Disruption, Innovation & Simply Listening

Can innovation be sitting under your nose?

For March 2017 Inc. magazine ran a cover that boasted the headline “Disruptors in Residence” wherein the feature article entitled “Inside Job” discussed how many of the biggest brand names around the world are buying startups and collaborating with those entrepreneurial owner bases to innovate. In short the larger and less agile business is learning from the smaller and more culturally connected entity that they have brought under their umbrella of companies. The more agile entrepreneurial leaders are enabled to continue to run within the framework of the parent organization while gaining access to systems that make their business scale-able. In essence it is a win-win as the two organizations merge. Many companies may not be in a position to purchase another organization to usher in a breath of fresh air, but many organizations don’t need to go to these extremes as they may find that they have this connection to the culture, this spirit of innovation and these fresh perspectives all working within their own organization. Large companies will spend millions on consultants, seminars and even acquisitions in search of what Inc. article author Kimberly Weisul describes as, “Inspiration, innovation and startup verve,” yet they fail to source what they already often have internally. If there are no voices offering ideas that could change and improve the organization, it’s not likely that there are no ideas rather the team has determined that the leadership does not listen. If the voices that used to share ideas have gone silent, it may not be that they are out of ideas but rather they are tired of being ignored. Before you close the files on the case of whether employees care or not, perhaps you should investigate whether they are asking the same thing about you (read more on Open Door Policies HERE) and look for our video Listen on Youtube covering this issue. 

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