Image from a Shreddies campaign in 2008

When I ask business owners and managers about innovation, many of them talk about ideas they have percolating but they have never pursued.

They’re too busy fighting front-burner issues to think about anything new. But if innovation is going to be a source of new products and revenues, I have three words for you, from one of the world’s most innovative companies: Just Do It.

t’s as simple as that. Innovation is about bringing ideas to market rather than letting them languish on a half-forgotten scratchpad. And innovation doesn’t necessarily mean invention. More often, it’s about acting on an opportunity you have already recognized, or adapting existing solutions for other markets or industries.

How simple can innovation be? Consider these examples:

Seeing the same thing in a different way

Think of the publicity coup for Post’s Shreddies – and its 18-point gain in market share – when it reintroduced the timeless breakfast cereal in diamond shapes rather than squares.

Exploring new markets with the same products (or slightly adapted features)

Toy giant Lego has launched a Lego Friends brand to target girls in addition to its dominating “boy brands” such as Star Wars Lego and Lego Ninjago.

Tapping into (or teaming up with) new market trends

Hyundai now provides a multimedia tablet as an owner’s manual instead of the traditional printed book.

Bringing together features from existing products or markets to create something “new”

The maker of SLAP Watch offers a unique twist on silicone watches with interchangeable faces, bright colours, and spring-coil bracelet – all in one item.

Innovation is the engine that drives your business forward. Think about it: customers are engaged by new and exciting products and services. It gives them something to talk about, a reason to buy again, and more often.

You wouldn’t change the oil in your car just once a year – the engine would sputter and die. Your company shouldn’t leave ideation, innovation or the introduction of new – even small – improvements to an annual schedule. Without the tune-up of continuing innovation, your business will also sputter and die.

You should make 2012 the year that innovation becomes a continuous, front-burner activity, just like sales and marketing.

How do you take the first step in your business? Set aside a 15-minute slot in your weekly sales and marketing meeting. Ask everyone at the table to talk about one interesting innovation they have seen in your industry, or better yet, an industry far from your own. Discuss which examples are most applicable to your business, then charge a person or team to flesh those ideas out. Monitor their progress monthly in the same team meetings. Success breeds success, and feedback and inclusivity are its lifeblood.

Winning through innovation doesn’t have to be scary, painful or expensive. Business owners and managers can do it step by step. Start by creating an environment in which employees, trusted partners and even customers offer great new product and service ideas. The active ingredient in “win-novation” is simply creating a process to examine those ideas and pursue the best of them.

The cost is low, the potential sky-high. It’s better to implement a number of smaller innovations than to have big ideas and do nothing with them.

by Ken Tencer
Originally published as a Special to Globe and Mail Update, Wednesday, Dec. 07, 2011

With Dyson’s new bladeless fans, generation of kids will be denied the chance to stick pencils through screens to see what happens when they touch fast-spinning blades.

For any other reason, you have to love the British-based company because its innovations are so obvious yet so breakthrough.

• Safe, bladeless fans that move air without all the rumbling and rattling.
• Technology patterned after jet engines.
• Dual-cyclonic vacuums that suck up more dirt, more efficiently.
• Airport hand driers that actually work.

Why were these products not developed sooner? Did no other company listen to generations of frustrated consumers? Or were the former market leaders simply too afraid to cannibalize existing products and markets by introducing something truly innovative?

Dyson’s success is a lesson to all business leaders: Don’t be afraid to make yourself obsolete, or someone else will do it for you.

For most companies that’s easier said than done. I used these words while co-chairing a recent innovation conference in New York City, and I heard the groans from the audience.

I have heard their thoughts out loud too often:

• “We are the market leaders. We are too big to fail.”
• “Our technology dominates the market, no need to worry,” said the buggy-whip maker to his horse.

Too many great companies have disappeared because they resisted change instead of embracing it. We may now be watching the demise of yet another giant, in photography company Eastman Kodak Co. The incredible thing is that Kodak actually saw and invented a future when digital photography would replace film. But somehow it managed to resist it. As analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank told The New York Times: “The big story here is that their core business — the yellow box business — got cannibalized by the digital camera, which ironically they invented.”

The “good news” for investors is that Kodak is now soundly and strategically focused on digital-printing technology (in an increasingly paperless world?). I don’t mean to pick on Kodak, as it is not the first company to resist change, and it won’t be the last.

So where do we turn to find an example of an industry successfully making itself obsolete? Look at autos. Car makers recognized it was only a matter of time before the traditional combustion engine model gave way to newer, cleaner technology. So over the past decade they have gradually introduced us to the future, in the form of clean diesel, hybrid and now fully electric engines.

Each of these introductions started small, with expensive pioneering products sold to early adopters. This is how the industry developed its ability to introduce alternative technology, test demand, optimize production, and manage the transition. Today auto makers have a clear understanding of their market and possess the production capacity to ramp up a full-scale transition – fully cannibalizing the old combustion technology – without endangering their revenues.

The car industry didn’t just stay ahead of the curve – it created and managed the curve. If more of Dyson’s vacuum-cleaner competitors had shared that kind of vision, they wouldn’t be sucking air.

Many people confuse the words innovator and inventor; they can be synonymous, but they don’t have to be. Some of the world’s most successful and well known innovators aren’t inventors at all; they are masters of the art of taking an idea or concept and making it better. Often, they are able to make good ideas into the best ideas of all time.

Take Steve Jobs, for example. Famous author, Malcom Gladwell, has dubbed him, “The Tweaker” in a recent article he wrote for The New Yorker. Jobs was a masterful innovator because he was able to take the ideas of others and turn them into winning products and concepts. For example, Jobs got the ideas for the main characteristics of the MacIntosh operating system from Xerox PARC, stemming from a famous visit there in 1979. The revolutionary iPad evolved from an engineer at Microsoft’s idea for a tablet computer. His idea made use of a stylus – an old idea that wasn’t revolutionary enough for Jobs. He did away with the stylus and the iPad made history as one of the most coveted devices of its era.

The moral to this innovation story? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to become an epic success.

Once every quarter, I receive a beautiful invitation from my company’s law firm to attend a seminar to learn some important new fact about changes in the law. I never go.

Once every quarter, I receive a beautiful invitation from my accounting firm to learn something new about sales, marketing or motivation. I almost never miss it.

I applaud both firms’ efforts to engage their clients, but in this world of information overload, it’s more important than ever to engage in meaningful conversation with your customers. Service providers add value by enhancing the customer’s skill-set, not by telling them how they’ve improved their own.

Innovation isn’t about what interests you; it’s about what fascinates your customers.

With Dyson’s new bladeless fans, generation of kids will be denied the chance to stick pencils through the screen of the household fan to see what happens when they touch the spinning blades. Otherwise, you have to love U.K.-based Dyson, because its innovations are so obvious, yet so breakthrough: safe, bladeless fans that move air without the rumbling and rattling, using technology patterned after jet engines; dual-cyclonic vacuums that suck up more dirt, more efficiently; and airport hand driers that really work.

Why were these products not developed sooner? Did no other company listen to generations of frustrated consumers? Or were the former market leaders simply too afraid to cannibalize existing products and markets by introducing something truly innovative?

Dyson’s success is a lesson. Don’t be afraid to make yourself obsolete, or someone else will do it for you.

Some people are easy to avoid hiring because they give glaring hints that they’re unprofessional by doing things like treating your receptionist rudely or showing up an hour late to the interview.

But many experienced entrepreneurs find that there are other folks, who, while polished, can eventually undermine a company culture. Some of these folks provide subtle signs that many bosses miss during the interview process. Others may essentially be good employees, but react poorly to changing circumstances at a company.

Here are five types of employees that can undermine your company—and what you can do to stop them.

1. The entitled crowd

These employees expect the company to function in a paternalistic way, taking care of their every need. They expect constant ego boosts, 9-to-5 hand-holding and compensation that far exceeds their contributions. Sometimes, they may just be inexperienced workers who lack the maturity to realize that a promotion isn’t due to them within three weeks of starting work (or at all if they don’t earn it)—and you may be able to help them adjust their expectations. But mid level folks and above who show these tendencies could be harder to reform.

Amy L. Crawford, owner of Crawford Consulting Group, an HR advisory firm in Davie, Fla., recalls the situation of one mid-career employee she encountered. This worker expected her employer to pay her for a day when she couldn’t make it to work because of a flight delay on a personal trip.

The constant demands of entitled employees can wear you out. If you want to avoid hiring the entitled type, ask interviewees questions about how they handled past work situations where they were given little direction, says Crawford. Those whose answers suggest a lack of resourcefulness may not be able to function well in an entrepreneurial company that can’t provide them with round-the-clock support and nurturing.

2. The finger pointers

In these employees’ minds, it’s always someone else’s fault when things go awry. There are no gray areas, in which they, too, may have had partial responsibility for a problem. As a result, it will be hard for you, as a boss, to get them to get involved in preventing a snafu from happening again.

To sniff these folks out, ask prospective hires to tell you about a time when they had a conflict with another coworker and how they resolved it, advises Crawford. An interviewee who tells a story about a conflict with another employee “who always did things wrong” may be prone to blaming others.

3. The double-talkers

Simply passing a criminal background check doesn’t mean someone is honest. David Cohen, an owner of Cyril’s Bakery, a supplier of frozen bakery products to the food service and retail industries, recalls an employee who went to such lengths to cover up mistakes that he constantly told “lies on top of lies”–creating endless confusion and stress.

One way to spot folks who are less than forthright is to speak directly with an interviewee’s past bosses, rather than a hand-picked list of references, to confirm that the information on their resumes has not been distorted, says Crawford, who has advised Cyril’s Bakery. Another strategy: During job interviews, ask several questions about how applicants have handled or would handle particular situations likely to come up in your business—and pay attention to whether they answer in an inconsistent way.

Some companies find it helpful to use personality tests such as the ProfileXT assessment or the DiSC Personality Test to get a better picture of interviewees, Crawford says.

4. The change resisters

If normally supportive employees are resisting innovation at your company or seem to be privately convening behind closed doors to gripe, it may indicate that they are worried about what’s ahead. You may need to improve the flow of communication with them to put to rest any fears they have about what a change means for them in order to put the behavior to rest.

“There’s a fear factor whenever we try something new, whenever there’s change in a company and change in a position,” says entrepreneur Ken Tencer, co-author of The 90% Rule and CEO of Spyderworks, a branding and innovation firm in Toronto and New York. “Oftentimes, owners can overlook that.”

You can help your team get back on track by talking openly with employees and providing any training they need to adapt to the changes taking place, he says.

Tencer adds, “As entrepreneurs, we take a lot of risk and have our own fear factors.” It’s essential to realize that your employees may have similar ones when encountering new situations, he says.

5. The boss who can’t let go

You probably don’t want to hear that you may be your company’s own worst enemy. But if your company has grown rapidly, you may lack the skills you need to run it now. If your investors are signaling that you need to step into a different role and bring in an experienced CEO to run the place, listen carefully to what they’re saying.

“I think that’s pretty hard,” says Tencer. Your investors may not be right, but if it turns out they are—and you continue to hang on to your role—you may prevent yourself from harvesting the full value of your business when it’s time to cash out.

Elaine Pofeldt is an independent journalist specializing in entrepreneurship whose work has appeared in TheAtlantic.com, BNET, Crain’s New York Business, CBS Moneywatch, Good Housekeeping, Inc., Working Mother and many other publications. A former senior editor of Fortune Small Business magazine and editor of its website, she does editorial consulting for online and print publications.

Research in Motion is takings its lumps these days, but I am impressed by RiM’s new 9900 series BlackBerry. Since fully touch-screen phones came out, I have resisted. I am not a short-form, emoticon kind of guy, and I never felt touch-screen phones were conducive to the long-form e-mails that occupy my day.

I always hoped somebody would combine a sturdy keypad with touch-screen navigation. Well, BlackBerry’s done it. Who knows, if the financial pundits would only leave them to their innovating ways, we might see more of the ground-breaking innovation that took RiM to the top for so long.

As tough as it may be, every company needs to block out the noise and keep a focused eye on new and relevant product introductions. Always.

In this RSAnimate, renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how our ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society. The video was taken from a lecture given by Iain McGilchrist as part of the RSA’s free public events programme.

McGilchrist explains that our pre-conceived notions about left brain and right brain thinking are not entirely accurate. You need both the left brain and the right brain for both rational thinking and creative thinking.

How does this relate to innovation? Traditionally we have encouraged left brain thinking. That is, de-contextualized, general in nature, fixed, isolated, static and lifeless thinking. This type of thinking does not evolve or become greater than it is. In business, this means that we get trapped in a sort of ‘hall of mirrors’, to borrow McGilchrist’s metaphor, where we continuously learn more about what we already know and don’t adopt any new thinking. Essentially, if we only embrace this type of thinking, we become trapped and can’t innovate or move forward.

The right brain, says McGilchrist, is responsible for individual, changing, evolutionary, interconnectivity, implicit, incarnate, abstract and living thinking. This type of thought is what allows us to evolve, to innovate and to be true entrepreneurs. More credence needs to be given to right brain type thinking in order to move forward in business.

But don’t just take my word for it – watch the video.

So, I Googled the phrase “selling non-core assets” and you can see the results! Clearly, business leaders are hungry for information on how to offload underperforming assets and get back to growth from the core.

These search statistics confirm my inspiration for co-authoring The 90% Rule: What’s Your Next Big Opportunity – a book about growing through innovation in adjacent markets that you already know and understand.  The initial inspiration for the book was the constant flow of stories about companies selling their non-core assets.

The question remains, why do companies buy assets that aren’t essential? Are they so flush with cash, or do they just not understand their customers’ needs and desires?

Next time you are mulling a strategic investment, consider instead refocusing on your business’s core competencies. Build your company in logical next-steps. Oprah did fine by focusing an empire on self-improvement.  Disney succeeded with his fun, family- entertainment focus. And I don’t expect Apple to happen into the hamburger business.

“Selling non-core assets” is a Google search in which you don’t want your company to appear.

Leaving a meeting the other day in Toronto, I found myself walking past a Dove Spa – one of a growing chain of spas designed by the makers of Dove soap and beauty products.  I am not the target user, but I was impressed. I was impressed by the clean, minimalist form and function of the design. But I was even more impressed by the focus with which Dove has recreated the brand’s innovation strategy in business form.

As Dove says on its Web site, “At Dove Spa our philosophy is simple – we want to make women feel more beautiful every day by inspiring them to take great care of themselves.” This is yet another extension of Dove’s award-winning focus on “real beauty.” This commitment to “real beauty” from the original “beauty bar” (Dove has always positioned itself as more than a maker of soap) is continually opening doors for one of the world’s biggest and most elastic brands.

Is your company in the business of making soap, or selling beauty? Don’t focus on what you make, but how you change customers’ lives. Do you sell hotel rooms or help people book dream nights? The choice is yours.

If your business’ definition is too narrow, what can your growth prospects be?