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John P. Kotter

Most executives who attempt a change of any significance today seem to struggle, no matter if the shift is strategic, organizational, or operational. They make a predictable set of mistakes starting, quite literally, with step 1: creating a sufficient sense of urgency. The predictable mistakes slow things down, increase costs, create frustration and fingerpointing, and ultimately stop them from achieving the ambitious goals all great leaders have.

But—there is a process for creating and executing new initiatives, or ambitious goals, or a turn-around, a process that has been shown to work remarkably well. It’s basically eight steps, and it does not require a rocket scientist to learn it. All managers, and as many employees as possible, need to learn and use the steps to change efficiently, quickly, intelligently, with the right vision, and with a minimum of wasted resources and frustration. Increasingly, this knowledge is not an asset, it’s a requirement.

The process, most of all, requires more leadership from as many people as possible, starting at the top. Executives need alignment around a clear vision, need to get their people to understand and truly buy into that vision, and need to create conditions that energize employees to achieve ambitious goals no matter the obstacles. It’s critical that executives see this and get the help needed to make this happen.

Most organizations have very few people providing good leadership. Leadership is missing all the way from the executive committee to task forces filled with junior employees. Leadership is missing because people mistake management for leadership (they are different, both important but clearly different). It’s missing because people think leadership is not their job (they believe it’s their bosses’ job or the CEO’s job). It’s missing because employees think the bosses don’t want them to lead (which may in fact not be true). To win, you must commit yourself to changing this reality (and we know it is possible to change this reality).

The upside possibilities for organizations that embrace change, create sufficient leadership, use the change formula well, and thus grab the opportunities and avoid the hazards—are huge, and much bigger than most people truly appreciate: growth, profitability, wealth creation, more successful customers, helping the economy, public esteem, and much more. As many people as possible must see this and truly believe it (not just think it would be nice but….)

The upside possibilities for individuals who step up to the plate and choose to lead, who provide some leadership no matter what their jobs, and who make needed change happen—in this case the possibilities are equally large. Career and income opportunities are there, yes, but even more so is a pride, a sense that work is truly meaningful, and a powerful feeling that you are making a difference. Again, as many people as possible must see this, starting at the very top (and I don’t mean they nod yet really think it’s all about the paycheck).

Truly great organizations drive these beliefs and skills all the way through the ranks—to some degree, literally, to the very bottom of the hierarchy. They get as many atoms as possible vibrating on the same frequency and the right frequency. The resulting energy, alignment of movement, and movement in a smart direction is what makes CEOs (and those around them) successful and wealthy, yes, but heroes too, and justifiably so. Executives must understand this fact, both intellectually and emotionally, and, when they do, they will act on the powerful implications.

Rowan Gibson

At many companies, the term “innovation strategy” refers simply to an agenda for new product development or a technology roadmap for R&D. This is like picking up a single leaf in the forest and calling it a “tree”. Innovation strategy is not merely about the next product launch or patent registration. It’s about exactly how your company intends to become (or remain) a world-class innovation champion. Let’s face it, not many organizations have so far managed to build a deep, enduring capability for innovation—one that consistently drives profitable revenue growth and that delivers a strong competitive advantage over the longer term. This should be the highest goal and purpose of any innovation strategy.

The real strategic issue facing every company is this: How are we going to create growth and shareholder value in the future? Sounds like a simple question. But organizations have had a wide variety answers at their disposal over the last few decades. For some, the solution was “going global”, or “cutting costs”, or “improving quality”. For others, it was “raising productivity”, or “offering the best customer service”, or “standing out with excellent product design”. Today, however, these traditional strategies are running out of steam. They no longer offer very much potential for driving growth and wealth creation over the longer term. As marketing expert Steve Yastrow put it in a recent blog, they have become nothing more than ‘basic business hygiene—the “brushing your teeth” of running a company’.

There is a growing realization around the world that organizations have only one strategic option left for delivering growth, company value, market share and competitive advantage. And that’s radical innovation – in products, services, technologies, processes, cost structures, marketing strategies, and business models. However, an honest assessment of the business landscape reveals that radical innovators are still very few and far between. When you pick up a copy of Forbes or BusinessWeek, you inevitably find yourself reading about the usual suspects – a small handful of innovation champions like Apple, Google and Gore. It simply seems incredibly difficult for all those other companies out there to make the transition from innovation laggards to innovation leaders. And that’s why there’s an urgent need right now for organizations to develop a corporate innovation strategy – a blueprint for building, sustaining, and managing an enterprise-wide innovation capability.

Nancy Tennant, co-author of Strategic Innovation, and former global vice president of innovation at Whirlpool, the appliance giant, says that an innovation strategy should encompass “a wide range of actions that assimilate, incorporate, internalize, and imbue the entire fabric or lifeblood of an organization with the mind-set and skills of innovation.” At the core of this strategy must be a broad-based vision of innovation embedment—a vision that is created and owned by the top team, that is accessible to all levels of the organization, that is both feasible and flexible, that can guide decision making, and that can be clearly and easily communicated. It must be based on a highly systemic view of the organization – a sense of connection, interaction and integration between all of the various parts of the system – where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. And it must enable each and every employee to understand the link between their own individual performance and the attainment of the company’s strategic innovation goal.

Once this vision is in place and widely shared across the company, the next imperative is to turn strategy into action by making the necessary stepwise changes to leadership commitment and accountability, organizational infrastructure, management processes and policies, resource allocation, knowledge management, employee contribution, rewards and recognition systems, competence development programs, measurement and reporting systems, cultural values, and so on. All of these organizational components need to be hardwired into the company’s innovation strategy.

“But stop”, you say. “Is all of this actually possible?” Can companies really make the gargantuan leap from boring to breakout, and from insipid to inspired? Consider an encouraging example.

When Whirlpool’s former CEO Dave Whitwam set out to define his company’s global innovation strategy back in 1999, he chose to call it “Innovation from Everyone and Everywhere.” This was a huge aspiration, considering that at the time Whirlpool had 68,000 employees in 170 countries, as well as 50 manufacturing and technology research centers around the globe. But Whirlpool rose to the challenge, and today the company has become a best-practice model for the embedment of innovation as an enterprise capability across a large, global organization.

The key objective of Whirlpool’s innovation strategy was to help every single employee to think outside the traditional “white box” of home appliances, and imagine exciting, customer-relevant solutions that create new wealth for the company. The outcome has been a stream of breakthrough ideas for products and businesses that have come from all over the Whirlpool organization—ideas that have delivered value to consumers in ways never before seen either at the company or in the industry. As a result, Whirlpool has seen a steep upturn in its annual revenues from innovative new products. In the three years between 2003 and 2006, for example, these revenues rose from $78 million to $1.6 billion (a figure over twenty times higher). And the whole strategic transition has made a massive contribution to growing Whirlpool’s overall revenues and profits.

Today, the company has well over five hundred projects in its innovation pipeline, representing expected future revenues of $3.5 billion. And, having witnessed the power of Whirlpool’s innovation strategy firsthand, current CEO Jeff Fettig is planning no change of course in the future. He told BusinessWeek, “If we keep innovating we’ll keep growing.”

What Whirpool’s example amply demonstrates is that it is entirely possible to turn an “old-line” industrial organization into a catalyst for continuous, break-the-rules innovation. But it can’t be done piecemeal—an innovation reward program here, a corporate venture fund there, or a few days of brainstorming somewhere else isn’t enough. Rather, a company has to be willing to recalibrate its whole organizational system around the paradigm of innovation. And that is never going to happen unless it develops a wall-to-wall, top-to-bottom, “soup to nuts” innovation strategy.

Rowan Gibson is a global business strategist and an expert on radical rethinking. He is also the bestselling author of  Innovation to the Core and Rethinking the Future. More information about Rowan Gibson’s speaking availability can be found at Speakers.com.

Tim Sanders

More than ever, we need to share.

Do you share your skills and resources with your business partners? Often, we focus our giving on internal team members.  However, you likely have dozens of business contacts that could leverage your skills during these challenging times.  A recent USA Today article highlighted generous professionals with a little time on their hands that gave away their services to needy clients.  Watts Wacker is a true Lovecat.

For example, let’s say you have a great business development skill set.  You often sell your consulting services, which range from planning to operations.  These days, though, you’ve got some free time on your hands — which you fill with sales and marketing activities to fill the pipeline.  Think different.  Write down a list of all your business contacts from suppliers, to partners, to service providers to fellow association members.  Next to each of their names, if you think you can help them with your advice, write down a single sentence about it.  Call them on the phone and offer to help, no strings attached.

When I did this exercise, I realized that I could help four of my day-to-day business contacts with no out of pocket investment.  For one of my service providers, I offered some direct marketing advice.  For another, I offered advice on how to deal with a recently departed employee who was setting up shop to compete with her former employee.  For yet another, I offered to network him with two new potential customers.  In less than a few hours, I was able to help make a difference in the lives of business contacts I’ve relied on during good times and bad.  I felt great, and know that I’ve made an investment in my business eco-system at a time it’s buckling under serious pressure.

From the pages of my book (Saving The World At Work), here’s a classic example of taking this exercise and thinking big: Consorta is a health care procurement company with a core skill set of helping hospitals manage supply chain costs.  A few years ago, former Consorta CEO John Strong decided to lend some of his best procurement negotiators to the United Way for a short period of time.  Their advice helped this non-profit save almost twenty one million dollars in a single year.  Not only did Consorta help the United Way, the catholic hospitals that comprised the company’s core customer base resonated with the company’s efforts to make a difference by sharing expertise.  These hospitals all belonged to the United Way, and the goodwill generated by Consorta’s sharing efforts more than offset any time-off-the-clock.

This is my challenge to you today.  Find at least two business contacts that your skill set can help.  You’ll be surprised how valuable your skills can be, and trust me, your efforts to help will be remembered for a long time.

Tim Sanders is a best selling author, business consultant and one of America’s most sought-after speakers. More information about Tim Sanders’ speaking availability can be found at Speakers.com.

Keith Ferrazzi

Every job I’ve ever had, I’ve made an effort to brand myself as an innovator, a thinker, a salesman, and someone who could get stuff done. When I was just a management trainee at ICI, my first job out of college, I sent a set of recommendations to the CEO. So he never responded. I never stopped sending those e-mails.

It’s just silly to think you can’t impact people’s personal and professional expectations of who you are. By making the effort, you can break the glass ceiling by expanding people’s view of your capability. What we’re really talking about here is taking charge of your personal brand, consciously and consistently.

The novelist Milan Kundera once reflected that flirting is the promise of sex with no guarantee. A successful brand, then, is the promise and guarantee of a mind-shattering experience each and every time. It’s the e-mail you always read because of who it’s from. It’s the employee who always gets the cool projects.

To become a brand, you’ve got to become relentlessly focused on what you do that adds value. Here are three steps to get you on the road to becoming the next Oprah Winfrey:

1.    Develop a Personal Branding Message (PBM)
A brand is nothing less than everything everyone thinks of when they see or hear your name. The best brands, like the most interesting people, have a distinct message. Your PBM comes from your content/unique value proposition, as we discussed in the last chapter, and a process of self-evaluation. It involves finding out what’s really in a name—your name. It calls for you to identify your uniqueness and how you can put that uniqueness to work. It’s not a specific task so much as the cultivation of a mind-set.

What do you want people to think when they hear or read your name? What product or service can you best provide? Take your skills, combine them with your passions, and find out where in the market, or within your own company, they can best be applied.

Your message is always an offshoot of your mission and your content.

Your positioning message should include a list of words that you want people to use when referring to you. Writing those words down are a big first step in having others believe them. Ask your most trusted friends what words they would use to describe you, for good and for bad. Ask them what are the most important skills and attributes you bring to the table.

2.    Package the Brand
Most people’s judgments and impressions are based on visuals—everything other than the words you speak that communicates to others what you’re about. For everyone in every field—let’s be real—looks count, so you’d better look polished and professional.

There is one general, overarching caveat in this step: Stand out! Style matters. Whether you like it or not, clothing, letterheads, hairstyles, business cards, office space, and conversational style are noticed—big time. The design of your brand is critical. Buy some new clothes. Take an honest look at how you present yourself. Ask others how they see you. How do you wish to be seen?

3.    Broadcast Your Brand
You’ve got to become your own PR firm. Take on the projects no one wants at work. Never ask for more pay until after you’ve been doing the job successfully and become invaluable. Get on convention panels. Write articles for trade journals and company newsletters. Send e-mails filled with creative ideas to your CEO. Design your own Me, Inc. brochure. Develop your brand online. The world is your stage. Your message is your “play.” The character you portray is your brand. Look the part; live the part.

Remember, you have a choice: Be distinct or be extinct. Want people to recognize how much you have to offer? Then it’s your job to do everything in your power to make it easy for them – and that means relentless commitment to quality.

Update: Just saw Dan Schawbel’s great post from earlier this week on ”branding by association.” Check it out.

Your turn: Whose brand do you most admire?

The author of Who’s Got Your Back and Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi is the world’s foremost expert on business relationship development. More information about Keith Ferrazzi’s speaking availability can be found at Speakers.com.

David Weinberger

Monday’s WSJ had a good article by Sarah Needleman on companies using Twitter as a public relations tool.

Obviously, companies are paying attention to Twitter because lots of people have joined it; if it were a startup with 500 users, big companies wouldn’t care about it. But the way the massness of Twitter works may be teaching companies a lesson about the Web overall, and about markets.

Traditionally, marketing views a market as the set of potential customers — roughly, the people who are or might be made interested in the company’s offerings, and who are in a position to make a purchase. Marketers then segment their market according to some defining characteristics relevant to how the company can pique their interest and move them to completing a sale. Which means that messages define markets: Marketers choose age or ethnicity as the defining characteristics (for example) only if they think that those traits carve off a set of people susceptible to the same message.

Now, Twitter has this odd property of being able to support multiple scales: It works if you’re Ashton Kutcher with two million followers or if you’re a college kid with four followers. For Kutcher, Twitter is a mass medium. For most of his followers, it’s a far more social medium. This ability to work easily and simultaneously at scales separated by orders of magnitude is distinctive of the Web itself. Oh, sure, you could organize a phone bank to reach two million folks with your message, but that’s the opposite of an easy and natural use of telephones. For the Web, it’s just what it does.

Marketers are among those not used to this sort of continuity of scaling. Traditional marketing has aimed for the efficiencies bigger scales bring. Even the 1990s interest in “personalization” was a type of mass customization. So, it’s interesting to watch as marketers try to adjust to this new, slippery environment. The companies cited in the WSJ article seem not to be paying attention exclusively to Twitterers with huge followings. That by itself is a useful webby lesson to learn. But will marketers figure out how to make marketing scalable up and down, without violating norms?

David Weinberger is the co-author of the The Cluetrain Manifesto, the bestseller that cut through the hype and told business what the Web was really about. More information about David’s speaking availability can be found at Speakers.com.