Small-to-Medium Sized Businesses Embrace Innovation

PR Log (Press Release) – Sep 17, 2008 – Business writers have created a cottage industry out of the recent buzz around innovation.  Huge examples of innovative success, like Apple and Google, has Global 2000 companies playing catch-up to transform their corporate culture into a breeding ground for innovative thinkers.  Dozens of boring books and laborious academic studies later, it seems that the billion-dollar corporations are finally recognizing that the role models for business innovation have been underfoot all this time.
Small businesses could never buy market share or launch products with million dollar ad budgets.  The entrepreneurs that start-up with nothing but a new-fangled idea and a shoestring budget are the epitome of innovation.  ActionCOACH founder and CEO Brad Sugars, the author of several books that focus on small-to-medium sized businesses, has a knowing smile when asked about the current hoopla surrounding innovation.
“It’s as if we have been floating in a sea of innovation all our lives, and suddenly these writers are asking if we’ve noticed all the water,” Sugars said.  “When I started ActionCOACH in 1993, business coaching was an innovative concept.  More than 1,000 ActionCOACH Business Coaches are now in our network – each uses innovative strategies and marketing initiatives to grow his or her practice.  And what is that practice?  We bring new ideas and a fresh perspective (sounds like innovation, doesn’t it?) to solve business problems and re-energize business owners.  Many of our clients – we focus on Tier 2 and 3 companies – have similar histories of innovation.  Businesses, like innovation, usually start small and grow.”
Sugars does not disagree on the value of innovation and the necessity for businesses, even small-to-medium sized businesses, to recruit and encourage innovation.  He merely states that it is not a new idea.  To assist business owners build an innovative workforce, he suggests recruiters look for these character traits in job candidates:
IMAGINATIVE
Employees should be forward thinking and open to new ideas.  Look for curious people who imagine and pursue possibilities.  

RISK TAKERS
Innovative thinkers embrace risk, yet also recognize the risk of failure.  

CRITICAL THINKERS
Competent innovators exhibit critical thinking skills.  They see all sides of an issue.

RESILIENT  
Being innovate can be scary – projects are going to fail.  Resilient employees will be able to accept defeat and move forward.

DISCIPLINED
Adversity and frustration are inherent in new initiatives.  Employees must exercise self-discipline to remain focused on project goals.  
 
PEOPLE SKILLS
Innovation needs to be consistently communicated to effect change.  Innovative employees will have excellent interpersonal skills.  

COLLABORATE
Innovators work well in teams.  They accept the continuous, spontaneous collaboration process that is necessary to leverage collective mind power.  

HANDLE COMPLEXITY
Executing of innovative initiatives is rarely easy.  The complexity of new ideas can overwhelm most employees, but the innovative mind can think through the complexity.

SPEED AND ENERGY
The fast pace of dynamic markets requires high-energy innovators who think quickly.

While there have always been examples of small-to-medium sized businesses that have succeeded through innovation, it is more critical in today’s fast-paced business climate that companies instill an innovative culture.  According to Sugars selecting employees that exhibit innovative thinking supports that goal.


About ActionCOACH

ActionCOACH is the world’s number one business coaching firm, with more than 1,000 offices in 26 countries.  To learn more about business coaching and ActionCOACH, go to actioncoach.com.