Often times, when my phone rings it is a company looking for strategic advice or creative solutions to resolve problems they are experiencing in their own business. My interest is peaked and I listen as the business owner describes the situation in detail. I respond by conducting a straight forward line of questioning which goes something like this, “Help me understand the problem. What are you trying to accomplish or what are the barriers to the situation?” My responses vary yet, as anticipated, the business owner will often say, “I already tried something like that once.” While the conversation winds down and the business owner thanks me for my time and new perspective, I find myself wondering why the heck they called if they are not going to try something more than once or entertain an innovative way of thinking. In fact, I wondered why people are reluctant to explore opportunities to improve, period.

I was reading the book Inside Steve’s Brain by Leander Kahney (link to cult of mac.com) and the answer came to me when Kahney shared the following, “Apple’s labs are littered with prototype products that never made it out the door.” Apple has accepted the fact that many great ideas and innovations will never make it to market. Yet, they continue to explore innovative ways to generate revenue while realizing full well many will never be implemented.

It struck me that businesses are afraid to explore innovative ways of thinking and new ideas for fear of not being able to return to their old ways of business. Companies typically do not explore new ideas or innovative solutions because they simply do not know how to say no to some of the prototypes. In light of their inability to say no, many companies tend to avoid any creative pursuits all together.

In a sense, innovation and breakthroughs are cut off at the pass because companies are concerned they will have to bring any new discoveries into fruition.

Apple, on the other hand, understands how to say no. They can safely make their way down the innovation trail because they know full well they will not execute all of the prototypes. When you are unable to say no, great ideas get stifled, companies cannot make the distinction between forward thinking and forward acting.

In addition, there is a huge difference between great ideas and the process of bringing a concept to fruition. Many times, an innovation or breakthrough can happen without making any radical changes to a product or service. Sometimes, a simple change of perspective can have a huge impact on the way in which a company resonates with a client.

The ability to say no is one part of the equation in keeping the throttle on growth idle. Companies today are missing the boat by having many “sacred cows” and in effect, remaining clueless about the “customer experience.” Please keep your RSS feeders on as I shed some light on the throttle to driving more profit for your company.

Exercise Room:

At some point it becomes important to step back and ask yourself some questions. If I strolled through your company today, how many artifacts (product or service concepts) would I find?

Is your organization guilty of squashing innovation and fresh thinking for fear you will have countless prototypes to develop? What impact would it have on our business if you could roll out one new product or service innovation that your clients are willing to pay for?