Tech entrepreneur and author Josh Linkner opened FEI’s 2016 Financial Leadership Summit by imploring attendees to embrace a willingness to experiment, and highlighting the dangers of complacency by companies with dominant market positions.
“We often mislabel reinvention as a once-in-a-decade thing, when the best approach is to experiment early and often,” Linkner said. “Innovation should be an ongoing process, rather than a bet-the-farm initiative.”
Linkner said people tend overestimate risk of trying something new, but underestimate risk of standing still. He cited several examples of companies that lost leading market positions, and often went under, by failing to pay attention to broader social or technological changes that shifted demand and drove customers to more-agile competitors.
“The pattern all too common, and we need to do better,” Linkner said. “It’s easier to reinvent yourself from a position of strength than trying to claw back.”
He said paying attention to change and adding new skills is important to financial leaders’ career success as well as helping their companies adapt ahead of changing market conditions.
Practical Ideas
Linkner offered a number of characteristics shared by successful creative people in a variety of industries, including business and the arts:
Get curious – Calling curiosity the building block of creativity, Linkner suggested executives review situations or challenges by asking themselves questions such as “why,” “what if” and “why not” to challenge convention wisdom about their company, industry or career.
“Asking questions can help increase awareness, which we often turn out in our busy day jobs,” he said.
Crave what’s next – Linkner said it’s vital to work hard at avoiding complacency, which can be challenging when a company is enjoying success. He cited the rise and fall of the auto industry in his hometown of Detroit as “an example of what happens when you ask ‘what’s next,’ and frankly, when you don’t.”
Linkner summarized the U.S. auto industry’s failure to adapt to international competition and changing tastes, the economic effects on Detroit, and more recent efforts to reinvent the city’s economy by promoting tech and social media entrepreneurship. Within one downtown block, for example, more than 70 tech start-ups have launched.
“A once-broken city is rising from the ashes,” Linkner said. “It’s an incredible turnaround story that came from thinking about what’s next instead of what was.”
Adapt Fast – Linkner said innovation rarely depends on a lightning bolt of inspiration, but merges more commonly from trying smaller ideas for products or processes and adapting them rapidly.
“The initial idea is usually directional, but is often deeply flawed,” he said. “It’s adaptation that brings something to life and truly drives value. Adapting quickly leads to incredible breakthroughs.”