NCTA Guest Blog: Turning the Odds for Innovation in Your Favor
Rob Mann, Vice President, Growth and Innovation, North Highland
It’s no secret that innovation is critical to growth. And for a state like North Carolina, 8th among all states in advanced industry job growth, technological innovation is vital to remaining a major business hub in the South.
In May, I joined other North Carolina business and technology leaders at the North Carolina Technology Association’s flagship tech conference. I had the privilege of participating in a panel entitled Getting to Market Faster – How to Accelerate Innovation. I was joined on the panel by Joe Bastante, CTO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Katherine Manuel, SVP of Innovation at Thomson Reuters, and Patrick Turner, CTO of Small Footprint.
We discussed a variety of topics focused on nurturing practical innovation in North Carolina. From a panel of leaders across industries, a few key takeaways stood out to help businesses keep up with the rate of growth and technological advancements we’re seeing throughout the region.
Think beyond the walls of the business.
The cloud makes resources readily available, regardless of the size of your business. Look for opportunities to leverage it in our API economy by encouraging new forms of practical open innovation and immersive experiences – such as tours, idea jams, scouting events – beyond the traditional confines of your business. Inviting others in to help, even those who don’t work in tech, will help build stronger products and platforms. Going beyond your business also introduces creative possibilities and the potential for unique problem-solving capabilities. We already see this happening in the region’s financial technology space, and should look to grow such openings.
Monetize innovative opportunities.
I spoke about the concept of co-creation, and other panelists agreed that there’s value in utilizing an existing consumer base, or an influencer within that consumer base, to innovate new products, businesses and ideas. The advantage here lies both in innovation and economic advantages. Take, for example, Style Saint – Allison Beal created a business that pulls in the style ideas of customers and social influencers (the SaintSociety) to design the clothes they sell, allowing customers to be designers. This isn’t just innovative – it’s also a smart business strategy that cuts down on costs while maintaining a loyal audience. We need to innovate to help support newer, and often more cost-efficient, business models.
Build a corporate culture of innovation.
Perhaps the most important thing we can do to encourage innovation is build it into the business environment within which our employees and leaders operate. I mentioned working and embedding innovation into your operating model. It gives your company focus and consistency, but it also gives employees the permission to spend part of their time thinking, discovering and problem-solving outside of their daily responsibilities. These are the opportunities that lead to innovation within our businesses, and we must give our employees the time to think through these challenges.
We also shouldn’t limit who gets to innovate – Joe Bastante noted that we need to build bridges between tech teams and broader teams to foster good relationships. These partnerships encourage employees to identify commonalities and bring fresh thinking to their work – the “seeds” of innovation. Technology is advancing faster than we’re able to innovate. Bringing together individuals with various backgrounds, knowledge areas and skillsets is ultimately better for growth.
Innovation is often the result of serendipity, but it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. As business leaders, we can skew serendipity and turn the odds in our favor by allowing our businesses and teammates to immerse in innovation environments and collaborations. In doing so, the time to develop innovations and solutions will ultimately accelerate growth and yield higher returns on innovation efforts in North Carolina.
Rob Mann, VP, Growth & Innovation Lead
Rob is a Vice President with North Highland’s Strategy group where he focuses on growth, innovation and Performance Improvement. Rob has deep expertise in growth and innovation, CX, product design/development, and operating model improvements. He has 25 years of consulting experience in the US, Canada and Latin America, the Middle East, UK/Europe, the Caribbean, Greater China and the APAC region. He also teaches Growth, Innovation and Market Entry Strategy to executives and MBA students at the Wharton School.
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