Blue Ocean, Red Ocean...

If you have not read the book on Blue Ocean Strategy, I would highly recommend it.  No matter what industry you are in or how competitive your market is, it should make you think about innovation.  Most companies I have worked with find it difficult to integrate innovation into their management cycle, and therefore innovation is done in an ad hoc manner.  

While a Blue Ocean (Red Oceans are competitive markets where everyone has spilled blood) market play may not be for everyone, you can think of new ways to measure the business, process improvements, compensation plans, marketing tactics, etc if you create a more formal manner for innovation.

Additionally, you might find a great deal of value of reassessing the competitive landscape.  It never hurts to discuss how would a new competitor attack the market.  All great businesses find themselves under threat from unseen ideas - this may just give you a more proactive manner to see the ideas coming.  

Continuous Improvement - 3 Acts at a Time

One of the key items we seem to struggle with is creating a process for continued process improvement.  We typically look for dramatic and immediate improvements and lack patience to see things through.

• When was the last time marketing sat down to specifically improve its top three marketing programs?  
  
• When was the last time, sales management took the top three clients in each territory to lunch?
  
• When was the last time you promoted your three top suppliers?

How do we create a mentality and culture of continuous action?  Simple, don't think, just pick something and get it done this week.  All too often we get stuck in a mentality of trying to figure how to improve everything at once, instead of tasking a bunch of good people with three things to do by the end of the week.