Innovation can sleep your competition

If you don’t take care of your client, you can bet someone else is waiting in the wings to do so. Someone else is always waiting for the chance to show a client how they can do better with stronger services, relationships, results and strategy. If you sleep and stop innovating, you can bet someone else is ready to leap and take you down.

This isn’t bad. It’s just business. In fact, it’s life.

In business, life and sports, competition is always the same. There is a lot of truth to "survival of the fittest." This is why innovation should happen over and over again. And it should happen fast.

Think of some of the greatest brands we have seen during our lifetime. Remember Blockbuster? RadioShack? What about Pan American? All gone.

Oldsmobile? Gone. Amoco? Gone. Hummer? Gone. Saab? Gone.

What do all of these iconic brands have in common? They were all once great, and now they are gone. Why? Failure to change perhaps, but more so, failure to innovate.

Why do brands fail to innovate? Maybe it’s the fear of the unknown. Maybe it is a leadership team not equipped to look at anything other than the bottom line. Maybe it’s jumping ship instead of brainstorming a great idea.

While some brands innovate, others die.

Our country’s current economic battle isn’t helping because the first thing that goes when things get rough is marketing. This makes no sense because new marketing can help you position your ideal innovative solution.

How do you become innovative? My advice is simply that – my advice. I don’t think there is a right way and a wrong way – more so, whatever works. For me, I try to get my head away from the daily norm and into a place where I can think about solutions, as well as what problems those solutions could potentially fix.

I start with a whiteboard and a topic. Whether it’s franchising, marketing, PR, digital, social media or advertising, I need a starting point. And then, I simply start brainstorming.

I don’t think anyone is an absolute expert when it comes to marketing and communications. Sure, there are those of us who can come up with a million ideas on the fly, but many of those ideas would fall flat on their face. In marketing, it’s a lot of guessing and then celebrating when something works out and making excuses when something doesn’t.

Data can solve a lot when it comes to innovation, but I believe the willingness to change and adapt is the critical component.

Innovation shouldn’t come yearly, it should come daily. We, as leaders and marketers, should try to make improvements every day. That constant battle to get better is what will ultimately win the rat race. Whether a basketball player trying to make more free throws (unless you are Shaq) or a baseball player adjusting their swing – the best of the best in this world are those willing to listen to advice, read the data and make quick changes. And when a company can have leadership focused on innovation with the willingness to adjust and change, that’s when a company and its people have a chance to win.

I can’t guarantee the future, but I know that innovation will continue to be a priority for No Limit Agency* as we fight to become the greatest midsized agency that ever existed.