Surviving in the Corporate Jungle: Innovation Marks the Crown of the Lion

Attention, small business owners, professional managers, and corporate execs! There is one good reason to recruit and reward (with money) employees for their creativity. It might keep your doors open in this doggy-dog world.

Read on to find out why it is hugely essential that your company recognizes innovation as a recipe for continued survival. How do you keep the lions, tigers, and bears at bay? Your business is always in danger of getting eaten because there are predators out there that persevere in doing things better.

In "Weird Ideas That Work - 11½ Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation," Robert I. Sutton shares this idea:

"To innovate, companies must do things that clash with accepted management practices, with common but misguided beliefs about the right way to manage any kind of work."

One powerful illustration of this concept is that the Internet has revolutionized the way that companies transact their business. Although E-business is not the focus of this discussion, it provides a powerful lesson. Companies that formerly focused on supply-chain management, labor issues, and other operational concerns now find it necessary to staff entire IT departments with people who can keep their website and other automated operations on the cutting edge.

Managers and business owners have to challenge themselves to think outside of the proverbial box. One way is to search for employees that have a Wolf sign on their forehead. They are angry, hungry, defiant innovators.

Another way is to challenge current employees to step up to the plate with new ideas. Challenge your employees to make it into the company record book (or wall of fame) by scoring the most homeruns. Award one homerun for each great idea.

Hundreds of other ideas abound about what leaders of companies can do to get employees to create new ideas. If you aren't convinced, try Googling the term innovation.

Here are three more strategies for linking innovation to the main goals of the organization:

1. Innovation or Bust! It is hard to state more clearly how this goal has to be communicated to all employees. It should be communicated when they are hired and regularly throughout their employment. The message should be so powerful that your customers recognize your company as a hallmark of innovation.

2. Offer a Mandatory Training on Innovation. The next staff meeting, seminar, or retreat should focus at least in part on innovation. Be sure that the training extends to all employees, including managers and line workers. Don't forget the maintenance staff and the cafeteria workers. They provide great ideas too!

3. Make a Plan. If you don't have a plan for rewarding innovation, then get off your duff and start writing one. If you work for a large company, recruit other wordsmiths and marketing types to transform the plan into a marketing campaign. When it is polished and powerful, you can launch the campaign to all of the staff.

Business is a do-or-die environment in the twenty-first century. If you can't expect and receive innovation on a regular basis from your staff, there is a good chance that the company will fail. At a minimum, the company will miss out on some great opportunities to increase profits.

Innovation is a great way to survive in the jungle!