Ideas and new information are a form of currency, which means businesses that continue to innovate – disrupting their industries and often themselves – hold the key to continued success.

Founder and CEO of OMX, Nicole Verkindt was Mitel’s keynote speaker at their recent Innovation Day 2019. Here are some key takeaways we wanted to share with you from Nicole’s speech…

• Innovation is really a frame of mind, rooted in the culture of an organization. Leaders need to set up the parameters and the environment for it to flourish, then just bring on the right people and encourage entrepreneurial, innovative thinking.
• If you are deep into working in a niche area and have the established culture of always looking for better ways to do things while accepting new and diverse ideas, you’ll keep improving and naturally iterate to your bigger idea.
• It’s important that businesses create an environment that allows employees to try new things, solve their gnawing frustrations with their teams and then incentivize and motivate them to see those concepts through.
• Businesses are really just groups of people. It is leadership’s job to set the tone through constant conversations with team members, asking them what they think and embracing their desires to improve the business.
• The data shows that teams that embrace members with extremely diverse life experiences grow their businesses more, especially in new markets.
• Innovation is not one glamorous moment; it comes from a long, almost boring process that could take tens of thousands of hours of trying things, failing, changing what you are trying, talking to others about these issues, talking to customers, and repeating the process over and over again.
• Nicole’s insights are a timely reminder that success in business is virtually impossible without continuous innovation. Build a culture that fosters it, don’t shy away from failure and nurture employee diversity to ensure your business thrives for years to come.

Let’s talk about new ways to enable innovation in your business with technology. Call us today at 800.787.4848 or jnolte@ctsmd.us.