You've fine-tuned your processes, extracted every drop of cost from the system, and are meeting basic customer needs. In the previous era of business, strict managerial controls may have been enough, but today running a tight ship is table stakes. If we're honest with ourselves, business as usual likely poses an existential threat – sooner than we may think, as the pace of change continues to accelerate.
Relying on a current product, market, cost, or distribution advantage is also a fool's bet. As competitors level up, your current foothold could soon be tomorrow's commodity. If we're not pushing our creative boundaries as standard practice, we run the risk of ceding competitive advantage and losing ground.
The one way to lock in sustainable competitive advantage is to cultivate company-wide innovation. If you have 11,000 employees, you have 11,000 innovators if you create a structure that supports their imagination. The same size team with only six senior leaders given permission to deploy creativity could be a fast sinking ship.
While every innovative culture has their own unique nuances, there are a few common beliefs that are mission critical to building a culture of innovation:
As leaders, we have a choice. If we stomp out divergent thinking and maximize today's profits, we seal our fate that our best days are already behind us. Or we prioritize the building, nurturing, and growing of an innovation culture. When we remove fear and liberate the creative minds of every person on the team, we become unstoppable.
The post Why a Culture of Innovation is the Only Path to Sustainable Growth and Success appeared first on Josh Linkner.