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Gurus have some common attributes:
1. Creative
2. Tenacious
3. Zealots for their idea
4. Often quirky
According to Goldsmith (2003), innovative or creative personalities
are often those who are inflexible and don't deal with others very well.
He offers the examples of Ludwig von Beethoven, Thomas Edison, and
Winston Churchill as those who have tremendous creativity but were
not warm, friendly, accommodating, and cooperative. Creative people
have a vision in mind; however, their difficulty is expressing it to others.
They frustrate themselves, as well as others, with their inability to effec-
tively communicate.
The key, then, is to find these innovative personalities and then inte-
grate them into the company so that they can be productive and not coun-
terproductive, as their personalities may force them to be. Pollard (2005)
suggests that KM has become the organizational ghetto for the most cre-
ative minds in the business. So, this would be a wonderful place to nurture
these innovative personalities.
Davenport and Wilson's (2003) idea framework, discussed earlier, pro-
vides a sound methodology that can be used by these innovators to take a
company forward in idea generation and innovation.
Innovation Management at Microsoft
The software industry is hypercompetitive. Therefore, it is important for a
software firm to hire only the best and the brightest. However, Microsoft
also realizes that knowledge should not be static, so it embarked upon a
project to create a competence-based skills profile, known as SPUD, to
track and enhance employee competencies.
In the mid-1990s, the head of Microsoft's IT department hired Susan
Conway to create the competence program. Conway, who had created
similar competence-based programs at Computer Sciences and Texaco,
soon created a pilot (personal knowledge). SPUD (skills planning
und
development) focused on those skill sets and competencies required to
stay at the edge of an extremely competitive industry.
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