Freeze, innovate or panic? Innovation strategies for RIGHT NOW

Given the rapid pace of global economic developments, organizations are faced with a pretty stark choice.

The CEO of a company that is having me speak to an upcoming leadership meeting stated it this way: their choice going forward is to :

1. Freeze: do nothing
2. Innovate: respond to rapid market change through innovation, particularly with respect to strategies, struture, capabilities, markets, products, activities
3. Panic: make rash decisions on structure, markets, investments.

The last choice might seem to be the only response given the velocity of events as they occur, and it will be an unfortunate reality for some as the credit crunch hits.

But for others, panic will truly get you nowhere. And inaction – option 1 — is not a good choice, because markets, customers behavior, cost inputs and just about everything else will change even faster now, and so you need to change faster.

Option 2 — continuous innovation — remains the only thing to focus on. Maybe that’s why my phone has been quite busy in the last two weeks. There have already been several confirmed new events in October and November, where I will be coming into a corporate leadership meeting as part of an overall objective of keeping a company ahead in the game.

CEO’s and executive staff are working hard to align their current strategies with fast paced economic events. I’m providing grist for the grill, with specific insight on how they might innovate within their particularly industry.

It’s interesting that a lot of senior executives are all of a sudden looking for someone to bring their team this type of unique motivational innovation message. Two weeks ago, I helped to clarify for a commercial real estate / building management company leadership group where they could continue to find market opportunity right now, and how they needed to ensure they focus on enhancing existing customer/client relationships as a key strategy for going forward. We defined some strategies that they had not thought of; their team was inspired on focusing on opportunity rather than market upheaval, by thinking differently about what they do.

So what should you be doing from an innovation perspective?

I’ll starting putting up quite a few new blog posts starting next week, summarizing the many methods to innovate, particularly through any economic correction or downturn. I’m going to call the series “100 Days of Innovation,” and while I won’t post each and every day, I do aim to have one hundred concise, succinct posts full of unique innovation insight.

In the meantime, if you need a high level, energetic message to get your leadership in the right frame of mind to deal with high-velocity economic change, call me. The details are on my contact page.