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j <br />motivate its employees to be <br />innovative? <br />cc: I think it's critical to <br />develop a culture of innovation <br />and then apply it to all areas of <br />your business. Innovation can't <br />just be what you do when busi- <br />ness gets slow and you need to <br />VUe all fail in business soroetirnes, but we <br />don't all learn and brow from our failures. <br />iNe can either pack it up or quit, or we can <br />learn from our mistakes, take accountability <br />and get stronger in the process. <br />CHRIS CARLSON <br />generate new revenues. It has to be the default <br />setting for everything your company does, not <br />just in design or new product development, but <br />throughout the whole company. Innovation can <br />transform a company if it is established as a core <br />value, but the key is to sustain it and utilize it as <br />a key driver. Our team at Sportech loves to in- <br />novate in every area, and it's really expected at all <br />levels of our business. <br />We are finalizing our plans fora company- <br />wide move into our new manufacturing facility. <br />I've been amazed at how my leadership team has <br />developed a very cool-and very innovative- <br />plan to pull this move off smoothly. They have <br />a plan that is well thought out, and in doing so <br />they have saved us a bunch of money and drasti- <br />cally reduced the amount of time that we will be <br />shut down. They won't win any awards for this <br />innovation, but it sure will prove to be benefi- <br />cial for the company, and it happened because <br />our team instinctively turned to innovation as it <br />faced the task, because it's an integral part of <br />our culture. <br />Enterprise Minnesota: So, you believe that a <br />strong culture can actually be a differentiator <br />for suppliers? <br />C~: You bet! I think more and snore companies <br />are starting to focus on culture and values within <br />their companies, and in the process they are put- <br />ting themselves in a great spot to effectively offer <br />a clear point of differentiation. Why not focus on <br />key cultural advantages within an organization <br />such as passion, integrity, character and authen- <br />ticity? Some might say that these traits sound <br />elementary or obvious, but look around you and <br />take note of how many companies have failed be- <br />cause they abandoned these basic, time-honored <br />principles. If Enron had chosen to be authentic <br />and honest, it would still be around and inves- <br />tors would not have lost millions of dollars. And <br />with the surge of business failures resulting from <br />unethical business practices, dedication to ethical <br />business practices has never been more important. <br />Enterprise Minnesota: How can businesses <br />maintain good relationships with customers <br />when something goes wrong? <br />CC: One of my favorite authors is John Maxwell, <br />one of the nation's foremost authorities on leader- <br />ship. In his book "Failing Forward," Maxwell <br />reinforces the importance of making the most of <br />our failures. We all fail in business sometimes, but <br />we don't all learn and grow from our failures. We <br />can either pack it up or quit, or we can learn from <br />our mistakes, take accountability and get stronger <br />in the process. <br />One of our largest customers-a Fortune S00 <br />OEM that watches its suppliers closely-tells us <br />that the relationship we are enjoying with them <br />today is partially because of how we handled a <br />near disaster in the early stages of our relationship <br />with them. On one of our first large orders with <br />this customer, we shipped multiple truckloads <br />of product to them with a hardware assembly <br />that contained the wrong components. To make <br />matters worse, the instruction sheet inside the <br />assembly was for another customer, who happens <br />to be a competitor of this customer. It was not a <br />pretty situation! <br />We called the customer, identified the problem, <br />proposed a corrective action plan and immediately <br />went about fixing the problem. After the problem <br />was corrected, we made some process changes, <br />mapped them and demonstrated to the customer <br />that we were confident that this simply could not <br />happen again. The customer was firm yet incred- <br />ibly fair in this situation, and we were able to not <br />only maintain the relationship but we've been <br />able to grow our business substantially with this <br />customer. We failed forward in this instance, and <br />the lesson that we learned was invaluable. ~ <br />ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA SEPT/OCT 2008 g~ <br />