Innovation -- the execution of new ideas that provide growth and differentiation for our businesses -- cannot simply be reduced to one set of ironclad, all-encompassing rules. Human ingenuity and creativity cannot be reduced to a mathematical formula. But we can gain substantial guidance from the successes of other small business innovators and innovation specialists. The Institute for Innovation Development will be compiling and reviewing these cross-industry successes to distill principles and create courses of action. This week’s additions to the institute’s “Innovation Library” offer three different ideas on innovation success.

Harvey Mackay’s article, “Innovate or Die,” highlights individuals and firms that “found a better way to do something,” and includes two essential quotations:

“Business has only two functions, marketing and innovation.” --Peter Drucker

“Innovators anticipate or create a need and fill it.” --Dennis Waitley

Mackay also shares the original vision on innovation from the founders of Hewlett-Packard. Legend has it that these rules were posted in the original garage start-up:

1. Believe you can change the world.

2. Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.

3. Know when to work alone and when to work together.

4. Share -- tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.

5. No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)

6. The customer defines a job well done.

7. Radical ideas are not bad ideas.

8. Invent different ways of working.

9. Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.

10. Believe that together we can do anything.

11. Invent.

A recent Fast Company article, “Google Reveals Its 9 Principles of Innovation,” offered a series of productive ideas that any enterprise, large or small, can adopt to borrow Google’s innovative culture for its growth efforts:

1. Innovation comes from anywhere.

2. Focus on the user.

3. Aim to be 10 times better.

4. Bet on technical insights.

5. Get it out early and let your users give you feedback to perfect it.

6. Allow employees to spend 20% of their time working on something of their own they care about.

7. Default to open processes; in other words, let users be part of the process of creating.

8. Fail well. In other words, be willing to fail and take from the best of the ideas on a project.

9. Have a mission that matters.

With the study of innovation and its successful practitioners, the more you read and compare and contrast steps and approaches, the more you start to see patterns of behavior and recurring themes. The various lists you find in the innovation literature reinforce the picture that growth and differentiation leadership come from:

A certain kind of person. People, specifically, with a belief in change, with confidence (not ego), with passion, with customer empathy and with a certain mind set.

Acting boldly. This means challenging the status quo and not being incremental in thinking.

A certain approach. It doesn’t mean striving for perfection but experimenting and being OK to fail on a path. It also means investing time to learn.

Behavior. Innovative people must expand their thinking and inputs and be open and observant, flexible and collaborative. They must test their ideas (by doing pilot projects), actively experiment to learn and creatively use what they have to the fullest.

Our third article, “The Power of Principles in Innovation,” goes even deeper into more foundational principles of innovation. It continues the point that innovation fundamentally is a way of thinking and a mind set that allows you to “see” new ideas for your business:

Primary Principle #1: Everything is connected to everything.

Primary Principle #2: Thought is generative.

Principle #3: Everyone is creative and innovative.

Reading these three articles and others in our library will give you many ideas and the best approaches used by successful innovators to guide your efforts.

It follows that by studying these approaches, we can determine key elements of action and make them into ongoing processes for guiding our business decisions. Thus, we can practice these steps and through repetition and learning get better and better at them. The bottom line is that you can practice innovation consciously and purposely to build a better, more dynamic and differentiated business. It is only a matter of practicing. The Institute for Innovation Development will be your ongoing resource and support partner in applying these innovation best practices for your growth and differentiation efforts.

The Institute for Innovation Development is an educational and business development catalyst for growth-oriented financial services firms. We position our members with the necessary ongoing innovation resources and coaching to drive and facilitate their growth, differentiation and unique community engagement strategies. The institute launched with the support and foresight of our founding sponsor partners -- Innovation Equity Partners, Pershing, Ultimus Fund Solutions, Fidelity, Meridian IQ/Advice IQ and Charter Financial Publishing (FA and Private Wealth magazines). Together, we help make innovation happen. For more information or to join the institute, click here.