Innovative Leaders of America

 Innovative Leaders of America…

Changing our World; one innovation at a time…

Who we are:

The innovative leaders club of America is a non-for profit organization focused on empowering students through a holistic, hands-on and practical education of the different aspects of business and innovation. It is our goal to educate high school students in how to effectively manage innovation to successfully launch and sub sequentially manage and maintain a profitable, sustainable business. Through a 9-module process, students will gain the experience and knowledge of the various aspects of launching a business; from brand management to non disclosure agreements, and everything in between to make them self-serving in their quest to develop an innovative idea on their own.

Innovative Leaders of America is a comprehensive yearlong program that prepares high school students to conceptualize, fund, and operate their own businesses.  Participants learn to think like entrepreneurs of innovation, receive detailed instruction in firm design and management, and receive ongoing guidance and support from leaders in the local business community.

Curiosity is one of the most important characteristics of humans. This element allows us to ask the simple but fundamental question of “Why”? This in turn can lead to the next question of “what if….?” The “what if” part of our  thinking process permits us to contemplate the powerful possibility of changing  the present “status quo” to something different and hopefully better. In order to generate something new, different and better it requires for innovation to take place whether it occurs consciously or not. So it could be argued that innovation is  natural gift that humans have but few are able to properly managed and leverage to our own benefit.

Background consideration

In todays’ volatile economy, company leaders are carefully trying to determine their next steps to both survive the recession and be prepared to succeed when it’s over. For many, they recognize that their standard way of doing business is no longer effective. They need to figure out ways in which to separate themselves from the competition and how to position themselves for sustainability today and great success tomorrow. In this environment, innovation isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

C.K. Prahalad (a distinguished strategy consultant, author and professor at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan),  keynote speaker at this year’s World Innovation Forum (WIF) event held in New York, challenged the delegates to question whether their organizations view innovations a burden in this recession or as a way out of the myriad financial pressures they now face. Saying that most leaders and organizations are split on whether the recession presents a good time or a bad time for innovation, Prahalad explained his personal bias is actually against “best practices” and that all of his views are through the lens of “next practises,” which is really what innovation is all about– looking to the future for what’s possible. “If we all benchmark each other, we gravitate to each other. You must amplify weak signals and connect the dots,” Prahalad said. “How do we invent the next practice?”

But in order to do so we must be focused on the value creation process and the shifting dynamics around us. Global perspective is a requirement whether an organization is global or not, and it’s critically important to understand whether relationship with customers are changing and whether the nature of an organization is changing — and if so, how?

“Strategy without innovation makes no sense,” Prahalad offered, especially in an environment like today’s in which one should expect that every global industry  will be restructured.

So what does it take for companies that are leaders in their industry space to innovate? One key seems to be the willingness to set up a different business unit and give it “an unfettered character to kill  the parent.” New entrants often succeed because the incumbents can’t react fast enough to a shift in an industry paradigm, argued Clayton M. Christensen, innovation strategist, author and Harvard University professor.

“A business unit cannot evolve. But a corporation can evolve if it shuts down business units that have been disrupted,” Christensen offered. IBM, for example, is a great example of a business that has proven it can evolve.

Much in the same way a story told in one ear morphs into an entirely different account by the same time it passes through several ears, an innovation agenda can get hijacked by business models.

Ideas have to be shaped in a business plan to get funded. They also have to be aligned to the interests of sales teams, engineers and finance leaders. After that process. “What pops out is a funded initiative that is a very different business plan that what went in,” Christensen said. “There is an inherent bias against innovation.”

Overcoming the Obstacles

One challenge that innovative leaders face is that they need to have a business plan containing a revenue plan on its first page. Many innovators, Christiansen says, shift their focus to budget matters because the funding mechanisms drive expectations.

Another obstacle is what Christiansen describes as “The Gospel of Outsourcing.” In the case of Flextronics, for example, the circuit board maker for Compaq eventually convinced its client to move its own motherboard, computer assembly, and ultimately, its supply chain and logistics operations to its Flextronics platform. As the outsourcing progressed, Christansen explained, both Compaq and Flextronics enjoyed gains in profitability. Ultimately, Flextronics brought its “20 percent less” cost model to take over Compaq’s product design. Over time, Compaq’s outsourcing of key business functions had leveled the playing field for another company.

The future in Now

According to Prahalad, the key is  “if you want to do this, don’t start from where you are. You’ll only get extrapolation if you start from where you are. If you want to really be future-oriented and strategic, anticipate the position yourself in 2015 or 2020… in the future is about folding the future in, not extrapolating the past.” If an organization is bound by its past and doesn’t take a truly visionary approach to setting its future course, it will be destined only to gain the kind of budgetary resources that align closely with past corporate investments.

Today, companies must imagine their future, take short steps, learn, consolidate and move forward. Often, the right question is, “Can I learn fast,” rather than, “Can I invest big?” To hit innovation right, Prahalad said, one needs both speed and stamina. “Urgency to take action and clarity to direction are both fundamental,” he added.