Instead of commiserating with others which only makes you feel more depressed, you need to consider self-employment. But you have no money. Fine. If you still own a computer and have an internet connection, the global market is available to you.

Step one: Make a list of the problems you solved during your employment. Your first list should be more than 20 problems.

Step two: What solutions did you create that had the most value for your employer? Rank all your “solutions.”

Step three: Make a list of all the businesses you can drive to where you still have contacts.

Step Four: Get on your social network and ask your network if their employers have issues with any of the problems you have identified.

Step Five: Can you initiate a survey of businesses to see how they cope with those problems? And offer a free article on the results of your survey with tips on solving the top three problems …

Now you are on your way to being offered a consulting job or contract labor job.

The reality to this recession is that businesses have cut so deeply that they are not looking for their employees to solve all problems. They are willing to hire “contract” labor to fulfill niche needs. They know that contract labor or consultants may charge a little more per hour, but they don’t have to offer benefits and they get “solutions” rather than clock watchers. This is why some companies are showing profits with higher sales even during a recession. They have discovered the leverage of their financial capital when used to buy solutions rather than full time employees.

But I can’t sell – you say. Maybe, but can you solve problems? The answer is your key to becoming self employed.

4 – Take an hour a week to read your trade journal, visit with suppliers, or call a recent customer. Those little chores will keep you focused on solving your customers’ problems. A successful small business is one that solves problems profitably. To do this you must be able to recognize those who have a problem that your company can solve and the discipline to do so profitably.
These four tips will put you on a path to having fun again. You will probably never hire someone with as much determination and ambition for your success as yourself. But, if you can find that balance of making work more than just following your orders without giving a stranger the key to your lockbox, and if you can trap some time to manage the finances while keeping abreast of trends in your industry, you’ll enjoy your small business again.

Innovation is more than being clever. Innovation requires creativity that results in a practical and cost effective solution for the buyer. Merely being creative or different is not a true measure of innovation. Solving a problem in a cost effective way with excellence in quality are the ingredients of innovation. Creativity alone offers a pleasing aesthetics or cleverness, but creativity alone does not necessarily mean the customer will perceive added value. If a prospective customer does not see the utility or benefit from the product or service, they will likely remain prospective.

One of the reasons why innovation seems to go hand in hand with entrepreneurship is that entrepreneurs would not achieve success in building a high growth, highly profitable business if they did not bring innovative approaches to the marketplace. This does not mean that all entrepreneurs are inventors because innovation is not necessarily patentable or unique. Nor are all innovations the type that might become intellectual property eligible for legal protection.

Successful entrepreneurs understand that their competitive advantage is based on their superior product or service that solves a problem for their customers and not merely on developing patents. Nightingale – Conant originally started as a firm selling motivational audio tapes. When they discovered they had captured a high percentage of the market, they realized that continued growth of the firm meant relooking at their core competency. They learned that they had developed expertise in operating call centers, managing inventory, and arranging for delivery of goods. That led them to sell their solutions to firms needing fulfillment services. Their innovation was in the way they solved their own problem of responding efficiently to service their customers, not in any invention. They did not invent call centers or warehouses or delivery services. But they did develop useful expertise in combining these efforts to “fulfill” customer orders very, very efficiently.

Most entrepreneurs have some background in their industry which allows them to become familiar with the problems facing their potential customers. And armed with that industry knowledge, they realize that if they are going to grow exponentially, they must attract new customers quickly.

Too many prospective entrepreneurs simply get into a business they know without stopping to ask themselves exactly what they intend to bring to their future customers. That is why successful entrepreneurs understand that innovation is connected to their current and future success.

Alex Fram writing for the Associated Press wrote that according to an Associated Press -Ipsos poll “one in four adults read no books at all in the past year.” His article cited a 2004 National Endowment for the Arts report titled “Reading at Risk” found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002. (Washington Post, http://www.ask.com/bar?q=Average+number+of+books+read+by+adults&page=1&qsrc=121&dm=all&ab=0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2007%2F08%2F21%2FAR2007082101045.html&sg=t7To3jYYR21qfr1YeO0KW9IiaT4Sz5pQcToI%2ByMlp1Y%3D&tsp=1273027238448).
The article led me back to several anecdotal observations: Many successful executives and entrepreneurs are avid book readers. Several years ago, I had opportunity to meet the founder/owner of Dudley Hair Products, Mr. Joe Dudley and his wife Eunice. Dudley Products, founded in 1967, is one of the few black-owned firms left in the US with annual revenues of $30 million, Dudley Products manufactures more than 400 beauty agents, from shampoo to lipstick. One of Mr. Dudley’s public relations executives had come to Sam Houston State University to address students on black entrepreneurship. At the time, I was teaching entrepreneurship.
The meeting resulted in an invitation for me to visit North Carolina for a meeting of a group he called “Mastermind.” The group were individuals all interested or actively involved in either starting or were small business owners. We all seemed to arrive in the late afternoon, were treated to a very nice reception, but were told to go to bed because our meeting would begin the next day at 4am. After a 3 am wake up call, we all assembled in a large conference-ballroom 4 am. After a hearty “good morning,” we were told to read Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich.” When everyone had finished the book (around 10:30 in the morning), Mr. Dudley gave a commentary on the wealth creation process. Being the only white person in the room, I was extremely flattered to be part of this group to gain first hand insight. At the end of the day, the entire group was bused to his home where we were given a tour. By his bed stand was relatively new book on sales. In his library, were several shelves of books that he had obviously read (they were underlined and marked up): all on sales strategy and inspirational books on management. I also noted his bed stand was full of motivational tapes on sales by noted motivational speakers. I asked him why did he read those books when he obviously was already a very, very successful in sales and management. His answer was revealing: “I play to my strengthens. By reading books on sales and management, I get new perspectives and sharpen my skills.” And I don’t waste a second on music as I drive to work – I play those tapes in my car. It keeps me ‘charged up.’”
In April 2010, I attended a conference for deans of business schools hosted by the AACSB – International. One of the speakers was the Chief Executive Officer of Campbell’s soup. After his riveting talk, I approached the podium to say hello. On the table by the podium was his brief case. As he put his speech folder into the brief case, I noticed a recently published book on management which had a paper clip in it indicating that he was actively reading the book. Again, I thought to myself, why is one of the most successful executives in the US reading a popular “trade” book on management?
I could cite many other instances of where I have encountered extremely successful executives and entrepreneurs who were at the “top of their game” who were obviously reading books on management, sales, economics, etc during their travels. One evening, I was invited to have dinner with Professor Peter Feaver (currently at Duke University) who had worked for President Clinton and President Bush on the National Security Council. At dinner after his speech at Erskine College, he told the group of academics that President George W. Bush was an avid reader. The table of liberal academics (all admitted Democrats) were shocked to hear that Bush actually had intelligent conversations with this particular national security adviser (whom they trusted) over very sophisticated books. When our dinner guest described the titles of some of Bush’s 700 page volumes and the quality of questions his raised over the books, the group was absolutely stunned. Several asked, “how could that they guy who couldn’t form a complete sentence grasp the intellectual content of such sophisticated, academic research tombs?” Feaver’s answer was that Bush was different person in one-one-one conversations than in public. He reminded the table that President Reagan was often thought of as intellectually shallow, but the quality of Reagan’s personal library of his readings and the extensive amount of writings (including a handwritten diary of his presidency) shocked many of his critics.
The lesson here is that successful politicians, executives, and entrepreneurs build their successes in life by reading books on their subject areas. Reading provides perspectives, wisdom and “lessons” (history) that feeds their professional growth.
So, next time you are at the airport, will you pick up the airport novel, or a more serious book related to your profession? Something to think about…

by

Charles R. B. Stowe MBA, JD, Ph.D
Charles.Stowe@gmail.com
www.profentrepreneurship.wordpress.com

(Abstract: Innovation has received lots of attention from politicians, media commentators and business organizations. This article raises questions over whether it is possible to train or educate people and organizations to become more innovative, and what other questions should be considered in dealing with the opportunity of accelerating innovation.)

Some futurists claim that the “future” is approximately 30 years away (http://thenextwavefutures.wordpress.com/2007/04/21/30-year-futures-from-the-mod/). Whatever the “average” amount of time between conception of a “new” idea (the future), and its attainment, the interesting question is whether a society has the ability to “accelerate” innovation. Is there something that society can do to increase the rate of change of innovation and discovery?

The creation of the internet emerged from the US Department of Defense that was aimed at increasing research productivity through a shared network of scientists communicating and sharing information with each other. Having achieved a world-wide, inexpensive to use system, are there any other strategies that society can harness to speed up the rate of innovation?

In April 2010, a team of prominent deans of business schools under the auspices of the AACSB International (an organization that grants accreditation to business programs) published their findings related to the role of business schools in promoting innovation. Lead by Dean Bob Sullivan (University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California), the team suggested that business schools have not exactly been invited to table by media, governments and trade organizations interested in advancing innovation. The team observed that many reports dealing with the need to promote innovation that received extensive publicity did not include representatives from the nation’s business schools. The team called for efforts by business schools to re-look at their curriculum.

Years ago, academe debated whether entrepreneurship is an innate talent or whether entrepreneurship can be taught. After nearly a decade and thousands of published studies, most business professors concluded that entrepreneurship could be taught and courses in entrepreneurship jumped from some 250 in the early 1980′s to well over 2,000 courses by 2000.

As with entrepreneurship, the issue of innovation will require wrestling with some basic questions: can it be taught? If so, how should it be taught and by whom? It is one thing to talk about behavioral issues such as government incentives for entrepreneurship, it is quite another to define the skills sets and information that would actually train or educate a person to be “innovative.” Some will argue that being innovative is a state of mind, like a personality trait that is either present or absent. But, it may be likely that academe will find that as with entrepreneurship where necessity is the motherhood of invention, the same may be observed in innovation.

It may be useful to explore a strategy to better investigate innovation. First, developing a focused definition may be useful. And second, the proper context is critical. For example, innovation should not be tied to scientific, patentable inventions or we will be looking a merely developing more engineers in the name of promoting more innovation. A definition that allows innovation to span all types of organizations (such as government, private business, and non-profits) may allow for a more significant path of discovery. Getting to a definition is important because too narrow a definition may shut out other disciplines such as psychiatry, psychology, education, fine arts, political and other social sciences as well as the business disciplines.

The next line of inquiry may be to investigate how we recognize what is innovative. My studies reveal that much innovation is quite hidden from the casual observer or that the innovation is so prevalent that it remains unseen and unstudied. For example, one of the major innovations that literally transformed Wall Street and the merger and acquisition industry was the development and use of electronic spreadsheets (LOTUS 1-2-3, and Microsoft’s Excel). While many attribute Wal-Mart’s success to their innovation of “everyday low prices,” such a strategy would not have been profitable if Wal-Mart had not developed incredible logistics and inventory management systems.

There is a body of research and commentary that may help in the quest to determine whether innovation can be accelerated by education that includes the works of Schumpeter and Drucker and Chao. Drucker’s book on Capitalism and Innovation written in the early 80′s suggests seven different sources of innovation. Chao’s Innovation Nation builds a strong case that America is losing its competitive advantage in being entrepreneurial.

The effort to investigate our understanding of the process of innovation has significant implications for management education. Managers in all forms of organizations need to be better equipped to manage the process of encouraging innovation while also having a deeper understanding of how to influence or develop an innovative culture within their organizations.

The issue of innovation is central to the rate at which society can cope with its challenges. Welcome aboard!

So, welcome to the world of business as seen by one who has been employed in business, in government and in higher education. 

Thanks for visiting!

Charles.Stowe@gmail.com