Amy Radin, one of our keynote speakers for the upcoming Digital CPA 2015 conference, served on the front lines of innovation at some of the world’s biggest companies, including Citi, American Express, E*TRADE and AXA. Now in an advisory/consulting capacity, Radin draws on her experience and day-to-day contact with entrepreneurs and business leaders to talk about the inner workings of innovation in columns for The Daily Innovator, a blog she founded for the Huffington Post. Here are some highlights:
On finding support for innovation in your organization
People are motivated to support a new idea for their own cluster of reasons. They're looking for what's in it for them, of course. But they also want to be inspired to join the next big thing.
Innovation is characteristically derived from a broad assortment of ideas, data, chance and inspirations. Building support for innovation requires the same broad outreach to win allies, champions and interest.
- From Creating the Innovation Snowball Effect, 9/8/2014
The definition of strategy
- Strategy, quite frankly, is what leaders do to identify and allocate resources to help them get their businesses where they want them to go.
- Strategy is mostly about execution.
- Strategy is less about what you must do, than what you should not be doing.
Or, my favorite definition:
Strategy is about knowing (1) where are you? — (2) where do you want to be? — (3) how are you going to get there?
- From Strategy: Now Is Not a Good Time, But Now Is Always the Time, 8/21/2015
Why you should have a chief customer officer
(B)eing customer-focused doesn't mean give the customer anything they want. It's about:
- Zeroing in on the audience you want to serve
- Being able to identify audience members to establish and build authentic relationships
- In so doing, inspiring them to see your brand and offerings as relevant to their lives
- And as a result, achieving win/win outcomes for these individuals as well as for your business.
What business does not want to make this happen?
- From Who is Your Chief Customer Officer?, 6/1/2015
On the importance of empathy
Emotion, not rational MBA-style analytics, is an amazingly strong driver of people's choices, beliefs and decisions. While perhaps not easily quantifiable in the spreadsheets and tables that seem to dominate the business world, empathy and insight translate into business impact that constantly manifests itself in results. In fact, I don't think great innovation can happen without them.
- From The Four Innovation Practices That Matter, 1/28/2015
Year-end planning often focuses purely on operational activities. That’s why we’re thrilled to have Amy kick off this year’s Digital CPA Conference to give us the tools to incorporate more innovation and strategy in our planning for the coming year.
What are you thoughts on innovation in accounting today?
