Maynard Brusman

Innovation for Turbulent Times

One of my CEO leadership coaching clients is a visionary thinker. In this difficult economic environment, his senior leadership team needed to be more innovative to stay ahead of the competition. Company leaders needed to change the culture of the company to help all employees embrace change and implement disruptive innovations.

The CEO is knows that great things can happen when they change the game. He is fully engaging his people and positioning his company to thrive in the economic recovery.

Disruptive Innovations

Instead of trying to best their competitors, disruptors change the game. They typically transform existing markets or create new ones by focusing on convenience, simplicity, accessibility or affordability.

Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, describes disruptive innovation as a corporate effort to redefine quality, adopt new technologies and anticipate customers’ future needs. Subsequent research has identified more than 200 disruptive developments over the last 50 years, across a range of industries.

Some disruptions reshape existing markets:
• Discount retailing (Wal-Mart)
• Low-cost automobiles (Toyota)
• Steel mini-mills (Nucor)
• Digital music (Apple)
Other disruptions create entirely new markets:
• Personal computers (Apple, IBM)
• Online advertising (Google)
• Online auctions (eBay)

You would think recessionary times would be particularly hard on up-and-coming disruptive companies that haven’t yet broken into the mainstream. Logic dictates that when consumers are closing their wallets, unfamiliar newcomers pay the steepest price.

But history suggests otherwise. The innovation research company Innosight analyzed how up-and-coming disruptors (those with revenues of less than $1 billion) performed in the face of the last three U.S. economic downturns (as dated by the National Bureau of Economic Research to cover 1980–1982, 1990 and 2001).

In 1979, 11 companies, including Intel, Home Depot, Nucor and Southwest Airlines, fit these criteria. Their revenue grew at a compound annual rate of 22 percent between 1979 and 1982.

Between 1989 and 1991, the sample of 11 up-and-coming disruptors, which included Best Buy, Cisco and Charles Schwab, grew revenues by 33 percent.

The pattern continued in the 2001 downturn. Between 2000 and 2002, 23 up-and-coming disruptors like Google, Amazon.com and Research In Motion (maker of the BlackBerry product line) grew revenues by 32 percent.

The sample is heavily biased, but the directional results are interesting. If you work for an operating company that is debating whether to postpone innovation efforts until better times arrive, be cautious. You may miss powerful growth opportunities. Furthermore, by waiting, you create space for competitors to step in with novel advantages in tomorrow’s growth markets.

Are you working in a company or law firm where leadership is focusing on innovation and new growth opportunities? Does your company or law firm provide leadership coaching and leadership development to help leaders become more innovative? Leaders need to model innovative thinking for employees to embrace innovation.

One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is “Do I lead by creating innovative solutions to problems?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching and leadership development for leaders who want to help their organizations become more innovative and discover new markets.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you create an organization that engages its people to embrace innovation. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become fully engaged with the vision and mission of your company or law firm.

I am currently accepting new executive coaching and career coaching clients. I work with both individuals and organizations. Call 415-546-1252 or send an inquiry e-mail to mbrusman@workingresources.com.