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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