuroscientists discussed how the mind construes meaning from the arts and ultimately gains joy from the process.
Sure, if you want to forge your culture to become more innovative, dynamic, or customer-oriented, you can work on your values, your people’s behavior, and their mindset.
Culture. Many pages have been written, many words penned, about this very elusive piece of the business enterprise. Culture is to a business what the persona and soul are to an individual. It defines who it is, how it thinks, what it does, and what are and are not the right ways for it to move into the future.
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Everybody wants it, nobody seems to have it: A culture of innovation. But what exactly do we mean when we call for a culture of innovation? After all, how can we create a desired culture, if we don’t know exactly what it looks like?