In each firm there are different levels of managers which affect innovation in a variety of ways. This article will identify four common types and discuss their impacts on innovators.
Corporate managers include the CEO and other top level executives who work closely with them. These are the people who are responsible for several groups of business units. In a large company these people will not be aware of each division’s specific problems nor will they be familiar with the different management structures, systems, or practices used in each division.
Their role is seeing the firm in a macro view and directing it to the future. Corporate management affects innovations by (a) often setting the boundaries of what is acceptable to build and what isn’t and (b) providing funding.
As such appealing to corporate management is beyond important and needs to be done. We have written articles helping you get the best response possible from these people.
Large companies with much diversification often have managers who are below the corporate level and are normally responsible for groups of business units. All of the business units within a division will generally be in the same industry. Divisions utilize the same management structure systems and practices found in all business units in order to ensure that division mangers are familiar with how each of their business units are measured. They will be rather familiar with each business unit and their issues but won’t be involved in the daily marketing or technological issues.
These are the people who are going to be overseeing your venture most of the time. This is especially true in large firms who venture in many different directions simultaneously – these managers are the boss of the boss.
Each business unit has to have a manager in charge. They must be extremely familiar with the problems in the unit and will actively work to solve them. They will need to know all management systems, structures, and practices used. Marketing and technology problems are something they will be familiar with.
The person who leads ventures for a firm will be a business unit head (for ventures). This person is of extreme importance to the firm and must be familiar with the daily happenings of the unit at all times. If you’re reading the site, this is the job you probably are chasing after at this point in time.
Project leaders are those responsible for carrying out the individual projects. They should be very familiar with all things going on but do not need the macro perspective of higher management – their focus is on getting projects completed. For venture departments project leaders are critical since they ensure things get done on time. Think of them as a mix between project management and typical manager. There are numerous articles on this site about project management.
This is how things are structured in larger companies. Obviously in smaller firms where there isn’t as much structure things are more streamlined but this should give you the basic concepts of how corporate leadership is structured and how it applies to innovations.
Daft and Marcic in Understanding Management talk about the difference between transformational leaders and transactional leaders.
Transformational leaders are the ones able to bring out innovation and change by seeing what employee’s needs and desires are as well as challenging the way they see the status-quo. This is much more important to leadership than transactional leaders which are primarily task and role driven. They’re great for initiating structure and rewards and are absolutely critical to a firm’s daily tasks – they are smooth and efficient, tolerant and fair minded. However they lack the broad vision of the transaction leader.
Your venture department is going to need both transformational as well as transactional leaders but overwhelmingly the person at the head should be transformational. This is the person at the helm, the person leading has to be the visionary type of person. This is the person who is going to guide and inspire the employees. We’ve discussed how important motivation is and in order to make this happen you’ll need someone able to take charge in that fashion. This isn’t to downplay the importance of transactional leaders. They’re great for getting the project done on time and ensuring everything is up to standard.
This article was written in consideration to James Christiansen’s Competitive Innovation Management: Techniques To Improve Innovation Performance.