Although I orginally wrote this article for small business owners on the Whale Hunters blog, the ideas explored here can empower companies of all sizes. If you are aiming to grow your business, consider how you can hitch your star to the trends that are taking business by storm:

#1.  Business Innovation Is Transforming Some Businesses, Making Others Unique
I am not referring to the kind of costly innovation that requires a scientific degree. Business innovation is just as exciting - which means doing business differently, creating new business models or updated processes, landing new customers by re-packaging or enhancing a current offering.

Think about what could be different about your business that would make it truly different. What can you do to advance your mission?  What are you seeing that the mass markets are missing? Are you driving the right behaviors internally to capture new business?

In medicine – health care is a business too – non-technical innovation drives effectiveness and “market position.” Dr. Fred Sklar, President of Neurosurgeons for Children in Dallas, worked solo for 11 years as he built an extremely high level of activity. In business terms, he was building a new market in the Southwest. He then figured out how to scale the practice and structure it to provide the same quality of care to both paying and indigent patents. The dream came true. His group became a leader in its field, and Sklar, with a multi-specialty team, separated the conjoined Egyptian twins at Dallas’ Children’s Hospital in 2005.

Dr. Sklar says that their innovative business model makes them unique. Every surgical partner at Neurosurgeons for Children is equal. There are no super-stars, no room for less than exceptional. “Our group is unique in many ways,” he told me. “We pay our expenses and divide the earnings evenly. That’s not how it usually works in a surgical group. I don’t want one patient to be more or less desirable than another.” Clearly unwieldy egos can’t tolerate this culture. What about yours?

#2.  Digital Leadership Creates New Avenues for Growth

Digital is leveling the playing field, empowering small business to do more, know more and grow faster. Technology will continue to transform industries and blur the boundaries between them. All businesses are advised to operate in real time, which is what the consumer is expecting. Continue reading…

There’s strong agreement that innovation will drive success in modern business, yet a growing concern that companies are not taking the steps to innovate. The business press asserts that innovation is hard to measure, expensive and often compromised for short-term gains. CEOs don’t understand innovation, we’re told - they do little more than talk about new ideas. I feel compelled to set the record straight, based on my research and personal business experience.

Fear not, America’s businesses will not sink into oblivion and stagnation, at least not in the next few years. The urgent call for action ignores what’s actually happening throughout the private sector. Now more than ever, innovation is important… and there are leaders who are getting it right. Further, many of these executives are baby boomers, the very generation that missed learning about innovation in business school. Continue reading…

Steve Jobs built an extraordinary business called Apple. Its tag line, Think Differently, says it all. Apple enjoys an energized customer base, impressive earnings, and a growing market share. Apple is on fire.

Jobs’ ideas and actions are driven by his Steadfast Passion, a term I use to describe the mind-set and actions of leaders who are Visionaries and Agents of Successful Change. Steadfast Passion is more than passion or loving what you do. It defines the leader’s focus and how he approaches challenge and change.

For those who seek robust growth, Steadfast Passion is a competency of enormous consequence, and the hardest to master. It is the Hallmark that distinguishes the most admired business leaders, the likes of Rupert Murdock of News Corp and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Continue reading…