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The key to success in businessinnovation:

INNOVATION

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.”

Picasso

“Innovation distinguishes

between a leader and a follower.”

Steve Jobs

“If I had have

asked people what they wanted, I would

have built a faster horse.”

Henry Ford

“Genius is one per cent

inspiration, and 99 per cent perspiration.”

Thomas Edison

“There is

no doubt that creativity is the most

important human resource of all. Without creativity, there

would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating

the same patterns.” Edward de Bono

“It’s not the

strongest of the species that survive, or the most

intelligent. It’s the ones most responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin

Contents

Published by Switzer Media + Publishing, w. switzer.com.au All material copyright © 2013, Switzer Communications Pty Ltd. Reproduction in whole or part is not permitted without the written permission of the publisher.

Technological innovation has boosted business for Josh Nicholls, and, as an added benefit, succeeded in making life easier for his customers. Find out how.

Small Business E-Book Series

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Innovation specialist Dr Amantha Imber shares tips to build your business through creative thinking.

Technology has been vital for growth for internationally acclaimed graphics retouching studio, Electric Art.

Matt Barrie, founder of freelancer.com, offers his insights to stay ahead of the game in business.

Looking for motivation and more ideas? Don’t miss these 10 tips from Peter Switzer!

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Anyone in business who wants to take their operation to the next level has to be committed to innovation and change. They need to learn from successful innovators, read the best business books, and attend conferences to immerse themselves in innovative talk, thinking and people.

Innovation is not just continuous improvement using technology to provide a better product or service to market, and it does not have to be technology in the machine, computer or digital sense. It can just be a new way of doing business.

Regardless of the size of your business – from huge to micro-operations – innovation is important to stay ahead of the competition. Innovation involves developing new values or ideas that deliver solutions and fulfil a need. It could be more effective products, processes, services, technologies or ideas that

about this e-book:

innovation can help grow your business and provide a competitive edge

are easily adopted in your business or target market.

So what can the experts in innovation teach us? In this e-book, we have profiled some great business builders who prove that innovation is an essential ingredient to success. They include:

• Matt Barrie, the founder of freelancer.com

• Dr Amantha Imber, an innovation specialist and founder of Inventium

• The directors of acclaimed graphics retouching studio, Electric Art

• Josh Nicholls, founder of Platinum Electrical Contractors.

We hope these insights and experiences motivate you to adopt a culture of innovation in your own business.

Introduction - Peter Switzer

“Winning innovators know that if nothing changes, then nothing changes. Get into change - big time!”

In Profile – Joshua Nicholls

from little things...

Thirty-four-year old electrician Joshua Nicholls has challenged the stereotypical view of tradesmen. When starting the business, Nicholls, the director of Platinum Electrical Contractors, looked at what most customers find frustrating about tradies and based his business around doing the complete opposite. It has proved very successful, and he’s turned his idea into a franchise.

“Platinum is predominantly an electrical company that specialises in service and maintenance and medium-sized projects. Our business started very humbly.

“I’m an electrician by trade. Like a lot of other tradies, I started my business out of my bedroom at home with Mum and Dad and have grown it to where we are today,” he says.

The growth has not gone unnoticed. The business won two Telstra Business Awards in 2007; in 2008, Nicholls was listed in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ ‘Australia’s Hot 30 Entrepreneurs under 30’, and in 2012, Platinum Electrical was listed at number four in BRW’s Australia’s Fastest Network by Outlet Growth.

Platinum Electrical is now franchised and continues to experience strong growth. “One of

Josh nicholls is an inspiration to others in the trade business, thanks to his visionary leadership and cutting-edge technological innovations.

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my passions in business is growing people and growing businesses and letting other people share in that success factor. We’ve got 19 franchises on board in all Australian states. We have 70-plus vans now running across the country and we’re growing multiple vans every month at the moment.”

So what’s going to be the biggest challenge for this business going forward? “Controlling the growth, [but] it’s a good problem to have. We need to protect the brand because it’s not only for myself, but there’s now 19 other franchises that I’ve got to protect their business as well.”

Nicholls was competitive by nature and from the outset introduced game-changing innovations for a competitive advantage.

In Profile – Joshua Nicholls

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So, what was it that he wanted to change about the relationship between tradesmen and their customers? “The biggest thing for us is customer service in our industry. I say to a lot of our franchisees and a lot of our staff that it’s all about customer service. We are in the game of customer service. We’re not in the game of electrical. And how we do our customer service is our point of difference. That’s our specialty I suppose you could say.”

the forefront of technology

To further enhance the customer experience, Nicholls has adapted technological innovations that make life easier for both the customer and the business.

“We use digital pens to process the paperwork onsite, the pens then send the information back to our office in seconds for processing, including the credit card details on the paperwork, we also use iPad’s for this as well.

“We have a client portal we use called Platinum Live where clients can log in and view their invoices, pay online, book jobs etc. We also have software where leads that come off the website get automatically dispatched to our closest representative. This software sends the customer an email confirmation that the job has been accepted and that someone will be in touch with them shortly.”

Nicholls reveals they also have

vehicle tracking in all their vans to help distinguish who is closest to the job request. He says the technology is the key to profitable growth. Why?

“It minimises unbillable salaries in a competitive arena. It keeps your business protected as everything is backed up to the cloud. It also gives you the flexibility to expand nationally and globally with ease and brings consistency in systems and processes to clients.”

Advice for others

So what advice can Nicholls offer for other businesses who are looking to innovate with technology to gain a competitive edge? “Don’t fear change and procrastinate with moving with technology otherwise your business will become out-dated and clunky fast and will probably make you less competitive. Try and learn from the leaders in your industry.”

But Nicholls says not to jump in too quick, too deep with technology you are unfamiliar with. “I would steer clear of developing your own software and go with something off the shelf and customise to suit. Trial the software in-house before rolling to your client base! Most off the shelf software is very affordable, expensive definitely doesn’t mean better! Dropbox and Evernote are prime examples of fantastic off-the-shelf tools that don’t cost a fortune and can save your business time and money.”

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How To – With Dr Amantha Imber

CREATE A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

SO CRUSHING ASSUMPTIONS IS

NUMBER ONE - WHAT NEXT?

Next is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Whenever we sit down to solve a problem, we always look at it from our own point of view. That leads to thinking that can be quite similar to how you’ve solved problems in the past. By deliberately asking yourself “How would someone really different from me solve this problem?” you’ll unlock a much greater quality of thinking. For example, asking yourself “How would Google solve this problem?” or “How would Richard Branson solve this problem?” will open up much better quality of innovative thinking.

AND WHAT’S NEXT?

The third thing is decision-making. The success of any business often rests on how good your decision making is: for example, which ideas you are going to launch into the market and which you’ll leave on the cutting room floor. Decision fatigue is something that relates to every single human on this planet, with a normal functioning brain. Every single day we have a finite amount

Dr Amantha Imber, a leading authority on science-based innovation and creativity, talks to Peter Switzer about innovative solutions for businesses.

WHAT ARE YOUR KEY MESSAGES

FOR A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

WHEN IT COMES TO INNOVATION?

My first message is around the importance of crushing assumptions. An obvious example is if you were in the mobile phone business, and trying to design a mobile phone like back in 2000, there’s an assumption that a mobile phone has to have 12 buttons. Apple obviously crushed this assumption and said, “well, what if a mobile phone only had one button?” Crushing those fundamental assumptions will open up some real breakthrough thinking and innovation.

How To – With Dr Amantha Imber

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of positive resources to make good decisions. The more decisions we make over the course of a day, the worse the quality of those decisions become. That is the main premise of decision fatigue.

Make the really big and important decisions in your business first thing in the morning when your brain hasn’t been impacted by decision fatigue and save those less important decisions for the afternoon.

ASK YOURSELF

• What are some of the major assumptions I hold within my business and how do I crush those assumptions?

• Whose shoes would it be useful to step into when I’m looking at my business?

• When do I make the most important decisions?

YOU HAVE SAID THAT YOU

DON’T LIKE THE IDEA OF

BRAINSTORMING AND ADVOCATE

A PROCESS CALLED SHIFTING.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?

Brainstorming is one of the oldest creativity techniques around. It favours people who are highly extroverted and very good at thinking and then talking. And when you think about the population and people who are highly extroverted, this may be 10% of the population. So if anyone said to you “I’ve got this

great business technique that’s going to work really well for one in every 10 people”, of course you wouldn’t use it.

The other problem with brainstorming is that everyone else in that group can’t help but be influenced by that idea, which then leads to problems such as group think. You go down these tunnels and it’s hard to break off and get more diversity of thought.

SO WHAT IS SHIFTING ABOUT?

Shifting is about starting a sesion off by working on your own and doing individual idea generation for the first five minutes.

Once everyone has had time to gather their thoughts and write down their own individual ideas, you can then share your ideas, doing that for at least 20 minutes. Research has found that this approach, as opposed to a traditional brainstorm approach, results in a much greater response and diversity of ideas.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE

INNOVATION?

Our definition of innovation is “to change or add value”. It’s deliberately broad and focussed on action. So it’s not just about having ideas, it’s about implementing that change or idea that will add value to your business.

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In profile – Electric Art

THE MASTER ILLUSIONISTS

which formed the basis of the company’s motto, ‘Play God’.

The pair has always approached work with a ‘the sky’s the limit’ mentality. “We started to focus on the hardest jobs in town,” explains Eadie. “The great thing about the hardest jobs in town is that they’re the most fun. As soon as you start to crack these hard-earned jobs, more come and word spreads.”

Hard work though it may be, Eadie and Bigelow have fostered a relaxed work culture, where humour is inextricably linked to creativity. Take the giraffe climbing up a tree – the advertisement created for the Wellington Zoo – for example.

A mere glance at Electric Art’s website demonstrates the extraordinary talent and skills that they have to offer. Providing creative retouching and 3D artwork for companies such as Olympus, Subaru, Samsung and Xbox, among many others, they have become famous in their field, going so far as to carve their own niche in the industry. The field of creative retouching, says managing director Jonathon Eadie, was practically non-existent before they coined the phrase.

Founded in 1993, the internationally-acclaimed studio has a steady demand for their work nationally and internationally. Eadie puts the company’s significant growth and success down to creative director Bruce Bigelow’s insistence that they move into the area of 3D production. “With retouching you can only go so high, but 3D means you can actually create any picture without the need for photography,” he says. Essentially, they could create whatever their imagination desired,

Technological innovations have fuelled the growth of Sydney-based Electric Art, a graphics retouching studio built on creativity, teamwork and embracing the impossible.

“The great thing about the hardest

jobs in town is that they’re the most fun.”

In profile – Electric Art

10

“Everything we do is ridiculous,” he says. “It’s a silly idea and it makes me giggle. First of all, you have to have that stupid idea.”

Of course, the increasing capabilities of technology have played their part in Electric Art’s success and the company’s embrace of new techniques and products helps to facilitate this.

“The ability to do stuff you couldn’t do is just happening at an exponential rate. The ability to mimic reality or create the unreal is becoming increasingly easy,” says Bigelow. “We’ve made cities! We’ve done it all.” He notes that technology isn’t the sole asset in

the company’s work; rather, it’s the team as a collective.

“There are plenty of people who are technically proficient but there are people who have an eye and are proficient and can solve a problem. It’s important to remember the technology is just a tool and always will be,” he says.

Continuing their love for the ridiculously absurd, Eadie concludes that animation will be the next big thing in the future.

“Street posters will start moving. The girl will wink on the side of the bus. It’s a still image so it needs to come from our end. The giraffe will have to climb!”

Adelaide-born Matt Barrie is in the fast lane of the online world. A serial entrepreneur and fanatical innovator, his mega-successful business is built on innovation. Freelancer.com is an online marketplace made up of businesses with demand for contractors, and contractors who are willing to do the work.

But like all big players, Barrie once was a small one – and there are lessons for all of us in his growth story. After several start-ups – from selling customised printed mouse pads to a stint in Silicon Valley and a foray into venture capital – Barrie taught at the University of Sydney in the Engineering department. In 2006, he won the State Pearcey award for his contribution to IT&T.

Clearly, we are talking blue chip DNA for an entrepreneur in the IT space but how has he grown Freelancer.com? “I ran the site from home through most of 2009 with an office admin who I paid $20 an hour,” he reveals. “When we hit one million users we decided it was time to get an office.”

Later that year, Barrie signed a lease for a small office above a nightclub in Kings Cross. He

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In Profile – Matt Barrie

a game changer

soon discovered that some nights they had to stop working at 6pm because the office was directly above a dance floor. When the DJ cranked the music at about 140 decibels, the 10 engineers above were a little stressed. They had to move out.

kick-start

“I started to see that the internet was about to deliver what I thought was its next great tectonic shift to

matt Barrie is the super-smart, super-innovative founder of an online site that is taking the freelance world by storm.

“We have a culture of constant innovation.”

In Profile – Matt Barrie

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society – disruption of the global labour market,” he explains.

He knew there were billions of potential workers internationally whose services he could lean on.

Then a lucky break happened.“In March 2010 we were shocked

when we discovered that multiple Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Tom Friedman, mentioned us in the editorial section of The New York Times,” Barrie says.

This is what he wrote and it has to be worth millions for Matt Barrie:

“If I just have the spark of an idea now, I can get a designer in Taiwan to design it. I can get a factory in China to produce a prototype. I can get a factory in Vietnam to mass manufacture it. I can use Amazon.com to handle fulfillment. I can use freelancer.com to find someone to do my logo and manage my backroom. And I can do all this at incredibly low prices. The one thing that is not a commodity, and never will be, is that spark of an idea.”

Nowadays, Freelancer.com is the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace with over 2.4 million users from 240 countries, regions and territories worldwide. The business now has 75 employees: 35 in Sydney in engineering and marketing and 40 in the Philippines performing customer support for millions of users 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.

“We have overtaken Microsoft.com in that country and we’re also bigger than Apple.com, Amazon.com, Linkedin.com, PayPal.com, Bing.com and MSN.com according to Alexa,” Barrie says.

Asked to reflect on his experience, Barrie advises that you shouldn’t spend a dollar on costs unless you know how it precisely will drive revenue. He also states that SEO (search engine optimisation)is still the king for getting traffic to your site cheaply. “Generate lots of original content, optimise that and focus on the conversion funnel,” he suggests. “Also, use analytics, measure everything and create a dashboard in real time so you know what’s going on.”

matt Barrie’s thoughts

on innovation

• Constant innovation is vital. As every industry becomes intertwined with the technology industry, the rate of change and competitiveness of each is skyrocketing. Kodak invented the digital camera and is now dead.

• On keeping on the innovation edge, Barrie says he hires the best and gives them the opportunity to innovate.

• Think outside the square, take a step back from your business, and ask ‘Is there a better way I can do the job at hand?’

1. Look for opportunities even in places that other people see failure.

2. Think of games or giveaways that can be used in the media that lead to word-of-mouth advertising by customers who become captivated by the promotion. These kinds of initiatives can be launched on social media, but you must come up with something unique that creates a groundswell of interest in the community.

3. AlwAys stAy focused, especiAlly when you feel new ideAs Are running dry. if you stAy determined And focus – innovAtive wAys will come.

4. Employ friendly, outgoing and team-oriented staff who are keen to engage in ideas generation to keep the business buoyant and growing.

5. think About stArting something thAt the big end of town doesn’t do well.

6. Create something such as a customer club. You can then use this club to approach customers with freebies, games, valuable resources and discounts on your offerings. Make it a place of friendly contact that makes your customers and potential customers smile. This can be a great business and brand builder. There is another pay-off – you end up with a great database that you can market to.

7. remember: it’s importAnt to continuAlly improve whAt you offer. otherwise consumers will drift to other products or services.

8. When you’re looking for ideas, choose products or services that are recession-proof.

9. Test out innovations in small doses before committing all your resources to making the big change.

10. Invest in fast technology quickly to gain an edge.

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10 tips to innovAte And growby peter switzer over the many years i’ve been in this game, i’ve been privileged to talk to many successful business owners who have innovated and grown their business from the ground up. their insight provides lessons for other business owners. i am sharing 10 of these gems to help you think about innovation and what it takes to grow your business.

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The key to success in businessinnovation: