I attended a good panel this morning organized by the people at Ogilvy PR in DC.  The topic was innovation in organizations, and there were some great panelists.

We ran out of time, but I would have loved to discuss the dynamic between the outward-facing guys and inward-facing guys within companies.  My own attitude has been that a company should do its best to create tension between the outward-facing team (maybe led by the CEO), and the inward-facing team (led by the COO).  Both teams are essential to stimulating innovation.  The trick is, even though you want to foster tension between the outward and inward forces, you need the outward force to win often enough to keep people very busy.