Why You Should Be Obsessed With Innovation

By The Business Solutions Network

Success is temporary. There are a whole lot of companies that were once dominant and are now faded memories. That was the gist of Josh Linkner’s opening message of at IT Nation 2014, held last week in Orlando. Linkner is a former VAR, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and author who emphasizes reinvention. While on stage during his keynote, he urged the audience to take on the role of disruptor by innovating. To empower the audience, he shared five common best practices of innovators that he uncovered while researching his most recent book.

5 Obsessions Of IT Innovators

1. They Encourage Courage — According to Linkner, innovators understand that fear blocks creativity. Therefore, they create a corporate culture that celebrates new ideas without judgement. “Get curious,” he urges. “Ask questions like ‘Why?,’ ‘What if?,’ and ‘Why Not?’” He gave an example of one company that gives a yearly “failure of the year” award to celebrate ideas that didn’t work out. Another gives each employee two “get out of jail free” cards used when ideas fail. It’s expected that each employee will use their cards. ConnectWise’s CEO Arnie Belinni shared that his company makes allowances for bad ideas just like it does for bad debt.
    
2. They Shed The Past — Linkner is from Detroit and has seen the city fall from its position as an economic powerhouse. Today, Linkner and other entrepreneurs are working to re-establish Detroit as a viable place to do business. Similarly, many companies are in need of rebirth. Unfortunately, it’s common for ownership, leadership, and employees to cling to the past. According to Linkner, progress comes not from clinging to the past, but shedding it.
    
3. They Defy Tradition — Linkner's advice here is to defy tradition, instead of saluting it. He gave great examples of companies and innovators that threw imagination at problems and are reaping the rewards. For example, Kululu Air, a South African budget airline with a big sense of humor. In a market full of stiff competition, the airline stands out with above average customer service while not taking itself too seriously. Linkner also shared a touching video that shows how a window washing company and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC teamed up to turn the mundane task of cleaning the hospital’s windows into a unique and spirit-lifting event.
   
    
4. They Get Scrappy — Imagine MacGyver, the television hero known for solving problems using the scarce resources around him. Innovators, use whatever they can to drive progress. Often, progress comes from very small things. Indeed, fewer resources can actually drive innovation. Take, for instance, a marketing campaign by DHL. Faced with huge competitors like UPS and Fed-Ex, how could the smaller (but faster) DHL compete? Check out the following video that went viral and became one of DHL’s most successful marketing campaigns.
   
    
5. They Push Boundaries — Linkner shared that investors look for a 10x advantage before investing their money. His innovation challenge to everyone in the room was to take a week and find one thing (perhaps very small) that they could change in their company or product/service offering to give a 10x advantage over the competition.

The risk of not innovating is scary. Futurists get paid big money to figure out where we’re heading. You’re smart. You know how things are going with technology. Ask yourself what they future looks like. Will there be more cloud apps or fewer? Will mobility increase or decrease? What hardware will people be using? What can you offer and provide now and going forward to reinvent your company for the future?