NO PAIN, NO GAIN IN THE INNOVATION GAME

We are now in a different time where leadership and individual accountability is essential. The media shies away from the use of fear inducing words like “recession” or worse yet “depression”, but if we stop to honestly consider what is happening on a global level, we have to admit that we are in a time of rising global unrest. We may try to ignore it or hope it goes away, but after years of economic growth and prosperity, and perhaps even in some areas, excess, there is a part of each of us that is painfully aware that current global economic conditions won’t change until the structure as we know it is broken down and rebuilt.

“The real source of wealth and capital in this new era is not material things. It is the human mind, the human spirit, the human imagination, and our faith in the future.” – Steve Forbes

The question becomes what and how do we rebuild. We all understand the importance of education and economic stability supported by government infrastructure, but I think of equal importance, each individual needs to hold themselves accountable to understanding and taking personal action to help create the future. As an entrepreneur, I’m painfully aware that simply applying another layer of duct tape to the global economic house of cards is not a sustainable solution to provide economic stability for my children and my children’s children.

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” – Pablo Picasso

We also know from past recessions that innovation and entrepreneurship helps to rebuild economies and that successful and sustainable small and medium size businesses are essential for employment, growth and stability. Some of the most influential global businesses were started during challenging economic times including Disney, GE, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, IBM and many others. In order for us to create the next generation of great “built to last” companies, there needs to be a comfort in or at the very least acceptance of, the unknown and a belief that calculated risks and intelligent innovation is necessary for us to rebuild.

“Past success stories are generally not applicable to new situations. We must continually reinvent ourselves, responding to changing times with innovative new business models.” – Akira Mori

When Facebook started in 2004, it wasn’t the general public that recognized its value, it was the college crowd that understood its desirability. They weren’t focused on the business side of Facebook, but they understood an emotional desire to use it to connect with friends, and that was enough. Early investors took a risk with Facebook. It was a new model and one could argue that the revenue component of the business model wasn’t even fully understood, yet it was a distributive technology and it has changed the landscape for how we communicate and interact. It was a risk and risk and innovation go hand in hand.

Seven years ago while Jack Welch spoke in NYC, I listened and retained his comment around the necessity of risk to facilitate growth and thus empower GE to win. He said one of the main things that differentiated GE was that they could afford to take more risks. He used the analogy of baseball, saying that they could take more swings because if they struck out, they could afford to bat again. As an early stage entrepreneur of a game changing business model which is laden with disruptive technologies and is built entirely around innovation, I now whole heartedly understand that analogy. Financial stability is a constraint that limits innovation. It is hard to hit a homerun if you can only afford one swing at bat.

“Innovation is not the product of logical thought, although the result is tied to logical structure.” – Albert Einstein

Perhaps the question we should be pondering is how we as an economy, a society, and even a business community, can pull together to support the intelligent innovations that will form the basis for the future even if they aren’t fully understood today. It is in our hands to be leaders, not followers; it is 2012, after all.

“Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Steve Jobs