Daily Inspiration: “Don’t just think innovation, think transformation!”

“Don’t just think innovation: think transformation!”

On stage yesterday in San Diego for the KalmarOttawa North American Dealer meeting. Thank you Erica for the great photo!

What if your world changes – you used to sell highly specialized trucks based on gas and diesel, but might one day be selling highly intelligent, autonomous self-driving, self-diagnosing connected vehicles that run on electric?

And you are no longer selling just a truck, but a self-diagnosing service level uptime guarantee?

That’s what happens in a world in which we head into the future. Over the years, I’ve done many dealer meetings – Volvo, Mac Trucks and others. I do a lot of talks for transpiration companies struggling to align to the era of acceleration – Mercedes Benz, Chrysler and others. The transportation sector is seeing themes massive change since the invention of the Model-T!

And so while there is a lot of talk of the need for innovation, the proper strategy involves much more than that – transformation. Sometimes tinkering with new ways of doing things is not enough – you need to do entirely new and different things.

‘Transformation’ is a great motivational word, because it implies and involves complete and fundamental change. “Transformative change.” And it’s often necessary to deal with the era of acceleration.

And it’s critical at a personal level too. Have you tried to fix things in your life with a lot of new ideas, but find that they don’t stick? That you soon end up following old bad habits, routines and actions? Think transformation – take a big and bold step into a new world of fundamental and complete change.

I’ll often point out on stage that we can consider innovative thinking from 3 perspectives: doing things better; growing our activities; or transforming them altogether.

What’s your choice?