The conversation went something like this, “You know Blaine, I have always tried to grow the business through being more creative and innovative than the next guy, our competitors, but it seems more and more difficult especially in a bad economy.  People simply don’t want change.  They hunker down, afraid of losing their jobs or failing at something new and so the wall of resistance goes up and stays up.  People are very good at finding a million excuses of why they can’t, or won’t, innovate.  We set goals, timelines, rewards, and it still gets shot down or pushed out further and further.  Innovation is NOT EASY – and you would think it would be just the opposite, people jumping at the chance to create something new.”

Any of you feel this way or have this same conversation with your leadership team?  This is not uncommon in businesses today – figuring out how to create a “Culture of Innovation” is no easy task for a business leader these days.

When John and I decided to create our “Innovation Teams” it was for this very reason – CEOs, Business Owners, and Leaders were challenged by their abilities to create innovative environments. We figured a team of motivated leaders would be a good place to start. Sharing and collaborating also is a great way to come up with some new ideas and talking to people who have made it work is also helpful.

For this particular leader, I shared how the world l live in, Social Business Strategy, has been a great way to rally employees around thinking more innovative.  Allowing them to participate in the conversation with their customers at every level in the organization was scary but intriguing…more on that later. I also shared the book, Linchpin, by Seth Godin as a good place to start in regard to the “new ideal” type of employee he might want to be seeking.  The journey continues…innovation will never go out of style.

One article that came out from the Chief Executive.net group was interesting and while it focused on larger organizations, there we some interesting take-aways that smaller and mid-sized ($250M and below) can take away from this type of study.  The article, “CEOs of Billion-Dollar Companies Most Optimistic in April.”  They surveyed 276 people in developing this confidence index – not a huge group but certainly enough in this larger size space.  Here are a few highlights for you in case you don’t want to read the entire study…

• Over 71% of the CEOs of companies over $1B in revenue said they expect business conditions to be “at least good” in 2012 as compared to 2011.  Companies from $100M to $1B felt almost exactly the same, 70.5% of their CEOs said the same thing.

• Most predictions and feelings depended heavily on the November presidential election.

• Most felt that economic growth would be “hindered” if Obama was reelected – mostly because of tax structures and programs he is supporting and not supporting for business

How do you feel?  Is this the same sentiment you have as a CEO and Business Owner?  We would love to hear your thoughts/comments and allow others to share them as well.  We have also posted this question on our CEOtoCEO Private Discussion Group on LinkedIn if you would rather comment “behind closed doors” with just your peers.  But if you would like to have all our readers hear what you have to say, just click “Leave a Comment” below and give us your thoughts.  Thanks…

Innovation is such a hot, yet elusive topic among almost every CEO, Business Owner, or Business Leader today.  Why?  Many believe it is because for the past several years, executives have “hunkered down” and tried to survive and control costs, not think about expansion.  But there is a new opportunity in town – the economy is starting to improve in many sectors and most see this as the PRIME TIME to invest in their people and their companies.

Innovation and creating a culture of innovative thinking and employees is critical to either remain on top or in striving to get there.  Without innovation, most companies will be gone in the next few years.  Even Peter Drucker said it was one of the two key mantras for success in any business, “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation.”  This is more true today than it has been in the past 5 years.

And not to leave out the other key ingredient, marketing, it will be one of our first “deep dive” sessions in our Innovation Teams after they get started.  If you are looking for ways to win and beat your competition, this is a great place to start or will have some great content to incorporate into your planning for the year.  Either way, we hope to see you on the 9th and maybe even as an Innovation Team Member…

This couldn’t be a more timely question and discussion as CEOtoCEO is getting ready to launch our INNOVATION TEAMS.  John and I designed these teams for just this purpose, helping CEOs discuss some of the most relevant issues to building their business, making it stronger, and creating a more innovative environment for their organizations.  As we continue to talk to more CEOs we see how innovation in all areas of their business is going to be the key to their growth in the near future.  Innovation in Sales, Marketing, using Social Media, Leadership, Financial Management, Risk Management, Exit Planning, and other relevant areas.

As we move forward to put together the members of the team, we would encourage those of you who may be interested in either joining or learning more about these teams to contact John or myself to learn more before this team is filled.  We are purposely keeping the teams small, around 12-15 CEOs, so we can have some very strong interaction and engagement with the members.  Our plan is to learn some new ways of thinking from the speakers who share their knowledge with the group and some incredible new ways of approaching innovation and business from our members.  Stay tuned as we share these insights and information along the way…

David shared both the history of McKinstry and how they started as a small plumbing company on Main Street in downtown Bellevue and now are one of the most respected organizations in the PNW and around the country.  Even President Obama has visited David and Dean (his brother and President) and honored them with an award for their green initiatives and advancements.

Here is a video clip of just a small portion of David’s presentation.  It was interesting to see how McKinstry is approaching innovation and how this ties into comments and suggestions from Harvard Business Review and Ford for example.

If you have some thoughts, comments, ideas, or suggestions to add to this and share with your peer CEOs, please click the “Leave a Comment” link below the Share This button – your peers would love to hear and learn from you.

You can read the results of the survey but I wanted to share and excerpt from the study I found to be most impactful.  They said…

The intensity of the CEO’s job, coupled with the scarcity of peers to confide in, creates potentially dangerous feelings of isolation among chief executives. Fifty percent of all CEOs report experiencing loneliness in the role, and of this group, 61% believe that the isolation hinders their performance. First-time CEOs are particularly susceptible to this isolation, with nearly 70% of those who experience loneliness saying it negatively affects their ability to do their jobs. Nearly half of all CEOs estimate that most other leaders experience similar feelings of loneliness.

This is one of the primary reasons we kicked off our CEO Discussion Group – to allow CEOs, Business Owners, and Presidents to ask questions, share insights, and learn from each other in a “Private and Secure” format.  If you think this would be helpful to you as well, we invite you to visit our CEO Discussion Group page and read more about how it works and why it exists.  It is easy to join and maybe it will help keep all our members in the “right” 50% that don’t feel so isolated and lonely.  I look forward to your questions, insights, and answers….

A marketing question I share with others is “Where does social media fit in with the traditional marketing channels used in B2B?”

John provided some great insight to my question at the breakfast by using this helpful chart in his presentation.  If you are wading into the social media marketing pool and looking for sound advice consider joining the CEO Discussion Group.  John Rubino and my cohort in crime Blaine are both members.  Both are very knowledgeable and helpful.

Companies must adopt marketing strategies that meet the prospect’s intent and lead them to a purchase.  There are a dizzying number of strategies that are necessary to accommodate the point at which the prospect is in the buying cycle.

Many business leaders I visit with on this topic accept that many of these new media strategies need to be incorporated in the their marketing mix but confused as to how to move forward.  To gain some clarity you might be interested in reading the post by Douglas Karr author of ‘Corporate Blogging For Dummies”.  OR plan to attend the upcoming CEOtoCEO Breakfast “Keys to Success In a Social Media Marketing World”

One school of thought holds that successful CEOs are team players, good listeners and humble. In the book “Good to Great,” Jim Collins called such people “Level 5” leaders.

Yet Jobs and other superstars such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg aren’t generally seen in those terms. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Bezos was described as “not always a ‘nice’ CEO,” but rather as one who “can inspire and cajole but also irritate and berate.”

So which is the right model: The humble team player or the arrogant tyrant? Continue reading ..

What do you think are most important factors for a CEO to succeed?