Innovation and entrepreneurship drive the U.S. economy. Businesses rise and fall on their ability to adapt to market forces through innovation. Innovation drives top line revenue growth.
“As a nation we have tended to periodically forget the crucial role of entrepreneurs in our economic success,” argues Carl Shramm president of the Kauffman Foundation. The public focuses on the fate of General Motors Corp., but all net new job growth will come from the new companies like Google and Federal Express, which have been innovative game changers.
You already know it’s just a matter of time before the products or services your company offers will face competitive forces that will likely make them obsolete. The great economist Peter Shumpeter called this “creative destruction.” Like it or not, we are all children of Schumpeter.
So, how can your company stay ahead of the curve? This can be very challenging, because most often people on management teams keep their jobs by doing what they do best: “business as usual.”
A recent Nielsen study found that simply being physically near corporate headquarters can stifle new idea generation.
So how do you drive innovation and overcome the natural corporate resistance to change?
That same Nielsen study revealed that companies with successful track records go to great lengths to ensure a creative environment with the right behaviors and policies to promote innovation. When they execute well, they find the best ideas rise to the surface and drive new revenues.
This column will focus on sharing with you tools and practices that can help you drive innovation. My investment network SEI capitalizes new companies that offer new technology and new services. How do these startup companies do it?
For example, local entrepreneur Kelly Fitzsimmons founded a software company two years ago that is now one the leading companies that develops smart, easy-to-use business applications. Its marquee application, Voice Screener, lets busy human resources professionals use their phone and a simple dashboard to create and distribute custom, preferred voice interviews.
The application was introduced in March of 2009 and already has brought in 30 new clients including Sapphire, a division of Ranstad, one of the world’s largest staffing and recruiting firms, and Reliant Healthcare.
Our SEI investors helped her raise more than $2 million in angel capital because we were impressed with the unique innovation she offered. With all of the software companies in Silicon Valley, no company had developed this application.
You may not be the next Google, but I can assure you that if you implement the recommendations this column will suggest, you will drive innovation and create new products or services for your company.
So let’s call this tool No. 1. Assign someone on your team to scan at least two websites that are dedicated to driving creativity and innovation. Ensure they share some of those insights with your management team and set aside time at your weekly or monthly meetings to discuss new ideas.
Check out these two websites: www.debonogroup.com and www.hypeinnovation.com.
The long-term goal of this column is to incorporate the tools of creativity into the culture of your company. This will help avoid having to react in a crisis mode to changing market conditions. This increases the chances that your company will stay ahead of the curve.
Editor’s note: Dan Steininger is the co-founder of the Successful Entrepreneur Investors (SEI) angel network and Biz Starts Milwaukee Inc. This is the debut of a new BizTimes Milwaukee column devoted to corporate innovation.
