{"id":20570,"date":"2016-09-29T15:05:24","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T22:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=20570"},"modified":"2016-10-20T04:16:48","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T11:16:48","slug":"what-does-it-take-to-lead-and-innovate-in-todays-business-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/editors-blog\/2016\/09\/what-does-it-take-to-lead-and-innovate-in-todays-business-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does It Take to Lead and Innovate in Today\u2019s Business Environment?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"jennie-fisher-photo\"

Jennie Fisher<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cChange is constant, and you have to anticipate and accept it.\u201d That\u2019s how Jennie Fisher opened her roundtable discussion entitled Leading for Innovative Results at the Business Technology Association\u2019s (BTA\u2019s) Grand Slam event in Boston earlier this month. Fisher is the senior VP\/general manager for the Office Equipment Group at GreatAmerica Financial Services Corp., and she invited senior managers from leading dealers to weigh in on the topic.<\/p>\n

Company culture as a driving force for innovation was a central theme for the discussion. \u201cCulture and innovation can be hard to define,\u201d said Fisher. She added that it\u2019s important that companies work on culture and leverage it in a way that encourages innovation, emphasizing communication and collaboration–creating an environment where employees feel free to share opinions and ideas.<\/p>\n

\"joe-berrigan\"

Joe Berrigan<\/p><\/div>\n

Fisher started by asking her panelists what words best describe their culture. \u201cFamily\u201d was the one word that all shared, and that idea extended beyond staff to customers as well. The consensus was that if employees treated each other and their customers like family, everything else you want in a culture follows–passion, accountability, energy, and a fun atmosphere. \u201cThe words [we use to describe our business] show how we feel, that we like being there: have fun, passion, family first,\u201d said Joe Berrigan, senior VP of business development at WPS.<\/p>\n

When asked who is responsible for company culture, all the panelists agreed that senior management needed to lead, listen, and set an example. \u201cWe want to get feedback voluntarily,\u201d said David Scibetta, owner, executive VP, and CIO at CopierFax Business Technologies. \u201cYou need to live and breathe our company culture so people come to you. I\u2019m not looking to see if people are working. I\u2019m looking to see how it feels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berrigan says that it\u2019s important for management to be open and good at communicating so everyone understands the goals and challenges the company faces. WPS, for example, has an open-book policy where management reviews company performance with all its staff and talks about meeting its KPIs. WPS also has \u201cweekly huddles\u201d where \u201ceveryone is visible and hearing the same message.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"casey-lowery\"

Casey Lowery<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cCulture is a living thing,\u201d said Casey Lowery, director of sales at Applied Imaging. He said his father, the owner of Applied Imaging, owns the culture. \u201cHe\u2019s set the stage.\u201d Sometimes, that means making hard decisions about people. \u201cWe\u2019ve deselected some people, but we\u2019ve also attracted the right people [because of our culture],\u201d he said. Lowery also emphasized the power of saying \u201cthank you\u201d to employees.<\/p>\n

One way Applied Imaging says thanks is to take employees out for lunch to a nice restaurant for their anniversary. During that lunch, the employees can ask any question they want about the company or pitch their own ideas. \u201cSome of our best ideas have come from there,\u201d said Lowery.<\/p>\n

\"david-scibetta\"

David Scibetta<\/p><\/div>\n

Working to constantly improve the company can also have a positive effect on culture and inspire innovation. Scibetta cited the example of \u201ceating our own dogfood\u201d and moving the company to the Forza platform. The company has also recently taken on new product lines such as the Muratec label printers and Konica Minolta robots. \u201cOur culture is helping us move forward,\u201d said Scibetta.<\/p>\n

Berrigan said that the hiring process is crucial to maintaining company culture. WPS diligently vets candidates with strict interview process and testing. All the stakeholders discuss the interviews and results before a decision is made.\u201dWe\u2019re confident that when we bring a person on, [he or she] aligns up as best as possible. We have very low turnover.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cChange is constant, and you have to anticipate and accept it.\u201d That\u2019s how Jennie Fisher opened her roundtable discussion entitled Leading for Innovative Results at the Business Technology Association\u2019s (BTA\u2019s) Grand Slam event in Boston earlier this month. Fisher is the senior VP\/general manager for the Office Equipment Group at GreatAmerica Financial Services Corp., and she invited senior managers from leading dealers to weigh in on the topic. Company culture as a driving force for innovation was a central theme for the discussion. \u201cCulture and innovation can be hard to define,\u201d said Fisher. She added that it\u2019s important that companies work on culture and leverage it in a way that encourages innovation, emphasizing communication and collaboration–creating an environment where employees feel free to share opinions and ideas. Fisher started by asking her panelists what words best describe their culture. \u201cFamily\u201d was the one word that all shared, and that idea extended beyond staff to customers as well. The consensus was that if employees treated each other and their customers like family, everything else you want in a culture follows–passion, accountability, energy, and a fun atmosphere. \u201cThe words [we use to describe our business] show how we feel, that we like being there: have fun, passion, family first,\u201d said Joe Berrigan, senior VP of business development at WPS. When asked who is responsible for company culture, all the panelists agreed that senior management needed to lead, listen, and set an example. \u201cWe want to get feedback voluntarily,\u201d said David Scibetta, owner, executive VP, and CIO at CopierFax Business Technologies. \u201cYou need to live and breathe our company culture so people come to you. I\u2019m not looking to see if people are working. I\u2019m looking to see how it feels.\u201d Berrigan says that it\u2019s important for management to be open and good at communicating so everyone understands the goals and challenges the company faces. WPS, for example, has an open-book policy where management reviews company performance with all its staff and talks about meeting its KPIs. WPS also has \u201cweekly huddles\u201d where \u201ceveryone is visible and hearing the same message.\u201d \u201cCulture is a living thing,\u201d said Casey Lowery, director of sales at Applied Imaging. He said his father, the owner of Applied Imaging, owns the culture. \u201cHe\u2019s set the stage.\u201d Sometimes, that means making hard decisions about people. \u201cWe\u2019ve deselected some people, but we\u2019ve also attracted the right people [because of our culture],\u201d he said. Lowery also emphasized the power of saying \u201cthank you\u201d to employees. One way Applied Imaging says thanks is to take employees out for lunch to a nice restaurant for their anniversary. During that lunch, the employees can ask any question they want about the company or pitch their own ideas. \u201cSome of our best ideas have come from there,\u201d said Lowery. Working to constantly improve the company can also have a positive effect on culture and inspire innovation. Scibetta cited the example of \u201ceating our own dogfood\u201d and moving the company to the Forza platform. The company has also recently taken on new product lines such as the Muratec label printers and Konica Minolta robots. \u201cOur culture is helping us move forward,\u201d said Scibetta. Berrigan said that the hiring process is crucial to maintaining company culture. WPS diligently vets candidates with strict interview process and testing. All the stakeholders discuss the interviews and results before a decision is made.\u201dWe\u2019re confident that when we bring a person on, [he or she] aligns up as best as possible. We have very low turnover.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80,1638],"tags":[1994],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20570"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20580,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20570\/revisions\/20580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}