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Continuing Education:

Reinventing Yourself and Your Business: Two Core Insights from Thomas Edison

Businesses that are currently offering products and services to the hearing industry need to begin preparing for dramatic growth. Over the next six years, estimates anticipate the hearing industry will surge as much as 50 percent from 2011 through 2017. Will you be ready?

In preparation for this unprecedented change, consider “reinventing” yourself and your business over the next 12 months! This article offers two core insights drawn from the successes of Thomas Edison – America’s most successful inventor and innovator, which will allow you to begin paving a new path, starting now.

First, let’s start by considering who will be assisting you in your reinvention efforts. Will you be leading the pack? Or will others be offering their input as well? How comfortable do you, and others on your team, feel expressing creativity or risk-taking? Creativity and risk-taking will be two primary qualities that you, and others working with you, need to newly cultivate or strengthen in the coming months.

Creativity: A Major Component of ReinventionIn business surveys, less than 50 percent of individuals describe themselves as “creative.” In fact, creativity is a term we typically shy away from when describing our own actions or mindset, even in casual conversation. And yet, creativity was cited in a 2010 global IBM leadership study as the number one quality most sought after today in executives and leaders across all industries. So stop stuffing your creative gifts in your sock drawer, and begin embracing facets of yourself that will help you expand this quality.

Begin by taking a new look at what “creativity” really embraces. A 40-year study of what it takes to be successful at innovating and driving change was establishedinthe1970’sbytheRichardByrd Company of Minneapolis. Known as The Creatrix®, this robust study includes over 70,000 participants worldwide from organizations large and small, in every industry. The study reveals there are four core drivers of creativity, shown below. See which ones you believe are present in you and your company:

Edison believed every individual was capable of deep creativity.

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Written by: Sarah Miller Caldicott

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1. Ambiguity – The ability to deal with circumstances which are unknown, or uncertain. An ability to move forward even when few facts or data are available.

2. Independent-minded – The ability to offer ideas or lines of thinking which lie outside prevailing guidelines.

3. Inner-directed – The ability to have goals and aspirations of your own which go beyond the levels established for you by your superior. This also includes an ability to pursue goals which lie outside your work life.

4. Uniqueness – Cited by many as the “core” quality of creativity, uniqueness includes your own ability to recognize the creative gifts you possess, and to recognize creativity – as well as support it in others.

Doanyofthesefourqualitieshithome?Doanyofthesequalitiesdescribe you or your co-workers? If you spy gaps, focus on developing strengths in those areas where you perceive you need more attention. In meetings, pose “what if?” questions to eachother.Dorole-playingexercises,which put you in a new position vis-à-vis your customer interactions, or in your company procedures. Think about what your goals are for yourself one year from now. How would you like to be different? What types of growth and expansion will this require on your part? Where do you see these qualities being applicable within your organization?

Edison believed every individual was capable of deep creativity. He

encouraged creativity in all his employees, allowing them great latitude in pursuing experiments, as well as in discerning patterns in the outcomes. Edison realized that creativity lay at the heart of “reinventing,” and seeing things newly.

One of my favorite examples of how Edison applied creativity to his own career comes from his efforts to recover his reputation as a market-moving scientist and business man, after nearly a decade of failures in the 1890’s.Followingyearsofsuccessinthe electrical power business, Edison turned his endeavors to ore mining and ore milling. Eager to be part of the surge in the steel industry, he shifted his attentions to the commodities markets – a mistake that cost him millions of dollars. In recovering from this blunder, he found a creative solution: apply his learning about ore processing to improving the production efficiency of cement. Edison’s “giant

kiln” became a hit in the construction industry. By “reinventing” applications of the technologies that he’d discovered for a completely different purpose, he refocused them newly, and recovered his reputation.

So that you can track your progress in the realm of creativity over the coming months, place your observations about the four creativity drivers noted above in a notebook. (A notebook was one of Thomas Edison’s favorite tools – he kept thousands of them over the course of his 62-year career.) In your notebook, monitor your progress in expanding your comfort with ambiguity, independent-mindedness, inner-directedness, and uniqueness. Write down where you see opportunities to improve these qualities, and how you intend to pursue them. Consider the pathway Edison took in re-imagining his own expertise. Apply his ability to

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“reform” his thinking around a subject he knew well, and then refocus it in a completely new area. Try taking these steps with a partner, and hold each other accountable for progress.

Increase Your Comfort with Risk-Taking through Experimentation In endeavoring to move your business forward as the hearing industry grows, you will also want to revisit your beliefs about risk-taking. Taking risks is a crucial part of reinvention, and is key to your ability to think and behave in new ways, as the hearing industry expands.

One way Edison helped his employees improve their risk tolerance was to require them to learn how to experiment. Only when they had learned the crucial components of creating a hypothesis, identifying the inputs for their experiment, and

recording observations both during and after the experiment was complete, could they advance to higher levels of responsibility in his laboratory. One of Edison’s key employees, Reginald Fessenden, an electrician whom Edison cross-trained to become a brilliant chemist, said, “Edison taught me the right way to experiment.” Importantly, Fessenden applied his risk-taking and experimentation not only while employed at the lab, but also after leavingEdison’semploy.In1906,Fessenden became the world’s first radio broadcaster. He applied his understanding of experimentation and risk-taking to his life and career, allowing him to try new things as he saw new opportunities arise.

Just as the Creatrix assesses creativity as a measure crucial to driving change and innovation, it also assesses risk-taking qualities. Here are the three drivers which the Creatrix indicates are fundamentally associated with risk-taking. See which ones you believe are

true of yourself or present within your organization:

1. Self-acceptance – The ability to accept past decisions, or outcomes from those decisions which may not have turned out as you’d hoped.

2. Authenticity – The willingness to constructively speak your mind even when your viewpoints may not be popular, and to “walk your talk” in the process.

3. Resilience – The ability to bounce back and “move on” after failure or disappointments.

Edison viewed risk-taking as a part of learning. He saw them as two sides of the same coin. When asked about how he managed to persevere in developing the world’s first storage battery after a full year – and registering over 10,000 failed attempts to get the positive and negative poles of the battery to work properly, he said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” By viewing learning as seamlessly connected to success, Edison displayed resilience in pursuing a goal he authentically believed was possible. After a five-year effort, he succeeded in inventing the world’s first alkaline storage battery. Without a willingness to experiment and the resilience to navigate failures along the way – Edison never could have triumphed.

In today’s business world, experiments happen all the time, although they can be hard to discern. Here are two experiments conducted by two leading organizations in their effort to

“reinvent” their businesses, and improve their competitive standing. Target, the

continuing education ... reinventing cont’d.

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leading retailer, realized that it needed to compete more effectively against Pier1. It was losing merchandise sales to the Pier1 chain, and wasn’t sure how to lure customers into spending more retail dollars at Target instead. So, a few years ago, the company embarked on an experiment.

Duringthesummermonths,employeesset up a “pop-up” store outside at Rockefeller Center. The store was only designed to be in place for a week. It was not intended to sell everything its usual stores offered. The pop-up store had one crucial difference: all the items for sale were from known designers, at value prices. The results were profound for Target. After monitoring buyers and their purchases, the company learned so much from this experiment that it elected to reposition the entire companytowarda“GreatDesignatEveryday Prices” philosophy. The rest is history!

Similarly, Capital One credit cards desired to stand out more distinctly from its competition in the credit card business. Using one-on-one, as well as online formats, they conducted 50,000 experiments with users and non-users of its credit cards. The key to these experiments? Asking respondents to

“design their own credit card” using the specific features they most preferred. By monitoring the pattern of response to these experiments, Capital One shifted the prevailing industry model focused around pre-designated features. The company gained tremendous visibility and market share by enabling people to choose the image they wanted on the front of their card, as well as the types of credit and reward features they wanted. The result is a

famous campaign, “What’s In Your Wallet?” which is still on the air, emphasizing the availability of self-designed cards from Capital One. This experiment not only changed the way Capital One competed in its market segment, it transformed the viewpoint of the entire credit card industry, heightening an understand- ing of how consumers buy credit services today.

Think about your own organization. What experiments are you currently undertaking? If none, why? What would it take to get an experiment started? What needs can you identify,

and rally your organization around to tackle via an experiment?

Your ability to form and re-form, invent and re-invent your vision of what growth in the hearing industry will look like in the coming years, will fundamentally shape your success. Embrace those qualities of creativity and risk-taking you’ll need to ease your path. Put plans in place to experiment around questions that are most crucial to your growth and expansion. Keep a notebook of your efforts, and engage your entire team in moving forward toward reinventing success! n

About Sarah Miller Caldicott:

Sarah is a great grandniece of Thomas Edison, and a 20-year marketing executive who has worked in brand development both domestically and internationally for Pepsico and Unilever. The history of inventors in Sarah’s family dates back to the 1800’s - a heritage which inspired her to deeply understand how ideas and technologies shift over time. Starting in 2004, Sarah spent 3 years researching the life of Thomas Edison, working with the world’s leading expert on Edison, Dr. Paul Israel, at Rutgers University. Her new book, “Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America’s Greatest Inventor” identifies the Five Competencies of Innovation Edison used throughout his 62-year career. Her book has been endorsed by USA Today, Fortune Small Business, Investor’s Business Daily, and 800-CEO-READ. Sarah has appeared on PBS television as well as numerous NPR radio affiliates across the country, and has been featured in the New York Times. She is an award-winning speaker who inspires audiences nationwide with her message on how America can become more competitive in the 21st century using Edison’s world-changing innovation

IHS offers a diversity of options for obtaning contiinuing education credits. Upon successful completion of the accompanying test on page 26, you will earn one continuing education credit. (Please check with your licensing board to verify acceptance of continuing education credit for this activity.) This article and test are also available on the IHS website at www.ihsinfo.org.

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1. Over the next six years, estimates anticipate the hearing industry will grow by what percentage?

a. 20 percent b. 35 percent c. 50 percent d. 60 percent

2. Drawn from America’s most successful inventor,Thomas Edison, what are the two core qualities needed to “reinvent” your business?

a. creativity and technology b. creativity and risk- taking c. productivity and cost-cutting d. compassion and risk-taking

3. As cited in The Creatrix study, which of the following are core drivers of creativity?

a. ambiguity: the ability to deal with circumstances which are unknown

b. independent-minded: the ability to offer ideas which lie outside of guidelines

c. inner-directed: the ability to have goals of your own, which go be- yond the levels established by your superiors

d. uniqueness: your ability to rec-ognize your own creativity and to recognize and support it in others

e. all of the above

4. According to a 2010 IBM leadership study, creativity was cited as the most sought after quality in executives and leaders

a. true b. false

5. Which of the following is not a driver of risk-taking according to The Creatrix?

a. self acceptance b. authenticity c. communication skills d. resilience

6. Thomas Edison viewed risk-taking as a part of learning, and took how many years to invent the first alkaline storage battery?

a. one year b. five years c. seven years d. ten years

7. Which of the following was one of Thomas Edison’s favorite tools to keep his observations about the four creativity drivers documented?

a. file cabinet b. chalkboard c. notebook

8. Target conducted an experiment to monitor their customers’ purchases to compete with which retailer?

a. Walmart b. Pier 1 c. Macy’s

9. Capitol One conducted 50,000 ex- periments with non-users only, to see which credit card features they most preferred

a. true b. false

For continuing education credit, com-plete this test and send the answer section at the bottom of the page to:

International Hearing Society 16880 Middlebelt Rd., Ste. 4Livonia, MI 48154

• After your test has been graded, you will receive a copy of the correct answers and a certificate of completion.

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• Credit: IHS designates this professional and development activity for one (1) continuing education credit.

• Fees: $29.00 IHS member $59.00 non-member (Payment in U.S. funds only)

IHS Continuing Education Test

10. Which of the following are necessary to shape your success in the growing hearing industry?

a. invent and re-invent your vision of growth for your business

b. put plans in place to experi-ment around questions that are most crucial to your growth and expansion

c. keep a notebook of your efforts d. ngage your entire team in mov-

ing forward toward re-inventing growth and success

e. all of the above

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!REINVENT ING YOUR SELF AND YOUR BUSINES S

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