There are plenty of anecdotes about companies which, through exceptional feats of agility, have been able to overcome seemingly impossible hurdles and triumph against steep odds. Some of them are even true.

But Agile development, at least with a capital A, remains a huge challenge for many established companies, especially in creating software. After all, it requires them to relinquish control over key aspects of developers and the development process precisely at a time when the risk of failing to exercise effective control can be a career-stopper. So while agility is respected, at least in principle, its wholehearted implementation is sometimes lacking.

The reasons are easy to understand. The Agile manifesto for software innovation smacks of kumbaya. In a ruthlessly competitive world, it calls for collaboration. In an environment dominated by formal processes and structures, it praises individuals and their interactions. Instead of hardball negotiations, it calls for customer collaboration. And instead of adhering to a set of previously adopted plans, it demands the flexibility to respond to change.

The other day I had the opportunity to spend some time with a team of world-class CIOs of Global 2000 companies in a private setting and hear what they had to say about innovation when "nobody" was listening. Their comments were shocking.

Risk is the most popular characteristic of innovation. We recently mentioned how our nation's leaders associated risk with some of the greatest moments in American invention and there's no shortage of academic resources pushing organizations to take greater risks in order to innovate.

But risk isn't always good for your career.

While everyone has a little envy for Steve Jobs, who has become a legend in his own right, none of these CIOs want to be him. Every CIO discussed being in a corporate environment that doesn't tolerate risk, and it wasn't something they were looking to change.

Risk represents the capital "I" in innovation, which was associated with being expensive, difficult and career terminating. The most reliable way up the corporate ladder is to come clean up after your predecessor took a risk and failed.

By now a lot of you have heard of the latest government initiative in a string of efforts from the Obama administration to push the innovation agenda – Startup America – led by America's new startup czar and AOL cofounder Steve Case. Steve introduces the program via video here, where he also solicits Americans for feedback. So we thought we'd put our comments here on The Innovation Jam. If Steve finds it and reads it, we'll be honored.

Steve talks about how America has always been leaders in innovation. President Obama's State of the Union mentioned how we "are the nation of Google and Facebook" and Steve makes historic comparisons to times of great risk and invention in America's history like the Mayflower, the light bulb, etc.

I think it's important to highlight the contrast between these examples, which demonstrates how innovation has changed and what we need to do to stay relevant.

Tiny Texas town gets creative

For most companies, the maneuvers leading up to the launch of new innovations are a deadly serious game. But in one Texas town, the innovation process also resonates as an arcade game. And maybe there’s a valuable lesson in that for the rest of us.

As someone whose company mission is helping customers accelerate innovation, I have a keen interested in the ways product companies manage this process. And increasingly over the last few years, more and more companies have found that automated management systems, including my company’s product, Accept360, are helping them to make better, faster, more profitable decisions about products and product features.

That innovation process has grown increasingly chaotic as more people become involved: customers, prospects, analysts, sales reps, channel partners, investors, engineers, and so on. As a result, software that helps companies sort through, analyze, and align ideas has emerged as an essential survival tool.

Take a few minutes to participate in our newest LinkedIn Poll: How agile is your enterprise to changing market conditions.

We would like to know if you think you are proactive or reactive to changing market conditions!

Vote here

If you've been on either side of the fence in interviews for a product manager position,the Cranky Product Manager's just finished 6-part video series on "The World's Most Generic Product Management Interview" might appeal to those who need to do a little venting.

The second video highlights a common thread of thinking amongst product managers:

• One side of the story: "Apple has the best products and therefore they must have the best product management."
• The other side: "Apple product managers are powerless. Steve Jobs and his rock star product designers completely drive the product direction while the product managers take notes."

Most CEOs are more focused on sales and revenue numbers than products that create those revenues, so product managers are used to taking the lead. Sometimes that means taking utter responsibility for the success of the product, while at other organizations it's an ongoing educational campaign

At the end of last month we finally unveiled the results of the annual innovation priorities and challenges survey dubbed “The Return to Profitability – 2011 Product Innovation Priorities Report” which was conducted in partnership with the Association of International Product Marketing & Management. You can download the complete report for free on our resource page, but we also wanted to share a snapshot of the results and analysis here.

At the highest level, our survey confirms previous estimates that about 50% of all products fail. In our case we found that 50% of respondents had a less than 50% success rate, but we dive deeper into why so many products fail and what product executives are planning to do about it next year. We found four major factors in failing products.

Failing to Align Strategy & Execution
40% of respondents said less than half of their engineering resources are being spent on the most important features and 67% of respondents felt there was at least a moderate chance they were currently developing the wrong features.

As we continue our poll series to understand the priorities and challenges that product executives face, I wanted to share the results from our latest poll keeping with the Halloween theme: what is the scariest product innovation mishap you’ve experienced?

There were again over 200 responses representing a solid cross-section of product management, sales, marketing and development roles across all types of industries and geographies.

40% of the respondents believe their scariest innovation mishaps occurred when they let engineers determine the market needs.

Pretty consistent with findings from a recent study Accept did in conjunction with AIPMMto determine the Product Innovation Priorities for 2011 - about 46% of executives saymore than 50% of engineering resources are focused on developing the wrong products and features.

Before we start pointing fingers and jump to any further conclusions, lets settle on one thing first: These statistics shows there’s a high probability that companies are spending valuable resources developing the wrong products and features