Mantra Design – Innovate, Buy or Die!

Dana A. Oliver is the Senior Director of Research & Development at Medtronic’s Surgical Technologies ENT / NT division and has helped grow this business unit from $100 million to approximately $2 billion in annual revenues over fourteen years. He has approximately 30 years of experience in the field of medical devices, working for such companies as Medtronic, Genzyme, SIMS Level 1, Kirwan Surgical, and Strichman Medical. He has applied for over 30 patent applications and has been granted over 20 US patents to date. He is the author of Mantra Leadership – Don’t Become the Emperor with No Clothes! 
He is a graduate of Northeastern University and ITT Technical Institute.

Dana plans to become an independent Consultant and Educator in calendar year 2016 offering expertise in Innovation Leadership. To learn more about the author or inquire about his services, please visit his website  www.mantraleadership.com or he can be contacted by email at dana@mantraleadership.com

Dana lives in Florida with his wife Linda and daughter “Lexi” Alexandra.

Mantra Design & Leadership Foundational Principles

January 20, 2016 – Strategy Driven.com

It’s safe to say that behind every effective business strategy are a series of underlying principles that provide for the foundation and guidance for its success and continuing prosperity. The four foundational business cornerstones I embrace and which I’ll speak to briefly are the following;
•Commitment to business growth through organic innovation by funding research and development at investments of 10% or greater as a percentage of the company’s total revenues.
•Develop and evolve your company’s product brands through your customer’s eyes.
•Continuously improve your company’s products and technologies by focusing on the few truly strategic core platforms.
•Hire smart, ambitious, get-it-done employees and lead them with emotionally intelligent innovation leadership skills.

Commitment to growth

If you desire to grow your business by 10% or greater, then it’s only logical to have to invest 10% or greater of the company’s annual revenues into its research and development team. This is not to suggest that double digit growth is not possible without such an investment, but it’s also not reasoned to believe that if you’re not willing to make the investments necessary to do so, that such a result should occur. Research and development is the life blood of any companies continued growth because the by-product is the introduction of continuously innovative and differentiated products that allow for and drive revenue growth. Continuing to make consistent investments into research and development ensures the company’s portfolio is continuously refreshed which provides the mechanism for your sales team to get back in front of your customers. Your customers in turn see your company’s commitment to innovation which results in excitement, loyalty and of course repeat sales. Continuing investments into research and development is the single best practice to ensure your portfolio is refreshed, and to prevent a lack of innovation which conversely slowly starves your business of oxygen-rich green dollars. Another natural by-product of continuously funding research and development at double-digits, particularly organic new product development, in essence demands focus on the company’s top revenue line and minimizes distractions on bottom line earning initiatives. Said differently, grow the top and the bottom will follow.

Develop your brands through your customers

In order to exceed your customer’s expectations necessitates not only identifying their must-have features, but also understanding their unspoken and assumed requirements, as well as appreciating their pain-points and improving upon them. However, this level of customer satisfaction only occurs if you truly understand their professional livelihood and perspective so intimately, that you can speak too and envision their product frustrations along with any perceived platform deficiencies. While being on a first name basis with your customers and having their personal email or cell phone is important, this does not help you develop breakthrough technologies and products that exceed their expectations. This only occurs by learning to speak and understand your customer’s professions with such a unique closeness so as the relationship created is viewed on a near peer-level perspective. This highly sought after connection thereafter enables product developers to recognize elusive opportunities that if solved, result in the solution to an unmet need accompanied by their profitable innovation that follows. However, as these opportunities move from identification to solution, new product development needs to occur in continuous and unrelenting iteration with not only your key opinion leaders, but with customer friendly and competitive foes alike. Most importantly during this process, is the continuing iteration of the company’s products in a customer simulated environment until the solution culminates in a uniquely differentiated product or feature with novelty and inherent ease-of-use.

Focus on the strategically important

Perhaps the single biggest reason that the average company struggles is due to their lack of focus and dilution of their greatest resource, which are people. In order to be successful as an innovative company, it’s essential to be able to identify what’s truly strategic, commit to it with laser focus, and cross the goal line with those most impactful needle moving initiatives. This same truism also applies to a company’s new product development choices and more specifically, its primary revenue generating strategic platforms. There are without doubt more leadership aspirations at the average company demanding attention that your limited investment capital and human resources can commit to complete. The simple reality is that the enemy of focus and completion of a given strategic assignment is over allocation and lack of priority. If everything is important, then nothing is important. Successful companies dedicate themselves to be the very best in their space, and that demands an unrelenting commitment to the company’s flagship platforms that distinguishes them from their competitors, as best in class. No matter how narrowly one defines your best in class business moniker, commit to it with tireless dedication and position your company to be the very best in that space. The advantages that follow allows the business to plan its next generation platform launches on their own timing which ensures continued revenue growth, enables for the timely cannibalization and obsolescence of the company’s aging portfolio offerings, keeps its competitors a platform iteration behind and signals to your customers your commitment to excellence. Once achieved, this market share leading position also provides the business in your customer’s eyes including any industry start-ups as the company to strategically partner with for commercial success. Everyone aspires to associate with the market share leader when given a choice, and only defaults to a lesser partner due to business necessity.

Emotionally intelligent innovation leadership

Lastly and by no means least important is that in order to be best in class, you need to hire the best. Yet this reality is easier said than done and in order to deliver on this desire, it begins with a compelling leadership team along with a vision that prospective employees desire to become a part of. However, hiring the best demands an appealing leader and the proper business culture. This is where true leadership shapes great companies along with their unique culture of success. Whether purposeful or not, culture is a by-product of leadership. Unique innovation leaders employ two intangibles in my opinion and the first is the employment of emotionally intelligent leadership skills which results in superior team synergy in as much as 30% or more productivity. Secondly, innovation leadership is instilled by the unique creative leadership style that brings forth the magical pixie-dust through that leader’s personality, philosophies and inspiration that provides the oxygen rich ingredient that fuels the team’s creative fire. I can say without hesitation that no process or processes can replace true innovation leadership, which is the final critical ingredient to transform a company from a marginal new product development company into a world class innovation team.

The combination of these foundational principles led by emotionally intelligent innovation leaders intertwined with consistent messaging and an unrelenting demand for excellence will stimulate a business culture and ensure profitable cutting-edge and next generation technologies.