On Innovation -Glenn Sykes

How do innovation and leadership go hand-in-hand? Glenn Sykes, managing director for Europe, Chicago Booth School of Business shares his insights.

Glenn R. Sykes, London-based Managing Director for Europe, University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. Upon assuming his current position in 2002, Sykes focused on increasing the marketing activities of the school in Europe and strengthening the school's corporate relationships. Prior to being named Managing Director of the Europe Campus, Sykes was Associate Dean of the school's MBA Career Services office. Before joining Chicago Booth, Sykes was with the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Can innovation be taught?

Yes, I think you can teach it. I think you can also create a setting where innovation is stimulated and encouraged, and where diversity of thought is welcomed. This encouragement sets the stage for innovative thinking, which I think is much more important than following a scripted path to being innovative.

Innovation is also interesting because with the rapid rate of information exchange that occurs these days, it's really hard to be innovative. Best practice lists are published, meaning that by the time something becomes a best practice, it is probably already copied and widely available. It therefore isn't innovative anymore. You may not have even heard of it before, but it isn't even innovative anymore.

So where does true innovation come from? I think it comes from being in a place that allows innovation to happen. There are always going to be people who are more skilled at innovative thinking than others, but I still think educational institutions have a responsibility towards fostering innovative thinking; creating the group of people where that can take place. What I mean by that is putting together a diverse group like our recent EMBA class for example, where we had 40 countries and over 20 functions or industries represented. That is really where you begin to stretch your thinking.

In the corporate world, what does innovation mean and why is it important?

I think innovation means to be at the front of the pack, to be coming up with the ideas that have not been tried before. Not just being innovative for the sake of being innovative. You must be innovative in respect to your business objectives. You have to marry creating new ideas with an understanding of how your business works and be able to apply economic principles to your innovative techniques: does it or does it not have commercial potential?

Do corporations expect EMBA participants to bring back innovative thinking to the workplace as an acquired skill? 

Absolutely! It would be silly for a corporation to sponsor someone in an EMBA program and not have that expectation. At the same time it would be unreasonable for an EMBA student to not want to take what they are learning, and their new way of thinking, and bring these skills back to their organization and apply them. I've met with some students who, as a precondition to their support for being in the program and after they have been in the classroom for a week, must sit down with their colleagues and talk about what they have learned.  In that way those back at the office are able to benefit from what the student has learned. It's a great way to address the question of why the company supports one person in their education and not another. It makes no sense for an EMBA participant to come here and then just hold on to knowledge and keep it secret. That is not what they are here to do.

How does Chicago Booth help participants face the challenge of innovation?

From talking to our students, one of the things that they get out of the curriculum and from our faculty is clarity about the basic principles at work in the disciplines of economics, sociology, psychology, and statistics, in a way they have never met before. They can then take those principles back to their work place with a new vision, which will enable them to be innovative in how they carry out their responsibilities.

Do innovation and leadership go hand-in-hand?

Yes, I do see that they go hand-in-hand. You can have great leaders who have demonstrated their leadership skills on many fronts, a nation even being one of them. Then there are people who are innovative but not necessarily great leaders. When you do combine them and they go hand-in-hand, it is a powerful force in an organization, especially one that values innovation. When people talk about business leaders who stand out, in their minds they say, "There was someone who demonstrated exceptional abilities in a lot of categories, but mostly innovation".  Think back to Henry Ford who created the assembly line, now that was innovative thinking.