With all of this talk of pushing creativity and "out of the box thinking," we have to discuss: Is it lack of great ideas or lack of great people who champion ideas that's standing in the way of innovation?

Seth Godin has said it a number of different ways including "I think ideas are cheap and pretty easy, actually. What's difficult is finding someone to champion an idea."

I call it Corporate Constipation. Lots of opportunities and ideas going into the funnel... but little coming out.

Here's some evidence to support that notion. The Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) conducts a best practices study that compares new product performance and practices across a range of companies and industries (over 400 participants).

Not surprisingly from the 2004 study,"the best" performers generate 49% of their profits from new products -- more than twice as much as "the rest". Top performers recognize the incremental value that successful new products provide to customers and thererfore to the bottom line.

Here's a less intuitive result of the study that's worth noting: While "the best" have developed a much more 'efficient' approach to new product development than "the rest" (4 ideas per 1 success, versus 9 ideas per 1 success)... In spite of this, overall new product success rates since 1995 are unchanged at 59%). Looks like we've all been concentrating on more efficient "fuzzy front end" processes, but it's not translating into higher success rates on the commercialization end.