If a business fails to generate new ideas, and new ways of doing things, it will stagnate.
There are some businesses, that are able to grow and prosper, by using a rigid nd never changing formula. Most companies, however, need some level of innovation to succeed.
I believe that creativity lowers a company's risk.
Risk is lessened because creativity is employed to solve an existing problem. If nothing is done to resolve the current difficulty, it will only get worse. Usually, it's better to brainstorm ideas and find solutions, than let the problem get worse through neglect.
When a good idea is found, the problem can be attacked.
That opinion is quite the opposite of what you will hear from many business executive suites. The holders of executive washroom keys, will view innovation and creativity as risky, and its supporters and preactioners a little on the flaky side.
I spent seven years in a company that had a set way of selling its advertising contracts. That specific system had been devised by the company owners well over a decade earlier. It was not to change. It's adherents would blindly praise the genius of the system.
I disagreed.
The company sales ideas were a disaster, in the Winnipeg office, when I was hired. They didn't get any better as the sales staff, of which I was a member, were required to use such absurd sales methods. Deviation was not permitted.
When the Manager was fired, I was promoted to take over the sinking ship.
I enjoyed the challenge. I also had some new ideas to put into place.
My office, when I was a Regional Sales and Marketing Manager, was the most profitable in the company. I was Corporate Manager of the Year in 1998. Out of my office rolled every useful new idea in the company. None were ever generated by the other Regional Managers. None were ever mentioned as being my creations.
They were often adopted, somewhat reluctantly, by the other offices around North America. They were accepted as innovations from the company President, who claimed them as his own. My contribution was not acknowledged.
The Manager of the Year Award was a result of my office sales numbers, that even my most vicious opponents couldn't deny. It was difficult for them to argue against the account balances. Believe me, in the internal company politics arena, my name was rarely mentioned in a positive light.
Some other managers, usually part of the Old Boys Network, even tried to get me fired. I always considered that to be a compliment.
Some of the funniest, if not the most frustrating events, would be to have my office phone ring from head office with some marvelous new idea. The idea would always be one that I had devised myself, usually a year earlier.
In fact, by the time one of my new methods worked its way through the company, I had already refined that concept several times. Sometimes I had replaced it entirely, with an even better technique.
I devised strategies to increase the marketing and sales reach of my region. We moved sales levels higher than those enjoyed by offices based in larger centres.
Based in the small city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, my region from the Great Lakes to the Rockies, was technically the smallest population. I made it into the largest ,by opening up additional new untapped sales areas, throughout North America.
I altered the performance incentives to sales staff. The changes resulted in much higher morale among the personnel, and far stronger sales results.
New marketing strategies and improved human resource management were unheard of in the company. My staff was easily the best, and the most loyal in the entire company. I had visited other offices and in Canada and the United States. I was rarely impressed with what I saw.
As with all of my innovations, I simply implemented a small pilot project first. If it was successful, I would make it a full scale operation. If it didn't work out as planned, the amount of money spent was minimal, and almost always covered by the limited sales generated.
In that case, creativity helped the company and its profits. Without my new ideas, the office sales would have returned to the moribund levels it endured, before I took it over.
I used creativity and new ideas to build the region's sales to the most profitable in the company.
