Leadership springs from innovation and the commitment to positive change. That’s why any employee at any level can lead and lead well. Are you ready to be a change agent and innovator?

If you’re not sure about the importance of innovation in the workplace, consider this: Innovation is the essential difference between the most successful businesses and all of the rest. Just ask Amazon, Netflix and Uber. Innovation will allow your company to thrive among competitors who are struggling just to survive.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND INNOVATION

Change initiatives are emotionally and mentally difficult for most employees. This means that you must be ready and able to act as an anchor in rough seas for your team. It may seem counter-intuitive to provide stability while fostering change, but the right kind of stability prepares your team to handle any situation.

When leading through company change, flexibility, creativity and a clear vision of goals are necessary attributes. Are you able to promote change while lending support to your team? Assess your performance during challenging times and take concrete steps to improve it.

BEING OPEN TO CHANGE

So many of us fear change, and that fear causes us to react with hostility or tentativeness when decisive action is needed. Being open to change means knowing your personal strengths and weaknesses in the context of dynamic situations and using your insight about your own limitations and capabilities to shape your future actions. It also means using constructive criticism as a powerful means to build new competencies. All of these are essential to successful innovation.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP

The leader who is committed to learning new skills and sharpening existing ones is modeling great behavior for others. The “lifetime learning leader” also teaches his or her team that professional development makes innovation possible. As we expand our toolbox at work, we are better able to master challenges and generate creative solutions, and everyone around us is likely to follow suit.

AUTHENTIC TEAMWORK AND LEADERSHIP

Leaders facilitate, not intimidate. Strong leaders don’t need to pander employees because they earn loyalty and buy-in from their team. Monitor how much you’re talking in meetings compared with how much time you spend listening. Remember to include others by asking for their input and value it by giving them your attention.

When you do need to disagree, be constructive and try framing serious criticisms with supportive remarks. Let your team know that innovating isn’t socially dangerous by being receptive to new ideas.

MAXIMIZE YOUR RESOURCES TO INNOVATE

Are you resourceful in your leadership? More and more teams in every industry are being asked (or required) to do more with less, but maximizing your resources means much more than that. Find a way to make old, familiar resources do new things, and you’ll find that you are getting “double duty” by re-purposing these resources into new (and perhaps improved) documents and sources to rely on in the future.

Similarly, engineer your work life to eliminate clutter. Distill your toolkit and strategies so that each element produces perceivable results. Each time you are asked to do less with more, realize that you are being invited to innovate and do more with your personal resources.

UNDERSTAND AND LIVE OUT CORE VALUES EVERY DAY

Core values don’t just belong on an “About Us” page. They should communicate everything your business stands for in terms of the public’s perception and you and your team’s values. Work to deepen your understanding of your core values by analyzing their function as you tackle new challenges. Which values are allowing you to innovate and achieve more success? Can your team members explain what the values are and how they function within their work each day?

Be introspective so you can identify any core values that seem out of place in the current context of your business. If you find core values that seem to have been left behind or no longer signify the mission of your business, decide whether you need to adapt and improve them for the long haul.

UNDERSTAND YOUR FAILURES

You have the power to invoke progress for your business and in your industry, but you must first identify your obstacles. If you can’t figure out what’s holding you back, you can’t move past them. Use your business plan and strategies as reference points for your examination of the business to see what obstacles you need to eliminate in order to move forward. Your targeted innovations are the tools that will get you past those challenges.

CONNECT YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WITH YOUR METRICS

Why would you fail to use metrics when they can show you exactly how your business is doing? And more importantly, why would you use metrics if you didn’t put them in context within your business strategy?

Keep a constant eye on the relationships between your products or services and the behavior of your customers. Use your metrics to discern what’s working and what might be better. Use the numbers, not your gut, to adjust strategies and assess how effective your business plan is. If you make data-backed innovations week by week, you will see better performance over time.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR INNOVATION GOALS

You want to hit each and every business target, but you can’t do that without taking aim. Creating, nurturing and promoting a vision for your business allows you that kind of successful aim. It also shows you exactly where you need innovation the most. Whether it’s your marketing strategy or your customer relationships, a creative approach to your existing goals fosters innovation.

MAKE STRATEGY PART OF EVERY WORKDAY FOR A HEALTHY CULTURE OF INNOVATION

Your annual meeting shouldn’t be the only place where your business strategy is discussed and modified. Strategy and innovation should be part of your day-to-day organizational culture. Even when you’ve made a series of impressive changes, innovation shouldn’t stop. Each day you can anticipate the needs of your customers and make progress toward innovations that will pay off in the future.

Innovation culture isn’t about being 100% high tech or changing the face of your company in a day. It’s about the kind of incremental, productive changes that can happen every day when you prioritize innovating. When you make innovation and strategy part of each workday, you’ll have a better perception of how to ensure your business’ success.

Is innovation important? Ask Blockbuster if they saw Netflix coming. Here’s a hard truth: The market will always be searching for something new—and you, not your competitor, must be the one to give it to them. Understanding and enacting these four principles is essential to kick-starting a state of constant and successful evolution in your business. Force #2 of the 7 Forces of Business Mastery is Constant and Strategic Innovation.

1. Unlock and Unleash Your Power to Create Progress

Pinpoint what’s blocking your company’s path forward. All the motivation in the world is useless without insight into your—and your company’s—method of operation, and why your vision could be at a standstill. Use your business map to understand where your products are now and to clearly define where you want them to be. 2. Make Your Target Innovations Compelling

Only when you have a compelling vision for the future of your products, services and delivery will you be able to effectively hit your target. Come up with powerful reasons to innovate. And, remember innovation comes in many flavors—it’s not just about high-tech advances or efficiencies in your process. You can innovate how you approach your relationship with your customers, or add a new voice or perspective that sees your products and services in a new light.

1. Link Your Product Features to Your Sales Numbers

The world’s most successful companies are constantly examining the relationship between their products and buyer behavior. Are there ways you can adjust your product to encourage higher frequency of repurchase? What changes can you make to increase your number of customers and dollars per sale? Incremental improvements can generate geometric sales growth. 4. Strategizing Should be an Embedded Skill

A quarterly pow-wow isn’t enough. Strategizing must be a part of your company’s culture, the same way customer service and quality control are deeply embedded in your processes. Innovation is really a daily habit, whereby you constantly reassess what your customers need now, and what they will need in a few years. It requires anticipation, and a determination to never stop identifying new opportunities to serve your customers better through fresh and inventive approaches. These four principles can help you create a state of constant and successful evolution in your business. Innovation doesn’t have to be glamorous. It doesn’t require a “nano” prefix, a “tech” suffix or—for that matter—a standing room only press conference.

Think of some of the most recognizable brands of this day and age: Apple. Netflix. Tesla. Amazon. Spotify. What do these companies have in common? Yes, all these companies are now worth a good sum of money, but before that, they all relied on one strategy: creating a culture of innovation in the workplace.

All startup businesses believe their product or service has out-innovated the competition – otherwise, they’d never have taken the risks involved in starting a business in the first place. But being a one-time inventor is vastly different from embracing an innovation culture. Successful companies and their leaders realize that they must add value to people’s lives in new, improved and meaningful ways. Since your customer’s needs are constantly shifting, you need not just innovation, but strategic innovation that’s woven into every facet of your company. To really shift your business strategy into high gear, you need an innovation culture definition that resonates with your brand. Here’s how you can shift gears to attain strategic success.

Crafting an innovation culture definition that resonates

What is cultural innovation? The innovation culture definition most often used in business centers on companies that invite unorthodox thought. These firms recognize that creating a culture of innovation is paramount since it’s only through the freedom of thought that a team can exercise full creativity in problem-solving. Businesses that prioritize innovation culture solicit input from all levels of their organization to generate the most forward-thinking ideas. When a staff is unified by a common goal (innovating for your brand) and mutual respect (for your hand-picked team), the entire business soars. Innovation culture examples point to a company culture built on the values a business holds dear, backed by a commitment to fresh thought. As you work to create an innovation culture definition that aligns with your brand, you’ll find tailored solutions that energize lasting success.

Why is creating a culture of innovation important? Innovation culture redefines risk.

Instead of operating on a fear of failure, a culture based on innovation understands how to use fear in a way that supports success. Team members are not afraid to make mistakes because they know that setbacks lead to even greater successes. These workplaces are on the cutting edge of technology and know that keeping up with their customer’s lives and needs is at the heart of their growth. Management in an innovation culture does not punish mistakes. Instead, it encourages team members to take chances and always strive to get to the next level. Innovation culture keeps your brand relevant.

Not creating a culture of innovation means your company will lose relevance. You can only prevent disruption by competitors by prioritizing your own business’ continuous improvement, updating your services and finding new ways to address your customers’ changing needs. An innovation culture is one based on anticipation. If you do not find a way to anticipate potential business problems and turn them into opportunities, you run the risk of being blindsided by an obstacle that could take your business down.

Innovation culture attracts top talent.

Being known as a company with innovation culture is also a strong way to attract the right employees to build a team that works. Those who are hungry for success and have the brightest minds want to work for companies that will let them innovate and take calculated risks.

Identify your purpose to create an innovation culture

Want to create this type of environment at your company? It’s helpful to look at innovation culture examples to get ideas, but first you need to determine your purpose as an organization. Ask yourself: What business are you in? How do you bring value to the lives of your customers? What can your brand do that no other brand can? How do you create customer loyalty? What makes you talkably different?

Answering these questions thoroughly might take a few days or weeks, but the answers you’ll find are crucial to understanding the process of creating a culture of innovation in the workplace. Give yourself time to think about the true mission of your organization and how it relates to your customers. You must understand what you’re doing from a traditional viewpoint in order to introduce innovation.

Next, identify any roadblocks in your way. Do you need to hire a larger sales or marketing team in order to bolster growth? Are you harboring limiting beliefs about yourself that are preventing you from reaching your full potential? Are you too focused on competing instead of creating? Finding honest answers to these questions will help you fine-tune an innovation culture definition that prepares your company for long-term success. 

Your customers are key to creating a culture of innovation

Marketing expert Jay Abraham suggests that innovation culture begins with gaining access to your clients. When your market isn’t working for you or your products or services don’t have value to the marketplace, your consumer has basically denied you access to their attention, interest and trust. They are not willing to engage and be vulnerable because they feel you are not aware of their needs and lifestyles. When this happens, you need to have constant awareness and a game plan capable of promoting consumer shifts. When you realize that your customer’s needs are always changing and that you must continually adapt to these needs, an innovation culture will naturally form. According to Jay, you will master the capabilities for being interesting, fascinating, uniquely appealing, highly educational and unparalleled in your communication.

Empower others as leaders to foster an innovation culture

Your next step is realizing that good ideas can come from anywhere within your organization. Recognize that real leadership means creating a culture of innovation for all staff and committing to positive change. To encourage innovation, foster a culture that values creativity and proactively addresses corporate communication issues.

Encourage your employees to discuss their ideas with people in other departments and at different levels of the organization. This spreading of ideas can only lead to growth. Additionally, challenge your team to think of themselves as leaders. Every person at the company has leadership potential, not just the managers and executives. There are many types of leadership styles, so learn how to recognize the signs of different leaders and encourage them to find ways to share their ideas in a positive, encouraging environment. By allowing staff at all levels of your company to contribute and thrive, you’ll become adept at creating a culture of innovation.

Establish a brain trust to ignite innovation culture

Jay Abraham believes that most business owners suffer from tunnel vision. They begin to think in a narrow way because they are only exposing themselves to others who think in the same manner. To break out of this and begin thinking outside the box, they must establish a brain trust of those who have a different perspective and who can help them see opportunities and obstacles they are unaware of. Successful business marketing and creating a culture of innovation is about connecting – connecting with your team, connecting with your customers and connecting with those who you can learn from. When you form a brain trust, you expand what you see as possible and find new solutions to old problems. You develop mentors and confidantes that not only help you create an innovation culture in the workplace, but who can also help you through rough patches and celebrate with you when you succeed.

Focus on the future to encourage innovation culture

There’s no point in putting extensive work into creating a culture of innovation if you don’t have a powerful vision for the future of your company. It all comes back to what business you’re in. If you’re in the fitness clothing industry, you’re not just selling fitness apparel – you’re empowering others to feel their best, inside and out. You’re encouraging your customers to live a healthy life so they can go on to achieve their goals. Remember that innovation culture isn’t about selling – it’s about giving value.

The most powerful innovation culture examples are businesses that have found the true mission of their company and always keep it at the forefront of their minds. They visualize the end goal of what they want to do for their clients and operate as if they have already achieved that goal. When you make this your focus, you’ll be naturally inclined to strategically innovate because you’ll do whatever it takes to reach that goal.

Revisit your progress to create an innovation culture

Your plan is in motion. You’re working well with your team and have an understanding of your future vision, as well as an idea of what it takes to add value to your customers’ lives. Now that you’re moving forward, be sure you’re making adequate progress along the way. Are you hitting goals you set for yourself and your team? Are you continuing to strategically innovate or have you reached a place of stagnation? Don’t be afraid to change course if something’s not working or if you determine a better way to achieve your goals. It can be time-consuming to do so, but by pursuing a continuous innovation culture now instead of letting opportunities pass you by later, you’ll be on track to succeed.

Innovation culture examples

Now that we’ve outlined a basic framework for understanding innovation culture, let’s look at a few examples of what a company committed to fresh thinking really looks like. As you formulate your own innovation culture definition and methodology, utilize these examples as guidelines to keep yourself on track. True innovation culture produces the following outcomes:

1. Retains quality staff

One of the most basic-but-overlooked ideas for creating a culture of innovation is improving quality staff retention by honoring employees’ emotional intelligence on the job. Employees are humans, and management practices that do not respect employees’ emotional needs create work environments that are emotionally and mentally difficult for most employees. You can lose your smartest, most talented workers if you’re not taking their emotional intelligence and needs into account. Rather than expecting too much of your staff, respect their emotional intelligence when you develop recruitment strategies and create your best practices in hiring and promoting.

2. Embraces change

Change forces adaptation. That’s why change can be a key spark in creating a culture of innovation. Embracing change means recognizing opportunities for adjustment, including internal and external business practices. It also means modeling to your employees that change is nothing to fear and will often lead to your company’s biggest breakthroughs. Leaning into opportunities for change is essential to a successful innovation culture in the workplace.

3. Facilitates professional development

When thinking about how to encourage innovation culture and creativity, real leaders are committed to their own professional and personal growth as well as their staff’s development opportunities. To facilitate creating a culture of innovation, make ongoing professional development part of your company’s policy. Consider what your staff really needs to grow and excel at their jobs and give them access to tools like podcasts, books and business coaches. When your staff is growing, your company is, too.

4. Keeps innovation attached to your customer base

Make sure that your efforts at encouraging an innovation culture are attached to your product. Whatever the innovation, ensure that you and your staff strategize around the behavior of your customers. By facilitating innovation that is practical and customer-oriented, you ensure that the innovation serves your biggest priority – creating customers who are raving fans.

5. Prioritizes fresh approaches

Instead of putting “creating a culture of innovation” on the back burner, make it a priority. If you’re short on innovation culture examples, find a way to use old, familiar resources for new purposes. As you demonstrate how to drive strategic innovation, you’ll become a living example of the values your company upholds.

6. Makes innovation a budget priority

What is cultural innovation going to accomplish if it can’t fund your team’s best and brightest ideas? The adage “put your money where your mouth is” is true of innovation culture examples, which won’t produce results if they can’t get off the ground. To make innovation culture work, you must prove to your staff that you’re serious by funding the creativity you’re asking of them. Ask your team for ideas on how to reorganize and rededicate your budget to what counts: nimble, strategic and constant innovation. 

7. Expands and strengthens your network

No business is an island. No matter how strong your operations are, you are always strongest with the support of others in your industry. Building your company on innovation culture means strengthening the ties that bond, internally and externally. As you grow and expand through constant innovation, you become an invaluable player in your field. You’re seen as a leader, mentor, and resource, all of which strengthen the professional relationships that will support your company through challenges as well as successes.

Want to learn more about creating a culture of innovation? Attend Business Mastery, a five-day event hosted by Tony Robbins that delivers powerful messaging about what it takes for your brand to thrive in any market. With incredible speakers and actionable strategies, you’ll refine your skills and feel more prepared than ever to innovate.

Are you engaging in business disruption? When talking about movers and shakers in different industries, many different disruption examples come up. Disruption has become one of the most overused words in the business world – so overused that it’s difficult to pinpoint the real meaning behind all the buzz.

The concept of disruptive innovation might have one meaning in your industry and an entirely different meaning in another. How can you give disruption meaning for your brand without a clear understanding of what it is? Do you even need to care about disruptive innovation? If your business isn’t disrupting the status quo, is that a problem? And does all success require disruption? 

What is disruptive innovation?

This meaning of disruption is synonymous with “interruption,” which has a largely negative connotation. But for business use, the term “disruption” really took off with Clayton Christensen’s 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma, where he introduced the idea of “disruptive innovation.” He used this phrase as a way to think about successful companies not just meeting customers’ current needs, but anticipating their unstated or future needs. His theory worked to explain how small companies with minimal resources were able to enter a market and displace the established system. In Christensen’s writing, business disruption was a good thing.

Business disruption was a powerful concept when Christensen first published it, but like most buzzwords, the term quickly took on a life of its own. Suddenly everyone in the workforce was “disruptive” or “innovative.” Christensen was so concerned with the transformation the term had taken on that he published a 2015 update in the Harvard Business Review on what the term “business disruption” really encompasses.

Yet this trendy phrase continues to catch on. As Tony Robbins has pointed out, the words we attach to our experience become our experience. Words have a biochemical effect on the body. The minute you use a word like “devastated” you’re going to produce a very different biochemical effect than if you say, “I’m a bit disappointed.”

The same goes for when we give disruption meaning with phrases like “disruptive innovation.” When overused, they lose their meaning and limit how we can think of what makes a successful business. This leads to a homogenization of how we visualize success and, ironically, creates limiting beliefs about what kind of businesses will change the nature of the game.

Innovation versus disruptive innovation

Since the boom of Silicon Valley and the tech industry, disruption has started to seem like nothing more than someone having a great idea. But true disruption goes further than innovation: Innovation can occur within an existing industry, while disruptive innovation actually creates a whole new industry. Disruptive innovation is true disruption.

The original theory actually points to a specific process through which a business disrupts others, taking their market share by targeting overlooked customer segments. The disruptive business then moves into the mainstream, gaining more and more market share while also staying agile and able to outmaneuver the competition.

Christensen says that business disruption is likely to start by either attracting the less-demanding customers or creating a market where none existed before. “When mainstream customers start adopting the entrants’ offerings in volume,” he explains, “disruption has occurred.”

An authentic disruption definition must work in any industry, for any business model and for any brand. Since the term has different meanings in the business world, disruption is an often-nebulous concept. Let’s consider some criteria for business disruption.

They aren’t always flashy. One problem with identifying disruptors is that often they need lots of time to make a real impact in their respective fields. Sometimes it can take years for the true effects of disruption to present itself in the market. Additionally, a disruptor’s business model can look completely different than what’s already there, so it can be hard to identify disruptive innovation in early stages. This is especially true of companies that anticipate social shifts that few others in the industry are aware of. They add real value. Most true disruptors aren’t setting out just to be disruptors. Like any other business owner, they want to provide a product or service that adds real value for their customers. The best disruptors are those who are innovating constantly because they find meaning in their mission. Their business is revealed as disruptive only over time as they make their mark, often permanently changing an entire industry. They never really focus on the question “What is disruptive innovation?” because they don’t care. Their priority is making a difference. They do things differently. It’s easy for other businesses in a market to write off potential disruption. A disruptive business doesn’t appear to be a threat at first because their ideas are so out there that others expect them to fail. Or it may follow an uncommon business model, like Apple’s iPhone, which directly connected developers with users in “apps” – and changed the communications industry forever.

Benefits of disruption

Is disruption good for your business? The answer to this question doesn’t depend on the market or on outside forces. It depends on the psychology of the business’ leaders. If leadership is able to recognize an opportunity for disruption to quickly respond to another disruptive business, the business will be rewarded.

Improved agility. The tech companies that started the disruption trend are well-known for being flexible, agile and innovative. They have flat business structures with less hierarchy, making them better prepared for the future. Companies that embrace the ethos of disruption will see similar benefits. More growth opportunities. When you’re on the lookout for disruption, you’ll likely spot growth opportunities as well. Even if they don’t qualify as true disruptive innovation, these new sales channels, markets or products can help you scale your company and drive more revenue. Higher customer fulfillment. The goal of any business must be to create raving fan customers. Listening to what your customers truly want has two benefits: You’ll discover opportunities for disruption and create happier customers.

Disruption examples

To better understand disruption, think of Netflix. When Netflix started, Blockbuster thought the service seemed insignificant. Why would anyone wait for DVDs to arrive in the mail when they could pick them up at the store? Blockbuster didn’t anticipate where the future of movie watching was headed, or that streaming would become the next phase of home entertainment that would ultimately lead to its downfall. Instead of considering the next generation and their preferences, Blockbuster continued to rely on their DVD-renting customers.

When Netflix came to the rental giant to sell their business, Blockbuster declined. If Netflix had started out targeting Blockbuster’s core market, it’s likely Blockbuster would have launched “a vigorous and perhaps successful counterattack,” explains Christensen. But because of the time that disruption requires, Blockbuster didn’t realize it was threatened until Netflix tapped into streaming services, unlocking the brand’s immense profitability. By then it was too late. Today, Netflix is worth billions of dollars and Blockbuster is bankrupt.

How about an example of a company most people think is disruptive, like Uber? Chances are you’ve read or heard the words “disruption” and “Uber” used in the same sentence. Yet according to Christensen’s theory, while they are innovative, Uber doesn’t actually fit the true meaning of disruptive innovation. Why? Because the service provides a direct challenge to taxis – a pre–existing market.

Did Uber shift the transportation industry? Yes. But it didn’t truly disrupt it.

Think of it this way: If an idea existed before, it’s likely the business isn’t disruptive. But some innovations – like radio or television – changed the entire entertainment industry and embody disruptive innovation.

DISRUPTION EXAMPLES How to leverage business disruption

Creating a disruption strategy requires an actionable plan for getting from where you are now to where you want to be. It puts your desire for disruption into motion. Having a strategy allows you to anticipate disruptive forces coming into your industry so you can plan for – and benefit – from them.

1. Determine your X factor

How can a brand deploy business disruption? Is there a secret to disruptive innovation?

The phrase “disrupt or be disrupted” is a misnomer. In many ways, debating whether or not Tesla Motors or Apple fits the disruptive model or not misses the point. What matters more is turning your customers into lifelong devotees, not making this or that product disruptive.

It’s about finding new and better ways to engage and retain your customers, such as with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Depending on how it’s used, AI might not qualify as business disruption because it’s been heavily utilized for decades. But whether it’s disruptive or not, it can provide an easy and effective way to connect with your customers and can make your business more successful. When you think of it that way, who cares if it’s business disruption? It’s success, and that is what most business owners strive for.

When you clearly identify your X factor, you’ll be poised to experience incredible growth as you find ways to stand out in a crowded world. By anticipating the changing needs of your customers, innovation and disruption will occur naturally. When you take the focus off of disruption and put it on solving problems for your customers, you will always head in the right direction.

2. Practice CANI

Another way to think about success via innovation comes from Tony’s Business Mastery event. As Tony says, “Innovation, what is innovation? It’s not tech. Innovation is any way you find a way to do more for a client than anybody else does. In fact, if there’s one goal I have for you, it’s to fall in love with your client and not with your product or service, because your product or service is going to have to change.”

Unless you’re constantly innovating, and innovating in a way that customers care about, you’re going to be in the dust. That’s CANI – constant and never-ending improvement.

Put another way, are you a multiplier or a diminisher? As Jay Abraham teaches us, a multiplier can take even an average business idea and elevate it beyond its initial potential. Conversely, a diminisher could take a bulletproof business that’s in the black and tank it in a matter of months. The key is attitude.

If you view yourself as an entrepreneur and back that up with action in your business, you will seek out innovation and improvement at every turn. You will not settle for the status quo when you know that your business can do more. Conversely, a proprietor is happy to put in hours, make a modest profit and never disrupt the status quo. In short, a proprietor maintains the status quo. Entrepreneurs have a growth mindset and are born to become examples of disruption. 3. Learn how to spot business disruption

What causes business disruption? Most often, markets that are ripe for disruption are those that include a lot of large, inflexible businesses. These companies have been around for years and feel that they have cornered the market – they feel safe. This is a mistake and leaves them vulnerable to disruption from startups that provide more value than them.

This is why disruption requires keeping in touch with changes in your industry so you can stay one step ahead. This might include technological advances, changes in the market or shifts in customer preferences as your target audience grows older. You want to disrupt instead of being disrupted, so keep a pulse on your competition and stay agile and open to new opportunities.

4. Practice self-disruption

“Disruptive innovation is a high stakes game, with high risk and potentially high rewards,” explains Alison Coleman in Forbes. “It’s also very difficult to spot the winning disruptive opportunities, especially when disruptive ideas require other players in the ecosystem to acknowledge and embrace the change.”

Don’t be afraid to disrupt your own brand.

Self-disruption – constantly adapting your product to remain relevant – can only help you. Forbes reports on Apple’s use of disruption as a long-term growth strategy. The company’s iPod revenue dropped by $345 million because of Apple’s own business disruption: the iPhone, which generated $18 billion in revenue.

5. Optimize from within

Don’t get tricked into thinking that because your business isn’t on the scale of Netflix, there are no lessons to be learned. Businesses of any size can engage in disruption. But to do so, you must work from within your own company.

Answer this question: Do you want your business to grow? Ninety-nine business owners out of 100 will answer yes. But before growing your business, you must optimize your company from within.

This is where we can turn to business guru Jay Abraham. He argues that many business owners want growth, but their focus is trained outside of their business. This is a mistake. To successfully prepare your business for real growth, you need to encourage disruption from within by analyzing your existing structure. Instead of engaging in disruptive innovation blindly, Jay Abraham advocates for careful examination of your business from the inside out.

6. Scale mindfully

Once you have a handle on what business you’re really in, you can begin the process known as mindful scaling. Start with your sales force. Before you invest in a new software system to automate your team’s numbers, look first at their processes.

How can you make their messaging more effective? How can you open client relationships in new areas? Don’t stop at analyzing your sales team. Take a look at your marketing strategy as well. If your numbers are flat, it’s time to experiment with new avenues of messaging. While you’re at it, take a look at how you serve your existing customers. Are you meeting their needs? Are there ways you can serve them faster and make their process easier and more streamlined?

Remember, a hallmark of disruptive innovation is the ability to play the long game as well as maintain your initial advantages even as you take more market share. This requires a comprehensive business map, a powerful vision for your organization and excellent goal-setting and decision-making skills. All of these things will help you scale mindfully and become a successful example of disruption rather than a forgotten failure.

7. Don’t force disruption

No one can deny the popularity of business disruption and what the term implies. Who wouldn’t want to change the landscape of the marketplace? Most entrepreneurs are naturally innovative, and most innovators have dreams of changing the world. This is one of the reasons why disruption is so appealing.

Because disruptive innovation has become synonymous with progress – and everyone likes progress – many companies attempt to style themselves as “disruptive” right from the get-go. But here’s the secret: not every successful business or product needs to disrupt.

Take virtual reality. New innovations have led to the creation of a new market poised to change how we experience everything from sports to education. Skeptical? Listen to Brad Allen, chairman of NextVR, describe his vision of what’s coming and judge for yourself. With innovations like NextVR, consumers can touch, feel and experience events like never before – all from the comfort of their own homes.

What’s more important: focusing on business disruption, or taking an integrated approach? It could be the case that, to make your business talkably different from the competition, you don’t necessarily need disruption.

To truly create sustainable growth and a thriving company, get to know your business identity. When you understand what drives your company, you’re prepared to take it to the next level.

Where the will to innovate, disrupt and change the game really comes from

Have entrepreneurs lost the will to innovate? Sir Richard Branson doesn’t think so. He’s “never known a more exciting time for innovation,” and I agree 100%. We’ve got self-driving cars, miniaturized medical equipment and private space exploration. What will innovation bring us next?

For evidence that disruptive innovators can be spotted in every direction you turn, look no further than my friend and partner, Easton LaChappelle. Since the age of 14, Easton has dedicated himself to creating affordable, state-of-the-art, prosthetic limbs – IN HIS BEDROOM!!

Spectacular Disruption and Strategic Innovation

Want a storybook tale about an entrepreneur’s will to innovate? Once upon a time at a Colorado science fair, Easton met a little girl who was born without an arm. The girl’s parents told Easton about the elbow-to-fingertip prosthetic she was using that cost $80,000. Easton couldn’t believe that the 7-year-old would need several of these $80,000 arms as she grew.

Being a bright and ambitious innovator, young Easton had been tinkering with projects his whole life. In fact, he was there at the science fair presenting the first generation of a prosthetic arm that he had made out of a Nintendo Power Glove, Legos and electrical tape. But he had a moment of clarity in his meeting with that little girl and her family. He was moved in his heart to greatness.

Using 3D printing, Easton found a way to create a finger-tip-to-shoulder prosthetic with brainwave control for around $400! Yes, that’s not a typo. For about the same price as a PlayStation 4, you get an arm that is more powerful than the $80,000 model. A person using Easton’s first $400 arm can curl 300 pounds!

Easton was invited to the White House to meet with President Obama. I was completely inspired by Easton’s vision and even more so by his ability to execute. I had to connect with him. I reached out right away. When we got in contact I found out that he was a fan of my work — as I was his. We set up a partnership, Unlimited Tomorrow, in 2014. Driven to help people who can no longer walk, he began working diligently on building a carbon fiber exoskeletal suit. The goal was to eventually mass produce and custom-fit it to each person in need, effectively empowering a person with the ability to walk again.

Today the first version of the RoboArm design open-source via its website. That’s right: completely free. He’s continued to improve on his designs, winning accolades like a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough award in 2015. His affordable prostheses have continued to evolve: in a recent partnership with Microsoft he built a realistic arm for Momo, a nine-year-old girl. This arm’s fingers can withstand 10 lb of force per finger, move individually, give haptic feedback, and has AI capabilities that will continue to grow. Its cost would be around $5000, though Easton hopes to bring that down even more.

In early 2018, a crowdfunding campaign exceeded its initial funding goal and the money launched a pilot program to make 100 arms for 100 individuals in need, as Easton’s company works to scale and refine the manufacturing process. Now Unlimited Tomorrow has teamed up with Stratasys and Dassault Systèmes to produce the next generation of artificial limbs; I can’t wait to see what happens next. Motive matters

In the decade to come, many things we currently think of as miracles will become commonplace occurrences because of innovative disruptors. And I really believe their motive does matter. Yes, Easton stands as a gifted entrepreneur to potentially do very well for himself financially, but the driving force behind what makes him do what he does is his honest desire to change lives — that’s what ushers him to remarkable breakthroughs faster than any other incentive ever will.

Entrepreneurs who have a vision larger than themselves are the ones who will not only find financial success. They will be the force that serve the greater good; the ones who will truly change the world.

Most people’s hearts are in the right place, it’s just that they get so caught up in making a living and forget they can design a life. Still there is absolutely no question that the disruptor spirit is alive and kicking harder than ever in the world we live in today. There are tools of creation now at our fingertips that have never existed before.

As the old proverb goes, necessity is the mother of invention. When we have a deep enough need for something, history shows that a thought leader will be inspired to find a way to serve that need.

When an individual’s vision is aligned with insatiable hunger and a persistence that will not tolerate failure, miracles occur.

Fortunately, Easton LaChappelle is not the only one stirred to serve. The great innovators all have one thing in common: They know why they want to do something and that understanding allows them to stay out of the barbs and limits of the current how. Innovative entrepreneurs let the Why take hold of them and in doing so, they find the How, or they create it with their own hands.

THAT is innovation.

As Megan Smith, former Chief Technology Officer of the United States, said, “I am a card-carrying optimist and I think innovation is alive and well.” I couldn’t agree with her more. I would declare that there is no reason to question the state of innovation. What I would ask you as a disruptor today is:

What’s your why?

What’s a set of reasons that will get you through the inevitable challenges that face any innovator? How do you “connect the unconnected” as Jim Grubb, Cisco’s VP of Emerging Technologies, put it.

And lastly, I ask this:

How do we as innovators collectively shift the conversation from, “Can it be done?” to “How do I make this happen right now?”

I’ve always said that passion is the genesis of genius. Go disrupt the limitations, and do it with passion.

Miki Agrawal is a social entrepreneur who uses creativity and innovation to challenge the status quo, and change culture. She is relentlessly dedicated to creating sustainable impact, and disrupting the shame surrounding topics – and industries – that have been deemed taboo by many people. She is the founder of several acclaimed social enterprises: Wild, Thinx, Icon and Tushy (collectively valued at over $200 million) – and also the author of the #1 best-selling books, Do Cool Shit and Disrupt-Her.

Team Tony: You went from working in the finance industry, to playing professional soccer, to plunging headfirst into entrepreneurship by opening your first business – a pizzeria – just a couple years out of college. What was your mindset like at the time?

Miki Agrawal: For me, 9/11 happened right after I graduated from college and was working right across the street from the World Trade Center Towers. Seven hundred people in my girlfriend’s office died on that day, and two people in my office died –but it was the first (and only!) day in my life that I slept through my alarm clock, and luckily, I missed the whole thing. My girlfriend went down to get coffee, which is how she missed it too. It was a surreal experience that changed my whole outlook on life. I was reminded that the mystery of life is that you never know when it’s going to end –and that the time was absolutely NOW to make every single moment count!

It woke me up to my truth of wanting to do something creative, entrepreneurial and one that solved real-world problems. This propelled me to start my first alternative restaurant concept (called Slice and was rebranded to Wild), the first gluten-free, farm-to-table pizza concept that supported local and organic foods. And then a few years later, I co-founded and built THINX, the period-proof underwear concept, and most recently, I created the modern bidet brand TUSHY. I never would have imagined to have created brands that are now valued at over $200 million. It’s been a wild ride to say the least.

Team Tony: Once you decided to do something entrepreneurial, and you had your first idea for, what were the first steps you took to get it started?

Miki Agrawal: Since I was still young and had a lot of student loan debt, I had to figure out how I was going to take the leap from a cushy, safe finance job to an unstable entrepreneurial not-sure-when-I’ll-get-a-paycheck-next job. So I decided to widen the circle, and involved people who I considered to be brilliant. I reached out to the smartest people I knew and invited them to a “Meeting of the Minds Dinner Party” and made sure each person knew that they were hand picked for being one of the smartest people I knew. I borrowed my friend’s fancy loft, bought food for everyone, and made sure that everyone who was invited knew that they were going to meet other really cool, smart people that they didn’t previously know. Part of the invitation said that we were also going to brainstorm my idea for my new business. So it was a WIN-WIN. Almost all 20 people who I invited showed up. It was a WIN for them because they got to come to a fun, free dinner, meet other cool smart people, in a cool space. It was a WIN for me because I got to brainstorm my business idea with them. The first “Meeting of the Minds I had was supposed to be two hours but lasted over seven, because people were so excited to brainstorm.The energy was palpable! I hashed out my business idea, concept, name, SO MUCH of it in just one meeting. The key thing was to invite people from every walk of life (architect, designer, creative, marketer, finance person, real estate person, musician, consultant, etc.) because ALL of their perspectives were different.

From there, I was able to put the business presentation together, raise the money in an unorthodox way and make it happen.

Team Tony: You’re an extremely creative person – and have started businesses in several different industries, each solving very different problems. What would you say is a common thread for your inspiration?

Miki Agrawal: I get my inspiration from simply being in the world, doing my best to observe things with a fresh (childlike) eye, questioning the things that don’t seem to make sense and notating the things that “suck” in my day-to-day life. And rather than complaining about the things that don’t make sense or suck, I get excited (!!) because it’s an opportunity to solve those things and make our collective human experiences better.

Team Tony: What are the core skills – or traits – that you think someone needs to possess in order to start a business and be successful? What sort of mindset have you adopted through the years that has contributed to your own success?

Miki Agrawal:

Having purpose: When times are tough, I remind myself WHY I am doing it, and it helps keep me going. If we don’t have a WHY, it’s not going to be easy to keep going. Being able to really communicate my message: It’s important to be able to really get your idea across in a simple way. For example, when you explain your idea to someone, can they REPEAT IT BACK? If they can’t, try to explain it differently. Make it artful: People (like me!) care about design and aesthetic, so I focus so much on making sure our designs are gorgeous and artful. It all matters – the postcards, the ads, the packaging, the website, the product design. Think about your product through the lens of art. Drive to keep iterating: Just because you finally launch something doesn’t mean you don’t need to keep updating, improving, fixing and adjusting. I am maniacal about iterating constantly. Strategic mindset: It’s important to get the right people and ideas together, and have a thought-out plan.

Team Tony: You’ve been quoted saying, “It’s the moments of struggle that inspire true transformation.” Can you tell us about a moment of struggle that you learned from? What did you learn, and how did you transform?

Miki Agrawal: Throughout my entrepreneurial career, beyond just trying to build things that matter in the world (which can often be a struggle just on its own), I have been called a lot of names for wanting to disrupt the way things are done in society. I was initially taken aback by the willingness of some people to attack and troll people for things that could easily have been taken out of context. I realized that anyone who is doing something disruptive and different can be threatening to some people. Rather than getting hurt, I embraced compassion, love and gratitude instead, –and found a way to deepen and stretch my own emotional capacity. I feel so much more these days, especially as a mother of a two year old. It feels so good to feel deeply, especially compassion and love, for those who experience challenging things like I did. I now can tap into a deeper emotional well which has been incredible for connecting deeply with others.

Team Tony: What role have coaches, and mentors, had in your life – and how have they contributed to your success in business?

Miki Agrawal: My coach CHANGED MY LIFE. I cannot see a life without my “good witch” as I like calling her. She has held me to my highest state for the last 6 years, through the ups and downs of my entrepreneurial career and she truly has been one of the greatest mirrors in my life to self-reflect and self- correct, especially my blind spots. She showed me how I can literally live my dreams, if I choose to.

Team Tony: When you’re in the ideation phase, how do you evaluate whether an idea has potential?

Miki Agrawal: I always ask myself three questions before taking the leap and starting any business.

What sucks in my world? Does it suck for a lot of people? Can I be passionate about this issue, cause or community for a really long time?

Let me give you a real world example.

What sucked in MY world? Well, wiping with dry toilet paper after I pooped sucked in my world! I was dealing with a hyperthyroid condition and pooped a LOT every day, and let me tell you, they were not clean poops! I would practically use up a whole roll of toilet paper to try and clean myself, and would eventually take a shower because I couldn’t stand being dirty. I also hated wasting so much toilet paper! (Too soon for this convo? We all poop, so I say it’s ok!) Did you know that the average American uses 57 sheets of toilet paper per day!? That’s 15 million trees killed per year! Not to mention the billions of gallons of water and bleach required to make toilet paper.

Does it suck for a lot of people? I realized that this is an issue for a lot of people, both in the first world, and the developing world. Bidets aren’t common in the first world, and because of that, many people turn to wet wipes – but unfortunately wet wipes can also cause issues, including anal itching and fissures, because over time they strip away the natural oils from our behinds.

I also realized that pooping SUCKS for billions of people in the developing world who don’t have a clean place to go to the bathroom. Women and girls often have it the worst because they are at risk of getting assaulted if they defecate in the open during the day, forcing them to “hold it” until late at night, which is really bad for their health. My Dad, who grew up in India, for a few years had to search for a clean toilet every day, because it wasn’t a secure thing for him either.

Can I be passionate about this issue for a really long time? YES! I am SO passionate about this, and that’s why I created TUSHY, the modern, affordable bidet that cleans your behind after you poop.To date, we have helped save 2 million trees from getting flushed down the toilet, and have helped over 57,000 families gain access to clean toilets in India. My goal is to save billions of trees, and help fight the global sanitation crisis that is affecting billions of people still today by building clean toilets around the world.

Team Tony: What is one piece of advice would you give to women wanting to make an impact on the world?

Miki Agrawal: No more talking and dreaming, only doing! Put one foot in front of the other, and focus on doing just one thing every single day toward the thing you are interested in impacting in the world. It can be just one thing! It’s amazing how fast it adds up when you are doing one thing every day. Part of my philosophy on creating an impact, along with how you can start a movement that solves real problems and does good – even if you don’t have a lot of money, a college degree or years of experience, is covered in my newest book, DISRUPT-HER.