Innovative Cultures MUST be Risk Takers!

Innovative Cultures MUST be Risk Takers!

Within my research of innovation in culture I came across a similarity; ‘the notion of risk taking’. And I can summarise from my findings that it is generally thought that innovation and risk taking may well coexist.

So to be innovative, must a company take risks?

A lot of the time, like in Kester (2009), it is said that the creative ideas we come up with have to be given the time to foster and evolve. And when you think of it, risk taking is a process which will lead to innovation. Creativity can come up with the ideas, but taking the risks to spend the money and time on making these thoughts and imaginations a reality, is what leads to innovation.

In the video below, Darrell Bracken (President of Whirlpool Europe) talks about how any organization, especially in management needs to take risks in order to succeed in creating an innovative culture.



“There are certain aspects of a culture that are required to be innovative. If the culture you work in is one where people are scared to death to make a mistake, it makes innovation tougher to draw out”. (Bracken, 2011)

And it is true, if you are in a company which does not accept ideas from lower down in the company, then people are going to feel that their ideas are not valued by the company, therefore the culture is not an acceptable culture for innovation. Management have to let the employees know that they are welcoming ideas for anyone to put forward ideas in the first place, they can’t expect innovation to happen, processes need to be put in place to encourage motivation, as outline in Bracken’s interview with the quote below.

“If you don’t have a system which manages risk well, even if you are in a culture where people are willing to take risks and its ok to take risks, your probably not going to do very well because if you don’t manage risk well, then you go out making a number of mistakes per attempt”. (Bracken, 2011)

Reference List

David Kester. 2009. Creating a Culture of Innovation. Available from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyqHGdIMcas&feature=BFa&list=FL_Ytrb6CZeR0ysQuPenJaeg&lf=plpp_video
Accessed on 22/12/2011

Darrell Bracken. 2011. Driving Innovation through Culture. Available from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Bb21gN7yc&feature=BFa&list=FL_Ytrb6CZeR0ysQuPenJaeg&lf=mh_lolz
Accessed on 22/12/2011s