WYSIWYG

In the interest of full disclosure I'm declaring this a buzzword-free blog (as much as humanly possible). So to take my own advice, I've changed my "Who I am" info. to reflect my actual job title. It was "Change Catalyst Manager" which sounds like a manager of chemical reactions. I am what I am, a "Growth Services Manager". I manage a group that provides services for clients to grow their business. Lessons learned-

• Be real and honest, your customers will appreciate the fresh air.
• Don't conform to the latest fad regardless of who's doing it unless you've investigated how it will benefit you. Saying I'm on Twitter is less important than saying how you are using Twitter for business growth (I'm still investigating this one I'll admit).
  
• Keep the focus on the practical, less talk, less jargon, more tactical action and followup
  

Tactical Focus of Innovation

Top-line innovation (new sales, markets, customers) or Bottom-line (process improvements, cost savings)? Some would argue if I can't get my service or product out the door, I better figure out a way to get it done (better process method, better quality system). BUT, are you growing? What are your sales trends the last 2 years (up, down, flat)? How are your profit margins (stagnant?, growing?, nose-diving?)

Focusing on a bottom line cost saving project while ignoring negative top-line trends is sort of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It looks OK until the base that the chairs are on starts to tilt. Our operations, whether we're providing a product or service (physical or web), are much the same. We tend to focus on what we see. We see the day-to-day operations that we touch and we focus on improvement or reducing our variation in whatever the process is.

Does the process have too many steps? we reduce them. Too many documents? we streamline them. The only problem is that while we're reducing the operational variation we are probably ignoring the top-line lack of variation in growth that we desperately need to maintain profitability.

Customer Sales, Products, and Markets need increased variation. Kind of an oxymoron isn't it? So much focus on tightening up our process on one side of the balance sheet with the need to expand it on the other. How do we define good variation then for the top side of the balance sheet?

Ask yourself some questions:

• How can I increase my client base so that 80% of my revenue does NOT come from less than 20% of my customers?
• What other market segments can my product or service be sold in?
• Are my current customers in trouble? Can I take an interest in solving their chronic issues with a partnership that benefits both of us? Am I aware of their pain points?
• Is my reach for developing a new product or service just out of arm's reach? In other words, am I looking to develop the next Iphone when my available time and development $'s tells me I should narrow my focus to the next Iphone cover (product extension)?

Let me know how you've answered these questions or others you think are good ones to ask?

As the blog implies, tactical innovation involves action. Sometimes the best action starts with great questions.

Welcome to the blog for the practically challenged! This is probably the 1287th blog on innovation, so why read this one? I want to share practical tips, tools, steps that you can take now to move from the innovation sidelines to playing offense. This blog targets the small enterprise. You're not a 3M or IBM, so why think you need to try and innovate like one? Practical Tactical Innovation will share some best practices used successfully that work and we'll have fun along the way. Here's to the start of a great blog.