---
# Innovation - act fast - empower people!
**URL:** https://jimcarroll.com/2008/10/innovation-act-fast-empower-people/
Date: 2008-10-09
Author: JimCarroll
Post Type: post
Summary: Empowering staff and partners to make quick decisions is an essential component of innovating in the high-velocity economy. Particularly given that right now, optics are really important. RBC Plaza’s Grand Opening is on, but, Um, About Those Sky Divers … (from iStockAnalyst) Oct. 2–RALEIGH — A big building calls for a big celebration. But when […]
Categories: Global economy, Innovation
Tags: "financial services", CEO, Innovation, Leadership
---
Empowering staff and partners to make quick decisions is an essential component of innovating in the high-velocity economy.
Particularly given that right now, **optics are really important**.
>
**RBC Plaza's Grand Opening is on, but, Um, About Those Sky Divers ...**
(from iStockAnalyst)
Oct. 2--RALEIGH -- A big building calls for a big celebration. But when the building is a bank -- and its grand opening comes amid a banking meltdown -- falling bodies send the wrong message.
Therefore, the sky divers at today's RBC Plaza opening are canceled. Once again: The fabulous parachuting display is off.
"Given the recent market activities, we just didn't think it was an appropriate time to have people jumping off of a bank building," said Jamie Averette Mitchell, a spokeswoman for RBC Bank, which is dedicating its downtown Raleigh headquarters, the 33-story RBC Plaza, today.
The parachuters were to be part of a series of grand-opening events. They were to draw attention to the tower --the region's tallest -- at Fayetteville and Martin streets.
But RBC nixed the jumpers after a week of Wall Street turbulence, which included the worst drop ever in the Dow Jones Industrial average and the sale of Charlotte banking giant Wachovia to Citigroup for a mere $2.1 billion. The celebratory leap might have reminded some of the bankers and stockbrokers who jumped from buildings during the Depression. They didn't wear parachutes.
*Mitchell said, "We wanted to be very respectful of our financial partners and Wachovia" -- a name emblazoned on another Fayetteville Street tower.*
Part of my consistent innovation message through the last several years -- "faster is the new fast" -- challenges organizations to think whether they can move at the fast pace required of them in today's high velocity world. Innovation isn't just about new products and design -- it's about challenging yourself as to how you operate, act, compete, change and do things differently to keep up with rapid trends.
In this case, what could have been a PR disaster has turned into a smallish news story barely covered anywhere. That's great innovation.
---
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