**2. Strategic model for innovation leadership**

Having come to this point in the discussion, let us rewind to what we started this discussion with. The notion that it is the people and their cooperation that leads to the best kinds of innovations. Combine that with a creative mindset and the right direction, and you get innovative leaders to lead the team forward. Ever then wondered why some companies or organizations succeed at doing this while others fail. From research over countless years and by many researchers, it all boils down to having the right strategy. And not only that but also being able to implement that strategy.

Many models of promoting innovation leadership in organizations have come into play in recent times. There are varied opinions regarding the same. Some belief in implementing an innovation culture by motivating your teammates to seek advancement. But this wastes resources and is based on a dependence on skillful people who can leave the team anytime. Another model that some companies use is of hiring what they call an "inventor" or innovation consultant, who propose ideas that are then taken to realization. This again means relying on external sources for the successful leadership of your organization. To give a better frame of reference, some corporations use mixed tactics that include open and closed innovation approaches.

The most important question to ask for the leaders while devising an appropriate strategy is related to their expectations from their organization and themselves in the future. How do they want to reinvent their team? Is the plan of action they have aligned with their goals for the company? If yes, a strategic model for innovation leadership is then nothing more than a roadmap for a team's coveted future. Strategic innovation takes the road less traveled – it challenges an organization to look beyond its established business boundaries and mental models and to participate in an open-minded, creative exploration of the realm of possibilities [19, 20].

Here, I will give you a basic structure on how organizations should choose the best strategy. First of all, start with making sure you are selecting the leadership styles or practices that you are more equipped to execute than your counterparts. One relatively solid framework for making those strategic choices and choosing those behaviors is the strategy choice cascade [21]. It is described in the strategy book titled Playing to Win by. Former P & G CEO Lafley and Roger L. Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

One of AG Lafley's specific suggestions is that organizations build and develop an entire list of strategic decision-makers who know what it takes to attract and connect with participation and a more conscious structure. Innovation is one of the most difficult to align with strategy. It's chaotic in nature, and its team-oriented approach sometimes pushes the boundaries, challenging a variety of established positions and becoming seemingly contradictory. Achieving alignment requires some better options that repeatedly trace back to innovation activities and strategic needs [22].

This requires a selection cascade model. In this model, understanding flows through coordinated cascade decisions. Its purpose is first to give the "decisionmaker" the opportunity to make individual decisions so that they can move it upstream again by stimulating and facilitating different levels of common sense or best judgment. Roger Martin and Hillary Clinton proposed "the art of integrated

#### *Innovation Leadership in the 21st Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101932*

thinking [23]. To sum it all up, just as in battles, businesses or governments, similarly a good strategy put to work is what separates a successful innovation leadership from a poor one. This makes strategic leadership one of the most important components of innovation in the 21st century.
