THE NEED FOR INNOVATIVE THINKERS

For the past decade, market conditions have strongly suggested that a company’s future success must be based on innovative thinking, innovative ideas and innovative strategic plans. This subject has been written about in books and college business journals for years. The resounding message is innovate or perish.

Because the alternative to being an innovative company is watching a company start down the path of bankruptcy to their eventual demise, there is an enormous incentive to make innovation an integral part of a company. Management has been trained that everything is about results, and that concept is still very valid today.

Management is held accountable for continuously improved earnings and the overall success of the company. The challenge is getting innovative ideas so that the company begins to generate better and better results.

To begin becoming an innovative company, management should hire the perfect candidates who can create innovative ideas, translate the ideas into a plan, and then implement the plan. Unfortunately, this pool of candidates is very, very small.

There is another solution to becoming an innovative company. This solution works when management better understand the weaknesses and strengths of their current staff. For example, you may already have an innovative thinker on your staff. This is the person who has good ideas but never seems to get them implemented. This person often cannot stay focused long enough to complete a project, and they never seem to consistently produce results. On the other hand, you may have a person who never seems to have any ideas of their own, but when they are given a project, they perform well. Your company may already have the resources to become an innovative company. You just need to become more effective at utilizing the resources you have.

After you have assessed your staff, you may find that you need an innovative thinker. To find the innovative thinker, a change will be needed in your hiring practices. There is an entirely different process used when looking for innovative thinkers because of their unusual abilities. The innovative thinker may have moved around more, they are looking for a company which wants new and fresh ideas, they are looking for a company where there is an environment of change, and they may have worked for younger companies.

When hiring a candidate, ask questions which require the candidate to find a solution to a challenge. This means asking questions that have a set of conditions, so the candidate can explain how they would solve the problem. Other questions should be conversational and open-ended, so candidates can explain what they mean. Based on the candidate’s answers, you can decide if the candidate is an innovative thinker by whether their emphasis is on generating ideas or if their emphasis is about implementing a plan to get results. The questions need not even have relevance to the position they are applying for. The intent of the questions is to see how they respond.

Remember, the mantra is innovate or die.

AN INNOVATIVE CONTROLLER

By Kerry H. Walters

An innovative Controller has a set of ingenious approaches that go far beyond the traditional Controller tools related to providing financial information to management and controlling accounting and financial processes, procedures and information. The innovative Controller has a comprehensive toolbox that helps a company reach a higher level of conscious awareness about achieving new growth, reducing costs, increasing profits, and developing contingency plans for unfavorable events that may affect the company’s future.

The innovative Controller’s array of progressive tools should contain at least the following:

Ø A leadership tool of vision, the ability to see where the company is currently, where it needs to go and how to get there.
Ø A leadership tool for finding the processes and procedures across the company that should be changed and achieving the results that allows the company to successfully reach their goals and objectives.
Ø Lean tools that eliminate waste leading to cost reductions and increased profits.
Ø Leadership and training tools to create innovative changes within the company increasing market competitiveness and customer loyalty.
Ø Costing and sales tools that continues to keep the company competitive in the market.
Ø Leadership tool of passion, the energetic desire to bring success to the company.
Ø Forecasting and projection tools that will prepare management for market upswings and downturns.
Ø Leadership tool of persistence, the ability to overcome unforeseen challenges and complete the project.
Ø Leadership and training tools related to employee growth, effectiveness, efficiency, and the stability of the company’s number one asset; their employees.


Innovate ideas, innovative toolsets, innovative people and innovative changes are essential if companies are going to continue to succeed in today’s economy. Many companies have been optimizing processes, services, products and markets for years. The next step is to benefit from the results of innovation. A Controller with their innovative toolset should be a driving member of the company’s management team that will maximize innovation across the company. They will change the company’s systems, processes, products, services and markets that will lead to long-term growth in revenues, stronger customer loyalty, cost reductions and increased profits.