Seek Innovation Wherever You Can Find It
- FEATURED ARTICLE
Seek Innovation Wherever You Can Find It
Tim Reed
Share
Listen to the audio article.
One of the hardest pitfalls for a business to avoid is the stagnation that often comes with growth—because, as growth occurs, it’s easy to err in one of two directions. We’ve all seen companies who gained their footing in the marketplace by bringing real innovation to the table slowly die as they shift to rest on their laurels rather than continue to make new contributions to their customers. After all, if it’s working now, it’s going to keep working, right?
At the same time, there are plenty of companies that suffer from NIH (Not Invented Here) Syndrome, and, while attempting to innovate, trust only their narrow scope of vision—pushing out all ideas that don’t come from within their walls. There are all kinds of things that companies tell themselves to justify this mentality—“those ideas may work for you, but our business is unique,” or “you don’t understand what it would take to make a change like that”—and each reinforces the fact that any excuse is good enough if it’s the one you believe.
But the way we ultimately win is by humbling ourselves to look with naive curiosity at what’s going on around us—and seek innovation wherever we can find it. Because if we genuinely want to create a great company that helps our customers, we can never be too proud to consider a new way of doing things just because it challenges our egos or was thought of by someone else.
But the way we ultimately win is by humbling ourselves to look with naive curiosity at what’s going on around us —and seek innovation wherever we can find it.
And, while there is a genuine temptation to stagnate as a company grows, there are also ways to discover new innovations that can lead to massive opportunity—and make a meaningful contribution to your customers—without running your business off the rails.
Look Inside Our Industry
It’s easy to think that our company makes the best products and services in every category of the market that we’re in—but that’s just not true. Chances are that by simply looking around your competitive market, you can find things that other companies do better than you, and this is where you start. Now, rather than the age-old tradition of R&D (Research and Duplicate) to maintain your place in the status quo, differentiating yourself in the market comes from innovations that take what’s being done and make it even better.
Chances are that by simply looking around your competitive market, you can find things that other companies do better than you, and this is where you start.
This article is brought to you by Associated Energy Systems.
Years ago, a friend and I were asked by a fireplace manufacturer with struggling sales what could be done to improve their market share. We pointed out that their gas fireplaces only vented out of the top and thus eliminated them from over half of the retrofit and new construction market. If they were able to make a rear-vent model, we said, it would immediately change the number of situations where their products could work—situations where fireplaces made by other brands were simply the only option. Upon hearing this, the company responded by saying, “Well, we’re not like them!” And that was the end of the discussion.
In a similar vein, I can recall a retail company that didn’t offer any in-house installation services proudly telling me that there was no one else like them in their market. And, while that company did bring certain things to the table that were unique, most of the competitors in their market offered far more services to the end-user—but the mentality that they were alone on the mountaintop blinded them from looking at what their competition was doing well and learning from it.
But innovation is all around us in our industry if we have eyes to see it. Look through the websites of your competitors, and even if you don’t like the site overall, observe and appreciate the things they do well. Schedule service calls for the fireplaces in your home to be inspected by your competitors and find the things that they do best. Find the diamond in the rough and see how you can make it shine in your business.
For me, innovation from within our industry comes from the small things. A few years ago at the HPBExpo, I was truly moved by a manufacturer’s presentation of their fireplace interiors and log choices. And while the company themselves didn’t do anything with it afterward, it’s forever since given me inspiration for how to provide clarity in the midst of a showroom with too many fireplace options.
In addition, I’ve found all kinds of innovation by going through the price books of fireplace manufacturers line by line. And, while this is incredibly tedious, it’s helped me understand the pain that new salespeople go through when learning to sell and further reinforced something I’ve observed on the showroom floor, which is this: The fireplaces that have the easiest price books are the fireplaces that get quoted the most.
Often, it’s the little things that lead to the biggest innovations if we’re not running too fast to see them.
Look Outside Our Industry
Another pitfall that kills innovation is believing that it can only come from within our industry—but this couldn’t be further from the truth. To avoid wallowing in the status quo, it’s important that we become a student of the game and look to companies in other industries that can help us innovate what we do.
To avoid wallowing in the status quo, it’s important that we become a student of the game and look to companies in other industries that can help us innovate what we do.
These are some of the companies I’ve observed over the last few years that have provided incredible inspiration and innovation.
- Amazon: Even though I fundamentally disagree with many things about this company, they’ve shown me how important it is to make it easy for customers to compare products and make purchases.
- Uber: This company has forced me to ask questions about what happens when an industry sits in complacency when innovation is waiting to be unleashed.
- Saxx: This business has given me all kinds of ideas about how to insert humor and convenience into the products that we sell.
- Nomatic: By observing this company, I’ve been reminded of the high value that aesthetics and storytelling play in our decision to make a purchase.
- Chick-fil-A: I’ve never been more reminded of how important a friendly greeting and clean bathroom are to an incredible retail experience.
- Wawa: This company is another reminder that even a gas station can change the paradigm of how we run our businesses.
In their own way, each of these companies—and many more—have helped me innovate my own products. To think that innovation can only come from companies like ours is foolish, and it leaves us susceptible to believing that what’s already been done are the only things possible.
Become a Reader
It goes without saying, but leaders are readers, and the second we become too busy to have focused reading time, we become too busy to grow.
C.S. Lewis pointed out that in “reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in a Greek poem, I see with a thousand eyes, but it is still I who see.” One of the gifts of reading is that we can learn from other people’s experiences without having to experience it ourselves—we see through the eyes of one thousand people who have gone before us.
One of the gifts of reading is that we can learn from other people’s experience without having to experience it ourselves—we see through the eyes of one thousand people who have gone before us.
And this doesn’t have to be just business books—innovation can be found anywhere that someone has put a pen to paper. For me, these are a few books that helped me find innovation.
- Good to Great by Jim Collins: By profiling how other leaders have grown companies with sustained longevity in the public sector, I’ve been forced to ask how those principles can help me in my own small businesses.
- The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt: More of a sociology book than anything else, this book has helped shape my understanding of our cultural landscape and how to inspire people in the midst of it.
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield: In the times when I’ve wanted to give up, the refrains from this book have reminded me that there is a path forward if I’m willing to fight resistance.
- The Dip by Seth Godin: This short book has provided a grid for innovation by looking at the difference between a dip that can be powered through and a cul-de-sac that will never lead anywhere.
Regardless of what you read, building the discipline of focused, quiet, reading time will create space within your heart to think and dream about how to make tomorrow better than today.
Become an Observer of Life
It’s easy to be so consumed with what’s immediately in front of us that we miss out on innovation that’s within our peripherals. And, to that point, I believe that everyday life provides all kinds of innovation that we can take advantage of if we’re willing to observe and ask questions.
Much to my wife’s chagrin, every time we have salespeople come to our house to provide us a quote on something, I micro-analyze the things they do well—and the things that could have been improved. Ironically, in one particularly horrible in-home sales experience for a roofing quote, something the salesperson did that was absolutely terrible provided me with the clarity to innovate one of the critical steps in my own in-home sales process.
But it doesn’t have to be just our experiences. Friends and neighbors will share all kinds of things about what they experience in their day-to-day lives that can provide us insights that are just as valuable. Not too long ago, my sister told me about an HVAC company that made an incredible impression on her because of the beautiful graphics on their trucks and the process their technician used to make a complicated purchase seem so simple. At the same time, another friend shared a story about asking a service technician to leave his house because of how rude he was in front of the kids who were present. Any story about a private sales or service experience that someone is compelled to verbally share with others tells us something about what’s actually important—and we can learn from that.
Finally, we should be observing what the biggest companies in the world are doing to create an amazing buying experience for their customers. I try to make it a habit to stay in touch with what companies like Toyota, Tesla, and CarMax are doing with their websites because of their ability to create a specific value-wedge in a highly commoditized market.
When we look at the experiences of others with genuine empathy and curiosity, we gain a deep understanding of the marketplace that can never be known by the skeptics and cynics who have already made up their minds.
When we look at the experiences of others with genuine empathy and curiosity, we gain a deep understanding of the marketplace that can never be known by the skeptics and cynics who have already made up their minds.
Game Respects Game
If we want to grow a company of consequence, then it’s imperative that we seek innovation anywhere it can be found.
And this means we need a healthy dose of humility.
Weak leaders are too proud to admit that another company does certain things better than their own. And, instead of learning, all they can do is criticize, complain, and point out every other flaw that this company has.
Strong leaders, on the other hand, see a rival doing something better and celebrate the beauty of what they’re doing. And, much like a master painter observing another, strong leaders humble themselves to understand the techniques of the other and apply them to their own canvas in a new and powerful way.
At the end of the day, game respects game—and, if the goal is to offer the best products and services to our customers, who are we to look down on anything that can help us get better?
So while other companies pat themselves on the back as they waste away from NIH Syndrome, seek innovation wherever you can find it.
Because it’s there—waiting to be found by those who are humble enough to look.
Tim Reed
Tim Reed is the President of WhyFire, where he helps business leaders in the hearth industry take control of their companies by providing them with sales tools to save time and make money. He's also the host of The Fire Time Podcast, which is actively helping thousands of people grow themselves—and their companies.
