In the panel on “Real World Examples of Innovation,” the external speakers discussed how to inoculate an organization to be innovation-tolerant.
o “For us it starts with hiring. People are passionate about wanting to work with the Toronto Blue Jays. We look for people with a growth mind set. We have a lot of cross department collaboration,” said Miller. “The key is understanding customer needs and how those needs evolve. We use innovation to draw fans and win baseball games.”
o “A culture of innovation has to start with a commitment from the top of the organization. The key is to decentralize and liberalize the innovation process,” said Cineplex’s Sautter. “We play to the high probability outcomes, we hedge to the low probability outcomes and we contingency plan in real time. Nobody has a crystal ball that goes out 10 years. You have to increase the risk tolerance of your customer.”
o “Innovation has to be balanced with your core business. You cannot do innovation for the sake of innovation. It can be a waste of time,” said Google’s Morris. “[Our Alphabet President] Sergey Brin has a 70/20/10 rule on how resources should be spent—70% on the core business, 20% on secondary business and 10% on innovation. We allow time for it and reward it.”