Business Innovation Is Not A Fundamental Step

Innovation Is Not Magical.

I wonder how many business leaders sit down at their desk and once in awhile ask themselves if they are doing the right steps to perform their tasks?  How many business owners take time to reflect on the kinds of things they are doing to run their business model?  For those who sit down, take the time to re-evaluate what they are doing, good for you.  Once in awhile, taking stock of the things we work to do is a forward step to making sure we are productive leaders.  It is an essential task to perform if winning is desired.

Meanwhile, if some important responsibility is discovered that has become noticeably missing in the leadership process, reflection can help to find those missing parts.  The truth is, business leaders get busy.  Time and again some of the important yet fundamental strokes they perform get quietly omitted as they take on new surprises, added duties, complicated tasks and responsibilities.  This is a natural occurrence.  The life of a business leader can easily be filled with high adventure.  High adventure can become very distracting.   Welcome to leadership.  Maybe it is time for reflection.

There is a lot of time spent on making sure the work a business leader performs is up to speed performing the things the business needs to see done.  This is often times secured by the way the business leader arranges their time management structure.  An effective approach to managing a useful method for time structuring is not only helpful to a business leader, it is vital.  Managing time well is essential for success to become sustained.  This kind of respect to leadership can be daunting.  It is an art that requires a lot of good practice.  Time management.

Some of the things a business leader includes in the personal performance review are viewed routinely because they help that leader discover to see if the use of time is as efficient as is possible.  There are certain  components of leadership that are included in that kind of review.  For example, the business leader must review the art and science of studying the numbers.  This task must be part of a daily routine.  However, be very careful in creating too much art in this process.  The banking industry fell in love with derivatives.  Unfortunately, the process of shifting paper to chase that product actually produced nothing, with the exception of the friendly returns those derivatives offered when they performed well.  The bank had no direct control of how well those derivatives could perform.  The creation and movement of that paper did not produce anything new and of sustaining value.  The lack of useful productivity associated with the work involved could not measure up to the value that was being perceived and marketed.  Time worked its magical wonders and those efforts imploded to their real value, which was less than what was artfully being traded.  Be careful of injecting too much art into the management of your numbers.  Stick to knitting here.

Another component worth daily consideration is the review process the leader uses to evaluate the performance metrics of the human resources employed.  Business success is all about improving relationships.  The relationships with staff, customers, agencies, suppliers and every little pocket of connectivity comes front center to those business models who perform well, consistently.  Get the calendar of daily duties rubbed up next to this responsibility.  Those who strategically avoid this area of responsibility have a lot of internal challenges to deal with.  Trust me.  Those who avoid this area of work may become business leaders with the ability to perform well in most market place positions, but they will never be a part of a great growing company that can sustain incredible growth patterns.  It takes great relationships to do that kind of work.

One more component worth daily attention are the areas of product and distribution.  Set aside daily time chips to manage these business affairs.  There is nothing more important to business success than knowing what to produce, when to produce it and how to get it to where it wants to go.  This is fundamental.  Work on making sure this kind of fundamental becomes part of your daily management routine.

Now for the reason this post was written.  The one fundamental that cannot be placed on the reminder list of duties.  The one component to success that should never become a listed item on the time structure calendar.  The business task that cannot serve well to become something that is forgotten once in awhile.  Innovation.  Innovation is not a task, a component to success or a fundamental to be remembered once in awhile.  Innovation is a mental state of mind that is the driving character of who your business model becomes.  You are either innovative or you are not.  It cannot be added to your time structure calendar for Wednesday's and Friday's at 10:00 A.M. to be reviewed.  Innovation does not work well this way.

Unfortunately, I meet many business leaders who try to perform innovation in this fashion.  They actually have it structured into their weekly calendar like reviewing their e-mails first thing each day.  Innovation simply does not work well in this fashion.  It only works best when it becomes who you are.  Innovation should become as natural as flushing the toilet.  You should never need to remind yourself to do it.

Page two.

Innovation Is Not Magical.

Innovation is simply a mindset.  Your creative mind is always walking on the hunt to improve what it sees.  Your overall being should become predisposed toward innovation.  You should always walk your business with the bent toward finding new ways to do old things.  Revival should become your constant.  Satisfaction should not be tolerated.  Innovation is not the by-product of satisfaction.  It is the kick-out of dissatisfaction. Understand this difference.  This is exactly why innovation cannot pop into your head on Wednesday morning at 10:00 A.M. when you have it on your time structured calendar to be addressed.  It simply does not work this way.  Innovation is a continuum, a process and a way of living.  It cannot be well-managed like a light switch.

Regardless of your business strategies, innovation can serve higher needs that come hidden with every single business model.  Without an innovative mindset, those hidden values will never be discovered.  Business strategies may work well for a very long time, but better results are waiting behind the art of innovative introductions.  What's more, innovation does not always translate well.  Some believe it needs to be creatively unique with the look of genius.  Maybe not.

Let's look at a simple example.  One that required common sense instead of a monster piece of unbelievable high level creativity.  In an auto glass franchise I once helped to manage, they felt it would be good for me to go out with some of the windshield glass installers and see for myself how that work was being done.  I agreed with the thinking, scheduled to go out to learn what they do and enjoyed those experiences.  Many of those in that business model had been doing that kind of work for a couple of decades.

When that 'learning' project was finished the owner of the franchise organization met with me and asked for my opinion about what I learned.  I paused for a moment before answering.  Then I said this, "When you replace windshields do you always remove the windshield wipers on every install?"  He proudly said, "Yes."  Then I immediately asked, "Then why don't your sell windshield wipers in your company?  Would it not be good to get paid to take them off, at least once in awhile?"  You could hear a pin drop in that coffee shop where we were.  It is amazing how quiet learning can become.  Innovation is the art of living it, not a duty to once in awhile remember to do.

Innovation must take root in the life of the business leader.  It needs to become a relative constant.  Those who most actively pursue that kind of thinking are the same business leaders who discover the next best way to profit well.  It may not necessarily show up with some brand new, never discovered widget but it can help to rearrange how we do what we do in a way that provides a better set of useful outcomes.  That glass business owner turned over that project of introducing windshield wipers to his franchise business model using several of his trusted employees.  What once was nothing but work activities, had become over a quarter of a million in new profits for activities they had already been performing.  Innovation can work silently.  It does not need to be the introduction of a brand new widget.  It only needs to become a part of ones living.

Do not place on your calendar to be innovative tomorrow, for at least one hour.  Trust me.  Innovation does not work that way.  Start trusting you ideas.  Start developing a curious mind.  Start working on asking questions.  Start listening to how others think.  Get less protective about the things you discovered and already know.  Become more particular in how your business functions.  Become more particular in how you permit your mind to think.  Keep a trained eye on the things that need hidden improvements.  Someone you know has a better idea.  Work this kind of thought and living process into your leadership life.  Innovation will follow.

Business innovation is not a fundamental step.  It is a way of living.

Until next time...