Innovation Culture

　 We had the general assembly today and I made a speech about "innovation".

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 Today, I would like to share with you my thoughts on a topic which is close to my heart, that of Innovation. 

  Many employees in the company often say that our engineers or product planners are not introducing innovative products. However, is innovation only done by the engineers or product planners? So let us now think about innovation.This is my 1st key point for today.

   What is Innovation?     An innovation can be big or small. It can be brand-new or just a bit different. It can be very complex or very simple; it doesn't matter.  An innovation is all about trying new things or doing things in a new way which have not been done before, or applying new ideas and methods to improve upon the current situation and be more efficient.

    By the way, no product or service can really be considered as innovative during its incubation period.Whether it is innovative depends very much on the response from the market.

    When we try and execute new ideas, there is high possibility of failure and I feel that this is what’s holding many of us back from doing innovation.  If you take risk, you may fail but if you do not take risk, there is no innovation.Not all new ideas are good or innovative but that should not stop us from trying.  If out of 10 new ideas, 1 is successful, that is a very high ratio.  We can also look at failure from the eyes of Thomas Edison who said “I have not failed; I have found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.

   So, taking risk is one of the most important criteria for innovation. This is my 2nd key point today. If we ask our engineers and product planners to make an innovation, it means that we are asking them to take risk. However, should they be the only ones taking risk? Shouldn’t we take some risk, too?

   Everybody is afraid of failure. However, if there is a culture of risk-taking in the company,it will encourage everyone to take up the challenge too. So, if we ask our engineers to take risk, we also should take risk to encourage them.

   Let me now share an example about myself.  I was generally not a risk taker and I sometimes worried about making mistakes and failing. But when I joined the company more than 30 years ago, it was considered cool to take risk and execute at the individual level.   Since then, I have always pushed myself to take risk and try new ideas whenever I can. Though not all my ideas worked or were 100% successful, I’m proud to say that over my 30 years in the company, I have done innovation in many aspects, which has led me to where I am now.

   One of the innovations which I am most proud was achieved when I was in Japan during the mid to late 1990s.  At that time, We just started its digital products business. These were totally new product categories which many consumers were not too familiar with. As such, I initiated the idea of organizing seminars for consumers across several locations in Japan. Even though consumers had to pay to attend these seminars, it was a big hit and it became an innovative business.  

   Riding on the success of the seminars, I thought of another innovation: producing videos to teach consumers how to use their products.  This was all done by my team and I; we developed the content, arranged for the models and video-shooting, and even placed a model number on each DVD produced.We produced a total of 6 videos and close to 10,000 copies were sold. So, even though I am not an engineer or product developer, I was still able to think of an innovative business which contributed to the company.

    I hope my example has given you some idea on how innovation can take place.  But you may ask:  how can I innovate in my job, since I am doing almost the same work everyday?  Well, you can start by changing the way you work.Take a close look at your work and try to reduce or eliminate work that is not necessary, so that you can become more productive.  It is only by doing so, that you can free up your time for more value-add work and ultimately have more work satisfaction.  

    As a company, I want us to develop risk taking as a company culture. I want to challenge each of you to move out of your comfort zone and start thinking and executing new ideas.  Whether it is coming up with a new method to make reporting faster, or a new way of communicating with our customers, or even a system enhancement to simplify current processes; all these are innovations. 

    Do not be afraid of failure as it is only through failure that you will learn and become better.  When you think of a new idea and you are passionate about it, do not be afraid to speak up.  Share the idea with your colleagues, ask for their feedback, and execute it.By doing so, it will encourage your colleagues to follow suit and very soon, we will have a culture where it is the norm to take risks without the fear of failure, a culture where new ideas can flourish and be executed.

   This is the kind of company culture which I would like to initiate, starting from today.  This is my 3rd key point.

   As I end, let me once again emphasize my 3 key points for today:

1) Innovation - everyone can do innovation, not only engineers or product planners

2) Taking risk – this is one of the most important criteria for innovation. If you take risk, you may fail but if you do not take risks, there is no innovation.

3) Culture – let’s develop a risk-taking culture in the company where everyone will take risk, a culture where new ideas can flourish and be executed.  

Remember:

Believe that innovation is the key to our success now and into the future.

Let’s all start to innovate today!

Thank you. 

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