Innovation leadership creates high morale and idea-rich environment: innovation is the source of competitive advantage and profits because it reduces costs, raises productivity, improves products, and attracts customers.

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INVESTORS pay for innovation. It is the source of competitive advantage and profits because it reduces costs, raises productivity, improves products, and attracts customers. Both customers and businesses benefit from innovation, and when the business benefits so do investors.

Why is it that two companies can sell the same products or offer the same services, and even use the same marketing techniques and still get two completely different results? It depends on the internal environment.

Morale has significant impact on a company budget but it never shows up in a budget. If there is low morale in a firm, for every $1 spent, you get about 25 cents in value. If there is high morale, for every $1 spent, you get about $3 in value. Companies should pay more attention to morale.

Positive employees have an impact on customer satisfaction, loyalty, supply costs, turnover, sick days, project completion, and quality. Positive employees treat the workplace with respect, managing their projects and employees as if they were their own.

Demoralised employees go out of their way to make costs higher, your projects fail and your reputation in the marketplace suffers. They jump ship and the next recruit wastes valuable training dollars.

Two departments or teams can be virtually the same. But when the foundation to building and maintaining a positive, high-energy workplace is absent, failure follows.

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Winning Attributes

Innovation leaders have great self confidence, yet they are very humble. They are willing to admit that they don't know, and can't possibly be the best at everything. That's why they persistently seek to learn as much as they can, because they know that learning never stops.

Great innovation leaders have a high degree of determination. They don't give up. If they are stopped from achieving on a mission, they find another way. If people don't see the value of their idea, they find a way to help people see that it's a smart solution. If that doesn't work, they try more ways until finally people see the wisdom of what they're proposing. Because they are humble, and surrounded by people who will challenge them if they are arrogant, their determination is not viewed as stubbornness. They flow through challenges rather than push through challenges.

For companies that attempt to foster innovation from within the ranks, a number recognise the importance of strong disagreement or of being a "maverick". They often try to limit the fear of failure and promote risk taking. Robert Johnson of Johnson & Johnson is reputed to have congratulated a manager who lost money on a failed new product by saying: "If you are making mistakes, that means you are making decisions and taking risks". Coca-Cola celebrated the failure of its sweet "New Coke", the venture in 1985 that proved to be ill-advised. Coca-Cola learned that its strength was in its image, not necessarily its flavour.

Driving innovation requires that action be taken even in the face of fear. For innovation leaders, courage is not fearlessness, but a willingness to act even when fear is present. Many managers are afraid to ask a question that exposes their lack of knowledge, but innovation leaders do it all the time.

Innovation leaders have fun learning new things. Whether it's taking classes, reading books, attending presentations, engaging in dialogues or looking for new information on the Web, they do it because they want to learn more.

Successful innovators have shown that great ideas come from unexpected places. Who could have predicted that bicycle mechanics would develop the airplane or that the United States Department of Defense would give rise to a freewheeling communications platform like the Internet?

Great innovation leaders have a very high level of integrity. Integrity means "doing what you say you'll do." They understand that this is the foundation of leadership on all dimensions, not just innovation. It is a critical component to inspiring trust in leadership. Because of this, you can count on a steadiness of behaviour.

To achieve the impossible, we must believe that the impossible can be achieved.

David Wee is founder and CEO of DW Associates Pte Ltd and Asia Speakers Bureau.