FEATURE: JO NORTH
LEADING Jo North
The Big Bang Partnership’s innovation guru, accomplished senior transport executive and lecturer and researcher in corporate innovation, provides a unique view of the key factors for leading innovation in the rail industry to contribute to profitable customer growth. Her article provides a thought-provoking read for leaders of today’s rail businesses in the context of today’s challenging external environment.
Email:
jo@bigbangpartnership.co.uk Tel: 07879 631270 Web:
www.bigbangpartnership.co.uk
46 RailCONNECT
INNOVATION Words: Jo North
“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.” A. A. Milne
Innovation is about turning creative ideas into workable, commercial solutions that support the business in achieving its goals. But, like Edward Bear, we will struggle to be innovative unless we take time out to develop a business-wide innovation strategy.
Whilst we may not all be the next Einstein or daVinci, we do all have the ability to solve problems and pursue opportunities creatively. We all do it to different degrees and in different ways. This is an important thing to realise. It means that your people, whatever their role, will have ideas about ways in which you can improve your business results. No one role, person or department has the monopoly on having great ideas. All too often, however, only a few people get their ideas heard and acted upon. Does that happen in your business?
The role of the leader is to create the ideal environment that enables all brilliant ideas – however large or small – from everywhere inside and outside your organisation– to be given proper consideration and full opportunity to become reality.
But what if you don’t feel very innovative yourself? Well, you are, just in ways that you possibly haven’t recognised. Even in the highly unlikely, worst-case scenario of not having a single creative bone in your body, that doesn’t matter. Your job is to create an environment that generates the best ideas from the people around you to drive your organisation’s success.
Perhaps your job description as a leader says that your role is about delivering shareholder return. Ideas are fundamental to business success and if you’re not confident that your business is doing all it can to leverage the latent innovation that lies in your workforce and wider network, then, however good your results are, you are quite probably not achieving your business’ full potential. It’s all too easy to get so focused on day-to-day delivery that the bigger picture and new opportunities can pass by unnoticed.
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