I've got an event later this morning with a company that is in the equipment leasing industry - they've brought me in give their team a sense as to how their future will unfold - and how they can ensure they can capitalize on these trends to pursue opportunities. The key issues in their future? The electrification of vehicle fleets, changes to dealer distribution models with business model change, and the changing nature of customer interaction. With this comes insight into the innovation strategies and ideas they could and should be pursuing.
The latter comes from careful analysis of innovation leaders - those who relentlessly focus on change to capitalize on opportunities. One key thing that is common to those leaders? A growth orientation based on moving forward today, not tomorrow! I've long realized that innovation comes naturally to those organizations that are focused on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the challenges of today. It's by building a culture that is relentlessly turned to that reality, they easily succeed in doing things differently. And in doing so, they're the true innovators -- they've been able to throw off the shackles of yesterday's problems in order to concentrate on what they could be doing to adjust to tomorrow. But they do it now. They don't wait.
There are several key elements to this successful innovation culture:
- refocusing on tomorrow: It's a growth orientation that is focused on tomorrow's opportunities rather than yesterday's problems: they've managed to instill a culture that has everyone thinking about what can be done, rather than what needs to be fixed. It's a culture in which people are thinking less about the problems that have occurred, and more about the strategies that could be pursued. They don't run "change-management workshops": they have strategic sessions on "growing the business." It's not an easy task, but innovative organizations have managed to get their people away from "right now" to "our next step."
- the ability to cost-manage and grow at the same time: give me a company that is focused strictly on cost management, and I'll give you an innovation laggard. Innovative organizations know that cutting costs and operational excellence is but one part of the equation. They also ensure that at the same time, they hack away at cost, they are actively working on growing their market, learning how to do things differently, discovering new ideas, and seeking opportunities.
- a translatable vision: every single innovative organization has, at the root, at least one, simple, concrete idea (or more) that defines their innovation scope. One industrial company I worked with defined it this way: "at this point, we know we don't have the depth to generate innovation ideas entirely internally -- so we will see innovation partners to help us drive growth in our sector." Once that was defined, the rest followed, because it became acceptable to admit that innovation could come from somewhere other than internally.
- time to market is critical: the organization relentlessly lives and breathes the mantra, "it's all about our ability to get the product/service to market on time." With that key goal, they manage to harness their energy towards a growth and ideas agenda.
- internal collaboration: the organization has gone beyond seminars about teamwork, to a culture in which ideas are instantly shared, debated, transferred, analyzed, and recomposed. There is no more debate about the need to break down silos; they are gone. What remains is a desire to learn from each other, and build on common insight.
- a transition at the top, of managers to leaders: innovative organizations have transitioned the roles of management. They've moved away from mind-numbing activities such as day-to-day oversight, implementing procedures, generating reports, and all the other routines. Instead, they're redefining the organization by pushing decision-making to the lowest capable level; they defining goals and outcomes that staff can pursue; they, are putting in place collaborative and market-oriented feedback loops. In other words, they're thinking about all the things the organization should be doing to survive and thrive in a fast-paced market.
- at every level, a tactical to strategic transition: at the same time that the role of management has evolved, so too has the role of staff. As part of the shift to innovation, the organization has transitioned the roles of many staff so that they provide a more strategic role ("what do we need to do to meet this new challenge?") rather than routine tactical activities ("I need to get this reconciliation signed off!") They've done this by automating a lot of the routine, day to day processes that can choke off innovation. They're freeing staff up from the performance of the mundane to the enhancement of opportunity.
- a partnership orientation: innovative organizations recognize that they can't do it all. They look to actively work with their complexity partners in order to be able to do innovative things at the pace that the speed of change demands of them. Maximizing partnerships is a key focus: "we might not be able to generate all the ideas, but we sure as heck are going to know how to find them and capitalize upon them."
- fast skills access is a key success factor: big or small, you can only drive innovation if you can access the complex talent needed to take you forward. Innovative companies have mastered the article of just-in-time skills access; they can access and focus a unique set of skills for a unique purpose at a moment's notice.
But the most important success factor not listed above? They pursue these ideas NOW. They don't wait. They don't pause. They don't let aggressive indecision about the future drive their actions. They don't demand clarity before moving. They don't let uncertainty cloud their action. They don't let an internal culture of deliberate caution delay their action.
They do it now.
To a degree, it's all about what leadership decides to do. And when it comes to innovation, there are three types of leaders. Those who watch it happen, those who make it happen, and those who say, 'what happened?' The type of leader you want to be should be obvious.
In 2010, Futurist Jim Carroll developed his list of "What World Class Innovators Do That Others Don't Do." It caught the attention of future-oriented leaders worldwide and remains as powerfully relevant guidance to this day. Learn more at
https://worldclassinnovation.jimcarroll.com