Companies should be sensitive to the fact that in today's economy the ability to innovate has become a critical success factor. It is through innovation that great ideas are nourished that will ultimately generate new wealth. Innovation should be deeply embedded as part of a corporate culture. Organizations need to invest in teaching employees how to think creatively, laterally and how to generate innovative ideas that are commercially viable.

Today, innovation has become the buzzword in many companies. What can organizations do to encourage innovation? How can innovationa spontaneous atural process, be managed or rather engineered in an organizational context? This is a question with which many companies are wrestling but few have the answers.

Research clearly indicates that great companies do leave innovation to chance. They have various mechanisms and processes that encourage new ideas. 3M is a good example. This industrial and healthcare firm is proverbial for its innovative approach to product development. Innovation is encouraged by the "15% rule" which states that 3M employees can spend up to 15% of their time working on innovative ideas of their choice. Fifty years ago CEO William Mcknight declared the company's rationale when he said, "as our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate to encourage men and women to exercise their initiatives". Mistakes might happen, but if a person is essentially right, the mistake he or she makes are not serious in the long run as the mistakes of a dictatorial management.

In today's "New Economy" the ability to innovate is a critical success factor in most industries. The rules of business in the Old Economy model were largely influenced by FW Taylor considered as the father of Scientific Management theory. With Taylor's management principle as reference point, most organizations were built for certainty, predictability and routine. Hierarchy and control were the hallmarks of organizational effectiveness.

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