Embracing the Relentless Pursuit of Innovation

(Originally published on "Brainwaves," the blog of the University of Vermont's Continuing and Distance Education Department)

We all love the idea of innovation, right?

I want to be innovative. You want to be innovative. Everybody wants to be innovative.

In pursuing or talking about innovation, the danger is that we give it merely lip service, and treat it as a fad or a fashionable idea to toss like confetti in our meetings and in our marketing. We risk using it as a cheap applause line in our conversations about economic development, public policy, and strategic planning without really understanding or acknowledging what it demands of us.

If we’re being honest, innovation is not a fad. It is not merely a fashionable way to think and talk about business, or the future, or the next big social media gold rush.

Survival of the Fittest
Innovation has always been a quiet and persistent foundation of great companies and great organizations. Success and happiness in business and in life has always been about the ability to solve increasingly complex problems at a mastery level. Innovation is really about that daily and often unfashionable pursuit — “is there a better way to solve this problem?”

And so at every level, in every molecule, companies and their leaders are...

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We Can't Breathe...

I’ve invented a new word. Or, rather, the observation of managers in the wild has suggested a new word:

Data + Asphyxiation = Datasphyxiation 

It is, simply, when the fetish for managing almost purely by data, and analysis, and spreadsheets chokes an organization’s ability to creatively and flexibly solve problems, focus on the customer's needs, or innovate.

Usually, death soon follows.

Wanted: Triple Bottom Line Leaders

(Originally published on TriplePundit.com, a leading publication and voice for business sustainability and corporate social responsibility)

I want to share an insight with you.

Before I do, you should know this about me: I am not an expert in sustainability. For most of my life, I never gave it much thought, nor did it interest me. I may have even smirked at the idea once or twice.

You should know this about the company I work for: it is a mundane business. We are not superstars in the sustainability movement. Our name certainly wouldn’t escape from your lips should you be asked to name a fashionable triple bottom line company.

I sit on the board of advisors for a new and unique sustainable entrepreneurship MBA (SEMBA) at the University of Vermont because my company wrestles with this new business paradigm every day.

A few years ago, we had a moment of clarity. Suddenly, we realized our entire existence was based on a business model that was simply unsustainable.

We had to ask ourselves a very important question: what will the world — the planet, our markets, our customers, our communities — expect from us in twenty or thirty years? What will we get paid for?

You should know we came to this simple conclusion: we’ll get paid by helping to solve the problem of the world’s limited resources. At that moment, nearly everything changed — the way we hire, build, and treat people, the investments we make, the way we work with customers, the risks we embrace.

Simply put, all our problems are centered around resource limits — natural, environmental, people, time, capital, and so on. All of our opportunities — profit, growth, contributing to society, creating shareholder value — come from our ability to solve those problems better than anybody else. To do that we have to embrace sustainability. We have to become a different kind of company.

And that transformation calls for a different kind of leader.

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A Survival Guide to Starting a Successful Small Business

(Originally published on "Brainwaves," the blog of the University of Vermont's Continuing and Distance Education Department)

If you’re reading this, you have an itch that may need scratching — the desire to start and run your own business, which is one of life’s most noble impulses. Running your own business is not just a way to make a living, it’s also a path to making a life. In Vermont, making a life is just as important and fulfilling as making a living.

Scratching that itch in Vermont (or elsewhere, to be honest) is not often easy, and I want you to be successful. And, of course, it’s very tempting to rattle off a “Top 10” list of small business tips.

But beyond the sugary, conventional advice you could certainly find somewhere, anywhere else, there are four things – not often talked about – that I’ve watched every successful business owner or leader do very well. You’ll need to master these things as well.

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How to Kill a Business

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 A fearful organization (one breathing the fumes of insecurity and mistrust) too often becomes a complex organization.

A complex organization too often becomes a control-obsessed organization, and values that control much more than it values masterful problem-solving.

An organization that values control over masterful problem-solving too often solves problems poorly, and goes broke and dies.

Fear kills businesses.