Abstract
This paper examines the role of transformational leadership in moving an organisation from being a knowledge based, learning organisation to become an innovative company. Important features of the leader such as ability to assist in developing and accommodating the implementation of knowledge management techniques, learning organisation concepts and innovation protocols will be discussed in this paper. This paper demonstrates that shifting from organisational learning to becoming an innovative company involves a unique transformation leadership. In that regards, the paper also demonstrates that organisations need to create, capture, transfer, and mobilize knowledge before it can be used be used for innovation. Although technology supports the latter, these are primarily social processes within a cultural environment, and cultural change, however necessary, is a particularly challenging undertaking for the transformational leadership. The paper will present results of a study in assessing how leaders of successful companies found innovation as a way to create value for customers, that is a way to help customers obtain value for the goods and/or services. The paper also considers key innovation processes in those successful companies and examines how transformational leaders have used those processes to deliver value in a way and how they used innovation as opportunity to: 1. Address the needs of customers (especially customers in emerging markets) who could be denied access to markets entirely because existing solutions are too expensive or complicated for them such as in emerging markets. 2. Leveraging new technology in the companys business model around innovation. 3. Respond to a shifting basis of competition and thus defining new acceptable solution in dynamic markets.