Abstract

Taking a philosophical position like the quote above, in this paper the authors have attempted a perceptive critique in the Indian context to focus on management initiatives towards promoting learning and innovation in organisations based on his two decades of research mainly in Western India, and in the process, dealing with quality of mindsets. In the process the author has looked at innovation and learning as the solution to various problems organizations face and their justification. Once having established the veracity of this claim, innovation and learning as the panacea for a majority of organizational ills, the author has concentrated on the line of thought and policies firms have to internalise to implement these credos. Innovation and creativity, he argues, like Sheridon (1998) must be imbibed in the organizational culture and cannot be spasmodic activities undertaken by individuals in the management.  For this to happen, top management must move out of the feudal-mercantilist-trader mindset and adopt the creative- innovative- entrepreneurial mindset. Insecure and inexperienced top management usually find it difficult to make this transition.  The inevitable result is that while the organisations become poor the owners individually get rich, innovation flies out of the window just as sycophancy enters the door. And this is a situation no civil society desirous of achieving developmental growth can or should tolerate.

Keywords: Organisational culture, Innovation, Creativity, Strategic initiatives, Indian context Equilibrium, Values