Innovation Playbook

The Sixth Trait Real-life innovation is a journey, not a destination. There is really no endpoint to it. It’s dynamic, complicated, sophisticated, enthralling, and perhaps most important, evolving. As you read through Become 2020, you will see how innovation is now defined. The Business Innovators Index identifies the five traits that guide innovation leaders: speed, data-driven decision making, commitment from the top, entrepreneurial culture, and customer focus. And they are all equally critical. The one trait I believe overarches all, however, is diversity. It’s the crucial sixth trait that allows us to harness the collective uniqueness of our people. When they bring forward all that makes them unique—from their backgrounds and ethnicities to their life and work experiences—and then they place those differences alongside each other, we end up with a collective perspective that is both broader and deeper than any one perspective could be on its own, and it sets the business apart and allows us to serve our customers in an unparalleled way. Diversity is so much more than how we look and where we come from. It’s about how we think and make decisions. It’s about opening our eyes to new ideas and, in accepting them, finding our way to new approaches. This is how we avoid falling victim to the same challenges and blind spots again and again. This is how we move forward, innovate, and evolve in a way that benefits far more than just ourselves. In this CEO edition of Become 2020, you will explore the diverse views of innovation through the experiences of 12 CEOs. Each comes from a different business, representing a mix of industries, and each provides their own perspective on the five core innovation traits. I hope you find that within their collective uniqueness and the diversity of their thoughts lies a true demonstration that diversity is the mother of innovation.