Expand Your Mind: Innovation and Culture
by Miki Saxon
Today we have four stories that sit at the intersection of innovation and culture.
The first is the story of Nick Sarillo, founder of Nick’s Pizza & Pub in Chicago. Sarillo set out to build a culture that ignored common knowledge’ about what to expect from hourly workers. Did he succeed? You tell me.
In an industry in which annual employee turnover of 200 percent is considered normal, Sarillo’s restaurants lose and replace just 20 percent of their staff members every year. Net operating profit in the industry averages 6.6 percent; Sarillo’s runs about 14 percent and has gone as high as 18 percent. Meanwhile, the 14-year-old company does more volume on a per-unit basis (an average of $3.5 million over the past three years) than nearly all independent pizza restaurants. And customers, it seems, adore the service: On three occasions, waitresses have received tips of $1,000.
Next is commentary from Daniel Isenberg, professor of management practice at Babson College, who offers cogent reasoning to save passion for the bedroom.
Passion is up there with innovation in what people think entrepreneurs need in order to succeed. I doubt it. My experience as entrepreneur, entrepreneur educator, and venture capitalist tells me that the more scarce and valuable commodity is cold-shower-self-honesty.
Third on our list is a cautionary tale about what happens when a leader looks for external confirmation that am innovative idea is great and passes on it when none is forthcoming.
Innovation is killed with the two deadliest words in business: Prove it.
When faced with a new idea, the boardroom impulse is to ask for proof in one of two flavors: deductive and inductive.
This attitude gives insight on the difference between Apple and Microsoft—only Microsoft’s blockage is internal according to Dick Brass, a vice president at Microsoft from 1997 to 2004.
Microsoft has become a clumsy, uncompetitive innovator. …
Internal competition is common at great companies. It can be wisely encouraged to force ideas to compete. The problem comes when the competition becomes uncontrolled and destructive. At Microsoft, it has created a dysfunctional corporate culture in which the big established groups are allowed to prey upon emerging teams, belittle their efforts, compete unfairly against them for resources, and over time hector them out of existence.
The striking difference between the culture at Nick’s and the one at Microsoft is a real eye-opener.
Image credit: pedroCarvalho on flickr
