Innovation simply starts from asking those simple questions. It takes just one person or one company to ask; could we design an implement that cuts paper? Could we invent something that regulates a heart beat? Can we create a machine that will process information faster than humans? Could we fly like a bird?

By questioning what exists already, challenging the status quo, or, the way things are done, we can change the products and services we deliver rapidly. The question isn’t so much how much, but what if!

Keep finding great people, fabulous talent, develop them, then let them get on with it. As William Coyne former Vice President of 3M said “ After you plant a seed in the ground, you don’t dig it up every week to see how it is doing.”

Don’t know about you but most companies bore me stiff.  They’ve become stifled in traditional business models where egos rule and play is non-existent. There are exceptions like www.outersight.co.uk who are doing exciting things, but, there are many out there wrapping themselves in dodgy Christmas wrapping paper, frigid, frightened to do anything too maverick, excited by something they think is special but isn’t.

I couldn’t work in one, scares the living daylights out of me. Yet these very organisations are supposed to be the leaders in their field, the innovators of our time. But they are not, because they haven’t abandoned the very things they needed to abandon. Its hard to see how these archaic ships of the past can change and change as rapidly as they need to before they perish in the rough seas ahead.

Enter the small business. Nimble, fast, lean, ideas led. But we need to act fast and differentiate where our advantage is now and in the near future….knowledge, expertise, skills, value and in the people we employ including ourselves of course.

Get two or three people involved in the business who are a little maverick, freaky, cutting edge even slightly mad and get rid of the people, including customers who are adding no value at all. People slightly off the wall are always full of ideas.

Spend an enormous amount of time nurturing your stars. Create individual employee experiences with them and don’t rule out ‘wet behind the ears’ graduates. They are quick, keen, technology savvy and haven’t been conditioned yet. Let people express themselves, snub anything that fosters traditional thinking and allow your people to be intrigued, curious and ambitious in problem solving and ideas generation.

Only work with customers who are going to challenge your people and, of course, have fun because work can be fun, we just need to encourage it. Let the big corporates and small inert companies be strangled by procedures, devoid of curiosity, saturated by ego, driven by tradition and ensnared by routine. Take a deep breath and jump!

Beware of stealing in your business. Perhaps there is a better word? Stealing happens when someone takes something from you when you are not looking, or, when you are unaware initially. Customers, staff, suppliers and partners involved in your business can do this. Their motivation is often being unfair to gain an advantage for themselves.

Whether it is by asking you to reduce prices, taking valuable time from you without adding value, not understanding that the relationship you have is just as important as the profit you make, or, by demanding stuff you just can’t do which is compromising. If you allow people to steal from you, you are literally giving people permission to cheat you.

I know you know this already but thought I’d post it anyway and make no apologies for repeating myself. If you are looking to become more efficient and, yet increasingly productive at the highest level; focus on your talent, core competencies and where you add value most.

Drop the low or non value adding activity and outsource it, such as bookkeeping and invest the savings in new product/service development or research which is the true source of your competitive advantage.

Think we should always question business potential, opportunities, products and customers in this way FIRST; how fab would it be to do this with this customer or business? Rather than how much money can we make out of it? The money bit should be a direct consequence of doing great stuff, challenging work and having fun! Pity we are taught the other way round!