The Shining Digital City On the Hill

Digital Technology Remains An Unharvested Field

There is so much innovation potential being left on the table, right now, that our future could truly be that shining city on the hill. The potential, much of it, lays in digital technology.

Your future could be that company that thrives amidst chaos.

Your future could be that person who surfs above the waves of massive change.

But there’s a big IF isn’t there?

You won’t get any results if you don’t invest in innovation now.

That phrase “city on the hill,” thanks to Ronald Reagan, has come to represent American exceptionalism, but, here, I intend it to mean something bigger, and more akin to the biblical source it comes from. What it means is “don’t hide your talents under a bushel.”

Accelerating Innovation Now Is An Imperative

In a measurable way, we are hiding our talents under a bushel (the USA is now #14 in the world in innovation). We are not taking advantage of the ample resources available to innovate.

There are solutions to climate change. To clean energy. To supply chain logistics, to rising sea levels, to sales, etc. There are solutions to injustice and inequality. There are solutions for how to revive your business, be it a Fortune 100 company, a non-profit, or, a one person consultancy.

The combination, the mash-up, of digital technology applied to challenges could lead to the innovation that saves you. Saves us.

The pandemic shifted many of our businesses towards digital technologies. Zoom, etc. It’s an upside to a horrible event. But here’s the thing — even before the pandemic businesses lagged in adopting mature, proven, digital technologies. There are so many, but AI, Blockchain, Robotics, you name it, are under-utilized.

We’re not quite at the end of this nightmare, but Covid19 will end, and, if you’re not innovating RIGHT NOW you’re going to be doubly slammed by the new era.

The opportunity to accelerate innovation is here.

Felix Staeritz published a piece in Forbes recently (“Why The Urgency for Innovation Has Never Been Greater.”) He makes good points about how Covid19 really exposes our general lack of ability to innovate rapidly. I just ordered Felix’s new book: FightBack, How to win in the digital economy with platforms, ventures and entrepreneurs

Slow and steady used to work for corporate innovation. Covid19 should be a warning, a call to arms for corporate innovators (and small businesses too). We can no longer be satisfied with lazy, ponderous, low priority, low risk innovation. If you’re not being more aggressive than that, the next Black Swan event will take you out, if this one didn’t.

The time to invest in innovation agility is now.

Two Real World Examples

Personally, I’m coming up for air. My consultancy has been maxed out during Covid19 with two primary engagements.

Covid19 changed my business, which is now less in-person and more online. As you may know, I’m an innovation facilitator. I just completed a rigorous, month-long, front-end of innovation process with a client — and I’ve never met them face to face. The dynamic engagement included Zoom, Stormz, telephone calls, texts, and exchanged documents. It involved a team of 12. I consulted with management to focus a rapid innovation process effort. The team cranked out 320 ideas, wrote up 20 as elaborated concepts with mini-plans, and we roadmapped innovation projects for the next three years. This is not rocket science, but it’s work that needs done. This mid-sized firm invested in their future in one of the darkest of times. It’s brilliant.

The other project did my heart some good, helping small business people recover from Covid19. I facilitated a group of entrepreneurs for “The NIIC” (an amazing incubator and economic development center in Fort Wayne, IN) and I used my Innovation MoshPit process. That engagement is just coming to closure but the process worked well for the business re-invention those folks needed to do. We got some regional press from WNIT in South Bend.

Yes, there is life, and innovation, even during Covid19. The question is, how do you prepare for life after Covid19? Short answer: Invest.

How To Invest In Innovation (Use GFi)

Happy to chat with you about how to make innovation real at your organization be it big or small. As a start, consider these offerings:

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