Run For Your Life
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This is the story about a dog in the woods.
He told all the other animals that he could catch
any of them without any problem at all.
None of the animals, of course, believed him.
So, among themselves, they volunteered Mr. Rabbit
to see if Mr. Dog could live up to what he claimed
for himself.
Well, it was a mighty race.
The dog chased the rabbit.
Guess what. The dog does not catch the rabbit.
And, of course, after the race, all the other
animals in the woods were looking around and laughing
at the dog.
Finally the dog said to them all, "I gotta tell
ya.
I was running for the fun of it. That rabbit was
running for his life!"
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It's no longer good enough in American business today
to simply run with the pack. You have to be out front.
You can't just plod along, you have to fly past the
competition. You have to use your natural speed, agility
and -- most of all -- ingenuity.
Reflections On Ingenuity and Its Place in American
Business
Recently I was speaking before an audience comprised
primarily of Presidents, CEOs and owners of businesses.
I posed the question: "How many of you believe that
Innovation/Ingenuity is the key to survival and outsmarting
the competition." There was unanimous agreement. I then
asked, "How many have an execution plan in place that
serves as a catalyst to guarantee that ingenuity and
innovation are implemented at your company?" Unfortunately,
no one had a plan.
My challenge to all business leaders and entrepreneurs
is to develop a R.O.I. -- Return On Ingenuity -- Plan.
(A written plan. When it's in writing, you have a prayer.
When it's not, you have nothing but air!)
Secrets to Developing Innovative Ideas:
- It Starts With Oneself
- The Challenge Is To Get The Old Ideas Out, Before
Trying To Put New Ideas In
- Ideas Do Not Mean Anything Until They're Heard
- Great Ideas Need Landing Gear, As Well As Wings
(Making it happen is the tough part.)
- The Realization That Every Big Idea Was A Small
Idea Before It Became A Big Idea
- Big Ideas = Big Changes
- Look Under All The Rocks
- Avoid The Myth That If Anything Comes To You Easy
It Doesn't Count
- Never Fall In Love With An Idea
Turning On The Ingenuity Light
In Silicon Valley, where I live, a practice among
the more successful companies is to give their employees
one day off a month to work at their house, or in their
garden, or wherever...and just think. All communication
with the outside world is to be cut off: phones, faxes,
computers, etc. Their job becomes one of simple tasks,
and just thinking creatively. (As many of us are aware,
Einstein's breakthrough ideas often occurred while shaving.)
Another way to encourage creative thinking is to hold
employee meetings in unusual surroundings. San Francisco
companies have rented out art and car museums, taken
employees to zoos and other places, to stimulate and
inspire creative thinking. James J. Schiro, CEO of PricewaterhouseCooper,
routinely takes his executive staff to cooking classes
-- assigning them to appetizers, entrees and desserts.
It's a great way to develop team building and to get
a free meal!
Having interviewed over 300 Fortune 500 CEOs, one of
the major traits of leaders with ingenuity is they develop
a mindset of "Daring To Be Different." They realize
they either differentiate themselves, their companies
and products...or they disappear. As we know, in business,
most products and services have become commodities.
Everything is beginning to look the same, smell the
same, and taste the same. The solution, as the late
musician Jerry Garcia said: "You have to be considered
the only one who can do what you can do."
How Do You Make The "Daring To Be Different" Happen
- Realize that the impossible is often an opinion,
not a statement of fact.
- Put everything that you're currently doing on trial.
- Adopt the philosophy that there are no corporate
sacred cows.
- Challenge conventional wisdom and the status quo.
- Create a mindset that ignores "What is" for "What
could be."
Closing Thought
If one goes back and studies American business over
the past 100 years, the one core value which has been
the one constant for all successful companies is ingenuity.
It's a given that the future will belong to those companies
which continue to adopt ingenuity as their competitive
advantage.
Barry Wishner is a businessman,
entrepreneur and expert on Business Execution. A confidant
to corporate executives, Barry's keynote
presentations reveal insights into how America's
most-admired leaders get to the top and stay there.
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