Innovation is Everybody's Business: How to Make Yourself Indispensable in Today's Hypercompetitive World

“In a volatile, disrupted economy, it’s no longer enough to be competent or experienced,” says Robert B. Tucker, President of The Innovation Resource Consulting Group in Santa Barbara, California. “You can be a 20 year-experienced Accounts Payable Supervisor or a Supply Chain Director and find yourself on the street because the number of people who can do what you do is a mile long.”

In his new book, Innovation is Everybody’s Business: How to Make Yourself Indispensable in Today’s Hypercompetitive World (ISBN: 9780470891742; Hardcover; $21.95; October 2010), Robert Tucker identifies seven I-Skills that frontline employees can utilize to become the want, not the need in their industry. The research is based on a study of 43 innovation-adept managers and contributors that were interviewed on how they innovate at the grass roots level. Tucker explains, “We didn’t want to hear from the Zuckerbergs or the Steve Jobs. We wanted to hear from people in the trenches who were quietly getting new things done, and we wanted to discover what they did that enabled them to create incredible value.”

What they found that truly surprised the researchers was just how engaged these individuals were in their work. As one of them told Tucker: “I’ve never felt such satisfaction doing my job as I do now. I get to manage a really great team of people and I’m having the time of my life.”

Reducing headcount has become a fundamental tenant of the global economy. Automation, human-replacing software, and outsourcing have enabled employers to do more with fewer and fewer people. Functional skills, says Tucker, are no longer enough to differentiate you, and “if you’re an undifferentiated employee, you’re a commodity.”

Organizations are desperately in need of people with the abilities and skills to get new things accomplished, says Tucker, an advisor to organizations such as LG Electronics, American Express, and Nokia. “I-Skills enable you to move up the value chain and become harder and harder to replace.”

You’re probably innovating already, Tucker points out. But to capitalize on uniqueness, you have to sharpen I-Skills through daily practice. You want to develop a personal innovation strategy, and get involved in projects having to do with the future of your organization.

Tucker urges managers to ponder the following questions:

1.)    Are you fortifying your “idea factory” regularly?

2.)    Are you assaulting assumptions within your department, company and industry?

3.)    Are you building your network internally and externally?

4.)    Are you able to sell your ideas to colleagues and clients?

Whatever the position or industry, the ability to innovate, to problem solve, experiment, create ideas, drive revenue growth, collaborate, and add value gives frontline employees a personal competitive advantage that can never be outsourced. INNOVATION IS EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS is a must read for those struggling to figure out how they can stand out, become indispensible and hone the I-Skills they never thought existed.