Killing the old in favour of the new
What if…every year, your company looked at everything it did that kept staff busy and killed every project, product and process that didn’t positively contribute to the business’ mission any longer?
Together with that — what if every year your company identified the very best future opportunities for growth and assigned them as the exclusive projects of your company’s very best employees?
Too often companies keep their best people focused on yesterday’s projects, that are long past their sell-by date, rather than embracing a culture of commercialising opportunities of the future.
3M is well-know as one of the world’s most innovative companies — and to carry on incubating that mindset of always looking to the future as an organisation, they ask themselves some very useful what if questions.
A culture of innovation means that senior management encourages employees to spend a significant portion of their time on products and research that go beyond their usual scope of responsibilities. Ultimately however, old ideas are gradually shelved in favour of focusing on projects of the future from which new revenue streams can be unlocked.
Dwelling on the successes of yesterday will never get you to the opportunities that lie in thinking about tomorrow, so make sure that the most effective resources are delivering the very maximum they can towards your future growth potential.
Innovation requires a companywide, consistent focus on killing old ideas and giving birth to new ones.
