Innovation: The Path to Greater Profits - Part 4

By Ted Garrison

In the first three parts of this article, it was explained why innovation is so important to a company's success and the first four of the 12 critical traits of a successful innovative company were explored. This part explores the fifth and sixth traits of the successful innovative company.

5) Provide your entrepreneurial people with a measure of autonomy:

If you want innovation to thrive within your company then you need to realize that an entrepreneurial spirit is one of the keys. In fact, by giving your more entrepreneurial people greater autonomy you will encourage their creativity.

Entrepreneurial individuals enjoy doing different things and when these people are positioned close to the customer - remember trait #1 - then they are in the best position to take advantage of opportunities. Often, the best people to do this are those such as your project managers. But to make this process the most effective they need to be able to take advantages of opportunities when they occur.

There are many relatively inexpensive innovative actions that can be taken to increase value and these employees must be able to implement them immediately or the opportunity may be lost. Of course, larger and more expensive options should be coordinated at higher levels within the organization - but even then let your "entrepreneurs" work out the details. Senior management should only approve the concept and not get involved in the micromanagement of the process.

Further, when you create this kind of environment you will attract the best people. A few years ago, the Beck Group of Dallas was listed in Fortune Magazine's top 100 companies to work for. They asked a project manager why do you like working at Beck? He responded, "Because they let us run our projects like we are the CEO of the project." This story illustrates that entrepreneurial freedom not only adds value to the external customer, but it also adds value to your internal customers - your employees.

6) Charge people with the responsibility for anticipating change:

This trait is closely related to the previous item. The reason is simple: innovation is how we respond to change. Therefore, we must get people to anticipate change as part of their responsibility. Obviously, in this area of performance it can be difficult to measure. No one expects your people to have a crystal ball and be able to predict the future - however, your people must avoid sticking their heads in the sand.

The attitude, "We were following procedure, so it's not our fault," must be killed. But many potential problems can be identified before they actually occur. When this occurs it gives your organization time to develop contingency plans or take actions to offset the impact. For example, as the economic conditions continue to improve, it will become increasingly difficult to find and hire new employees. You don't want to wait until you absolutely need to hire someone to learn there is no one left to hire.

A few questions your employees should constantly be asking each other are:

• What are the biggest challenges our company is facing (or will face) in the near future?
• What are the biggest challenges our prospects and clients are facing (or will face) in the near future?
• Why is our company facing these challenges?
• Why are our prospects or clients facing these challenges?
• What are the most promising unexploited opportunities for growth of our company?
• What are the most promising unexploited opportunities for growth by our prospects and customers where we can help?
• What would need to happen for our company to exploit the potential of these opportunities?
• What could we do to help our prospects and customers exploit the opportunities facing them?

While some people might wonder why we are worried about our prospect's and customer's problems, the answer is simple: that is the best way to differentiate your business and build strong relationships. In today's competitive environment, companies must focus on making their customers successful -because that is the essence of innovation.

In Part 5 of this article in the next issue of Southeast Construction the traits that will be discussed will include making planning an exercise in creativity rather than simple forecasting and why not to wait for the perfect opportunity.

Ted Garrison, president of Garrison Associates, is a consultant, author and speaker who works with businesses in the construction industry. He can be reached by email at Growing@TedGarrison.com.