As exemplified at Amazon and other leading organizations, to guide discussions and company culture for the best outcomes, it’s essential to –
1. Have a Customer Obsession
While it’s easy to get distracted by competitors with their prices / products / latest announcements – they don’t pay the bills !
Since your customers do, invest more time understanding them, determining what will have value, and ensure your are delivering a great User experience.
2. Think Long Term
Realize a short-term perspective can mean doing things not in the overall best interest of the organization – ie: making poor financial trade-offs, cutting training, delaying product / building improvements, chasing revenue that creates issues, etc.
Be good at long-term thinking to invest in things that are strategic, that have significant potential – even if it may take a while to deliver meaningful benefits (and probably won’t pay off next quarter).
While being mindful of cash flow, refuse sacrificing the future for this month’s numbers !
3. Be Good at Innovation
While people want new ideas and capabilities, many react badly when exploration is disappointing or experiments fail !
To get past this, recognize, you can’t innovate without mistakes occurring !
And realize, even though most people view it’s safer to stick with what they know (the status quo), with rate of technological change and rising expectations, things are different now.
To make innovation more rewarding and develop new thinking, encourage people “ to try / explore “, have strong look ahead, value learning, be strategic, determine how to be good at recognizing and minimizing risk, be aware of financial and technological opportunities and exposure, assess the potential and nature of a paradigm shift, be very collaborative and supportive with others, etc.
Bottom line – Leverage what works and learn from what doesn’t.
4. Have Professional Pride and Operational Excellence
Why does this matter ? Because 90 % of people’s work is never seen by anyone !
For example, Customers see the finished product – not the associated thinking, decisions, insights, trade-offs, the effort and attention to detail behind it.
Further, doing a good job is a feel good experience, builds confidence in your abilities, and confirms shared values with others interested in also realizing their potential.
What keeps standards high as well as to better position people and the organization for success ? Professional Pride.
For further insights on developing a “ Results Oriented Culture “ and “ Innovating for Impact “, see additional material at www.cail.com/BI and other sources.
If interested in discussing this and related topics to create new value and make innovation more rewarding, please contact CAIL.
Nov 3, 2026 CAIL Innovation commentary info@cail.com www.cail.com 905-940-9000