Innovation is vital to the success of all businesses. Innovate or perish is the new mantra. Leaders must perpetually reinvent their processes, products, and services since they typically have multiple competitors offering similar offerings. Only through innovation can most organizations differentiate.
“Innovation isn’t just a buzzword,” wrote Total Nutrition Technology CEO Lourdes McAgy in a recent Forbes article. “It’s a tangible driver of business success. Innovation means continually seeking out new solutions and improvements.” We often turn to brands like Amazon, Salesforce, or Tesla for models of innovation leadership. But could a famous pistol maker hold new secrets for organizations aspiring to be innovative?
Everyone who has watched a Western movie knows about the Colt pistol. It was the sidearm of choice for Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Buffalo Bill Coty, “Bat” Masterson, and Wild Bill Hickok. But the real story is not about a pistol but rather the trigger for the industrial revolution. With an order to quickly produce a thousand pistols, Colt realized the “one-at-a-time” artisan approach to gun making would never work. However, interchangeable parts would not only be more efficient, he could finally realize his dream of an assembly line process for greater productivities. Henry Ford took Colt’s two concepts (interchangeable parts and assembly line production) and provided automobiles for the masses. Today, we would label Samuel Colt a disruptor.
Innovation Leaders Relentlessly Traverse Challenge
Samuel Colt was born in 1814 in Hartford. His grandfather thrilled him by giving young Colt his old flintlock pistol. But Colt’s young life became laced with tragedy. At six, his mother died from tuberculosis. All three of his sisters died. At eleven, he was indentured to a farmer where he did chores and attended school. The farmer introduced him to the Compendium of Knowledge, a book filled with exciting stories about everything from steamboat inventor Robert Fulton to gunpowder. His diligence was fueled by the stories he read and not by the misfortunes in his life.
Innovative leaders have always taken challenges head-on. Steve Jobs started Apple in his parent’s garage and grew it to a $2 billion-dollar company. But his board fired him to take Apple in a new direction. Propelled by sheer resilience, he started NeXT and Pixar, ultimately reclaiming his position as Apple CEO. He took the company to a value of $300 billion. Twelve publishers turned down J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book. When publisher Even Bloomsbury finally took her manuscript (paying her only a £1500 advance), the editor told her to “get a day job.” Instead, she doubled her efforts. Today, she is a billionaire through her doggedness, and her books have sold over 400 million copies.
Innovation Leaders Have a Clear “Picture in Their Heads”
One of young Colt’s chores was taking the horse and wagon into Glastonbury, CT, for supplies. Glastonbury was a shipbuilding town on the Connecticut River. On one trip, he listened to a group of soldiers rave about the prowess of the double-barreled rifle and boasting the impossibility of anyone ever devising a firearm that could shoot five or six times without reloading. It was an aha moment for the 12-year-old Colt, and he vowed to become the person who would craft an “Impossible gun.” It remained a “picture in his head” vision that would propel his work.
Innovation leaders live their work in reverse. They have a clear end goal and then plan backward to create a path for executing that vision. Armed with a “picture in their head,” they are less distracted by obstacles and minutia. This enables laser focus, which is essential to going the distance. Dreams that have staying power are compelling, challenging, and, most of all, colorful. And they inspire those around them, not by the promise of wealth but by the calling of a grander purpose.
Innovation Leaders are Resource Attractors
Captain Sam Walker of the Texas Rangers saved Colt’s company. Walker had seen first-hand how well Colt’s pistols performed during the Seminole War and wanted to use them in the Mexican American war. In 1847, he placed an order for 1000 pistols. Colt turned to chief mechanic and inventor Elisha Root to set up his assembly line concept. He also brought artisan Bavaria gun makers to add “roll-die” engraving on the steel. It enabled brand-making decorative flourishes to be added to the functionality of a well-made pistol. His company would ultimately produce over 400,000 revolvers.
Pioneers are often thought of as solitary daredevils who single-handedly take on giant challenges. But they are resource attractors and not hermits. Charles Lindberg was backed by nine businessmen from St. Louis and the Ryan Aeronautical Company that built his plane. Daniel Boone was fronted by his colleagues at the Transylvania Company. Oprah Winfrey credits her grandmother as the groundwater of her zeal to rise above a childhood of abuse and poverty to become a superstar in the media. Great innovative leaders value interdependence and synergy.
Innovation Leaders Have a Passion for Their Brand
Sam Colt was a marketing genius. He traveled the world promoting his revolvers, often giving them to celebrities in exchange for their permission to use their photos in popular magazines. Colt pistols were advertised with the revolver being used on wild animal hunts or against bandits. Wild West performers sported Colt pistols. When he could not get an audience with foreign heads of state as a private citizen, he talked the governor of Connecticut into making him a lieutenant colonel and an aide-de-camp in the state militia. His “gifts” to kings and rulers were engraved “Compliments of Col. Colt.”
The impetus for Colt’s unleashed brand promotion was less about his personal ego and more about his passion for the Colt pistol. Innovation leaders are quick to praise ingenuity and eager to make examples of those who risk for a new way or a better approach. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, just “building a better mousetrap” will not alone create a path to your door. Folks must know about your better mousetrap, or new-fangled pistol.