What’s between you and innovation? SledgeDoze it.
You know innovation can improve your business. It can drive growth, improve margins, attract superior talent, distinguish you from your competitors. You brainstorm, invest and generate new ideas. And yet your business doesn’t seem to change. What’s missing?
Perhaps it isn’t what’s missing. More likely, it’s what’s in the way. Many companies have good instincts about where to innovate. Too often, they can’t get out of their own way.
Consider once dominant brands like Kodak and Blockbuster. They saw the future coming but couldn’t overcome their legacy business to embrace it. What these businesses needed is a SledgeDozer. A SledgeDozer is a mash-up of a sledgehammer and a bulldozer. It busts stuff up and pushes it out of the way.
If you find that your team is great at speculating about what’s next, but never seems to get a new initiative to take hold, then take a look at the SledgeDozer Seven. These are the seven barriers that often prevent companies from making the changes they need to survive:
Category: What business are you in today? Is it an industry with a future or ripe for extinction? Can you reposition to another category? Or invest in an adjacent business?
Customers: Is your market segment growing? If you’re in a business-to-business category, are your customers being disrupted? If so, should you spend less time chasing more of the same type of customers and invest in a new segment?
Conventional Wisdom: Are you stuck being a fast follower, possibly chasing fads? What would it look like if you did something counter to what others in your industry are doing?
Culture: Does your leadership embrace the need for innovation? Are there diverse voices and are your listening to them? Is innovation stressed throughout your company?
Financial model: The next innovation in your business might not follow the same financial model as your current business. How can you get your organization to flex to accommodate multiple models?
Measurement: Are you measuring the right things to drive the benefits of innovation? It’s not enough to rack up new product launches or patents if you aren’t also investing enough to drive revenue or margin from those innovations.
Original idea: Is your attachment to your original idea or business holding you back? What could you be doing if you let it go?
Remove these obstacles and start SledgeDozing your path to innovation today.