Jaideep Prabhu, Jawaharal Nehru professor of Indian Business and Enterprise at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, told delegates at the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition in Manchester: "Employers need to empower their staff. Reward people for their innovations - but don't punish for failure."
He explained businesses could no longer have "top-down championing" where innovative ideas filter down from senior staff, but through appropriate leadership initiatives all staff could be incentivised to come up with profit-making ideas.
Prabhu drew upon the example of Google, which allows staff 20%-30% of their time ‘innovating'.
He added: "Tough times require great leadership and HR must be the leaders of innovation in organisations. There is a structural issue, though - leaders need to be thinking up new ideas but have been too busy fire fighting during the recession."
