Reaffirming My Personal Pledge to Innovation
Just like any other business owner, I appreciate opportunities to grow and fine-tune my leadership abilities. However, I’ve found that situations that challenge me to carefully examine my thinking and motives are the most opportunistic.
I recently walked away from a situation asking myself, “Am I really doing enough?” After all, it seems stagnant is the new status quo in life.
An Innovative Experience
This week, I attended the Chief Innovation Officer Summit in New York City. The event was a two-day, intimate meeting group with lots of opportunities to network with industry leaders from some of the most reputable businesses in the world.
Event coordinators had advertised the summit as an opportunity to reinvigorate your business with fresh ideas and discover how to deliver breakthrough results.
In summary, the event lived up to its promise. This is how I would sum up the purpose of the conference: innovate. More specifically, focus on virtualizing innovation.
Learning From the Best
The feedback and insight provided by business veterans at the Chief Innovation Officer Summit was not only smart and on point, but also very relevant for any business owner today.
Michelle Bazargan
Michelle Bazargan, strategic architect at JM Family Enterprises (Toyota), spoke on the topic of “Innovation at a Diversified Corporation.”
Bazargan was one of my favorite speakers. Her ability to identify an innovation roadblock and offer an effective solution was inspiring.
It’s common knowledge that startups are perceived as the champions of innovation. This puts pressure on large, diverse enterprises, whose design might not foster such quick and dynamic adaptation. How can these established businesses stay competitive?
Bazargan was able to explain the characteristics and dynamics that are necessary to create organic growth, creativity, and innovation in a large, mature organization.
On a personal note, I loved that Bazargan uses Kanban as a corporate leadership tool. I am passionate about using Kanban to optimize success, and it’s a tool I use in my own company.
Robert Gavazzi
Robert Gavazzi, senior director of innovation at Hershey, spoke on the topic of “Structuring Innovation: Finding a Framework of Freedom.”
Unfortunately, the industry’s increased focus on process and structure has inhibited innovation and creativity. Gavazzi points to Hershey’s ‘framework of freedom’ as an ideal way to offer structure that functions as a guide, rather than hard and fast rules.
Gavazzi expounded on this idea with a story about Milt Hershey, the company’s founder. Mr. Hershey only became successful after he decided to stop selling gum and really focus on chocolate-making.
Regardless of the chosen management and leadership style, encouraging efficient and free-thinking innovators should be the goal of any company.
John Cronin
John Cronin, CEO/MD at ipCapital, spoke on the topic of “Virtualizing Innovation & Owning It: Is This the Future of Innovation and R&D?”
Cronin was smart, to the point, and all about the solution. Companies feel compelled to innovate quicker, with increased quality and decreased cost. This means new sources of innovation are needed to stay competitive. Cronin offered insight into future methods of innovation and how businesses can capitalize on this constant need to adapt.
My Personal Pledge to Innovate
The Chief Innovation Officer Summit challenged my thinking and leadership styles in many ways.
I was reminded that we need to stop being afraid to fail. Instead, we need to focus on what we can change to move faster, do things better, and improve at every level.
Innovation doesn’t need to be an elaborate, complex strategy. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.” Nowhere is this more relevant that a company’s innovation objectives.
I walked away from this conference with inspiration for our team. I’d like for us to focus on the three D’s to innovate and grow value:
- Define the Future
- Delight your customers
- Differentiate yourself
While there is always room for improvement, the Chief Innovation Officer Summit reinforced that we are going in the right direction. Innovative focus pays off!
