Responsible Leadership in the Field of Innovation

Today I caught up with Joss Evans, CEO of INNOVIC and discussed her thoughts on responsible leadership.

Joss believes responsible leadership involves an holistic approach to business. Responsible leadership includes ethics, morality, honesty with your staff and the people you deal with, it also involves the social, cultural and environment aspects of your business.

Importantly, Joss believes you should not  mislead people, particular clients. Within her field as an advisor on commercialisation and innovation, Joss believes this is a very important aspect of responsible leadership.

Innovators approach Joss daily with new  ideas and business concepts they want to commercialise. INNOVIC’s policy is to give honest, objective and independent advice – and not to encourage people to spend money on a new idea that is unlikely to be commercially viable.

“By pointing out the fatal flaws in an objective and sensitive way, it is possible to help people to understand why their idea may not be viable.  They then have an opportunity to address the problems, or simply move on to their next idea -  which may have more merit”, Joss says.  

Conversely, when a client has a good idea it is important to determine the best strategy  for them going forward – a commercialisation pathway that is practical and likely to get results.  When licensing, INNOVIC tries to ensure that any deal that is negotiated is fair for all parties.

Whilst INNOVIC provides practical assistance to innovators, it does not have any funds to give out, and clients looking for finance are often redirected to business angels, venture capitalists and/or advised of relevant grants.

Talking with Joss about when responsible leadership goes wrong, Joss cited a couple of examples of Telcos and banks who she says appear more driven by profit and their shareholders than providing for staff and customers.

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Sweat factories are another example where some multinational organisations produce products knowing that their overseas workers are employed in conditions that would not be legal in Western countries.  Workers may be underpaid, or work long hours in unsafe conditions, sometimes using young children.

So how does innovation help with society and responsible leadership?

Joss believes the growing popularity of social enterprises is an interesting development that uses innovation to solve  social, cultural or environmental problems.

Many social enterprises create jobs for the disadvantaged or marginalised, and/or may have a specific goal, such as raising funds to build a sports centre, etc.

They use market driven systems and models to drive success - just like any other business needs to do.  Many of the social enterprises are not for profit, delivering profits back into the communities or causes they support, rather than distributing them to shareholders.

Joss concludes that everyone has an obligation to embrace the fundamentals of social responsibility – to treat each other with respect and deal with people fairly and honestly.