…by Creel Price

Earlier in the week I headed to the Northern Territory on some kind of Indiana Jones quest to follow a rumour that somewhere in Arnhem Land there was an entrepreneurial regional council. Well, at least one with a mission to start their own for profit social enterprises and enough get up and go to invite me to train their team on entrepreneurship. I flew from Sydney to Cairns to Darwin to Gove, a little sceptical that this rarest of organisations actually existed.

After arriving in the rich red dirt of Nhulunbuy, we were picked up a little late (NT time) by Djuli, one of the traditional owners. Soon enough, we had left main roads behind and found ourselves being driven through some of the roughest tracks you could imagine in this once forbidden part of Australia that, even now, you need special permission to enter.  Our cultural tour would be a day of absorbing the scenery, wild life and way of life of one of the world’s most ancient people. Well, person to be more precise, given Djuli would be the only human we would encounter for the entire day in the remote wilderness. His ancestors have been hunting and gathering in this special place for tens of thousands of years.

After two hours of receiving a well massaged behind, and the occasional bump on my head from the roof of our seen it all before Troopy, we finally came upon the shimmering turquoise waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria. It was only minutes later that Djuli slammed on the breaks and grabbed his 7 foot spear, and with a fling of his Woomera, he flung it into the sea at what I initially thought was some home spun theatre for our benefit.  Yet, with a huge grin on his sun-wisened face, I was flabbergasted when Djuli retrieved his spear and dangling on the end was one of the biggest mud crabs I’ve ever seen. This performance was repeated another four times and his eagle eye only missed the surprisingly fast crustaceans once.

We next pulled up on a beautiful beach with a corrugated iron shack, and some home made log recliners under the palm trees beckoned our sore behinds. Though we initially sat a little nervous, Darren and Rowdy, my colleagues who had invited me on this madcap adventure, had seen a photo of Djuli the week before in the Territory News hand-feeding an enormous crocodile from this very same spot. Fortunately, ‘Nike’ the (fast?) 3 m salt-water croc was nowhere in sight. The crabs were soon roasted a steaming red on the hastily lit campfire and our breakfast was served. The rest of the day was filled by equal spurts of Djuli’s spearmanship, piercing some fish over a foot long, that were soon cooked up and eaten with relish on plates of cypress pine needles. All up we encountered dingos, kangaroos, wallabies,  jumping stingrays, sharks biting through our nets and dolphins a plenty – the place is literally teeming with wildlife.

We arrived back into Nhulunbuy tired and well fed from the countless quantities of home caught and cooked seafood we had eaten. The next day would be a complete contrast as I continued on my mission to find out whether the myth of an entrepreneurial council actually existed.

Walking into the office of the East Arnhem Shire Council you could tell something was different to your average sleepy town chambers. Whilst no city ‘busyness’ was apparent (i.e. everyone had time for a yarn) – there was a real purpose about the place, and each of the employees that calls this remote part of Australia their home. Working with CEO Ian Bodill and his surprisingly business minded team was both an eye opener and a breath of fresh air.

I realised that you need to be entrepreneurial in a land so culturally diverse, so remote and separated by such huge physical barriers, both in terms of distance and logistical issues. Some of the best business ideas are born out of the need to be resourceful when confronted by challenges. And, the challenges in East Arnhem make the graffiti and parking woes of Sydney City Council shrink into insignificance. Add that they only have a handful of  rate holders and you soon get the picture.

To their credit, and quite inspiring to me, Ian’s team have turned the obstacles into a growing list of business opportunities that they have already made a start on. From setting up an outsourced financial services business, to creating their own modular home factory and even considering setting up their own social enterprises to fix some of the transport and maintenance issues.

Whilst it’s early days, I was really impressed by this organisation’s dream to be recognised as Australia’s most entrepreneurial council. It’s my hope that their efforts will be a catalyst for other councils to follow suit.

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Ever wondered why some companies get left behind, others have cultures that hinder innovation, and why your staff don’t use enough initiative? Well, I’ve been on a journey recently to discover the answers and have somehow incorporated them into the seven deadly sins.

To help fund my Club Kidpreneur social venture I was asked to speak for Hewlett Packard, by revenue now the largest IT company in the world, and no stranger to innovation. Not to mention, it was Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard who are attributed to having inspired the Silicon Valley revolution – so I figured I would have to come up with something a little innovative myself.

So here it is, the Seven Deadly Sins of Innovation and why I think you need to heed this slippery slope into damnation in your own company:

1. Lust – the sin of having an overt affair with innovation itself.

When CEOs flirt with innovation as an ends not a means, the exact opposite may well happen. Appointing a Chief Innovation Officer or creating a specialist innovation division only alienates the rest of the organisation. Staff not considered ‘smart’ enough to be involved in innovation will do whatever it takes to derail this innovation train – why should they be left the boring stuff to complete when others are having all of the fun and taking all of the glory?

TIP – Set a Daring Audacious Goal (DAG) and make everyone responsible for innovating to help get you there.

2. Gluttony – the sin of having too much corporate fat.

There are few large organisations I walk into that don’t have too much hierarchy, too many people slowed down with too many layers of red tape and oodles of information. Waddling around looking busy when in fact too little is getting done. And, worse still, when an employee comes up with a bright idea they have to go through a time consuming innovation process – which kills the innovation bug in even the most idea prone staff member.

TIP – become lean and mean to be fast and flexible – look to cut ‘fat’ that slows you down.

3. Envy – the sin of looking for greener pastures.

When innovation is being stifled and corporate growth isn’t happening, most leaders look for answers everywhere except in their own backyard for inspiration. They look to new technology, they play copycat games with competitors, and they drool over resumes that seemingly make their own people look a little average.  How many times have they got to be underwhelmed by the results of a new employee to realise people talk themselves up on resumes and in interviews?

TIP – Build a champion team not a team of champions by actively building their resumes.

4. Sloth – the sin of unproductivity and resistance to change.

Allowing a few lazy people to survive in your organisation soon spreads to even your productive team members justifying to themselves ‘if he/she can get away with doing nothing then so can I’. Before long, you have bred a culture that has made an art of inertia. A culture that resists change at every corner and aims to survive by the least effort possible. Trying to introduce innovation in this type of environment is a highway to failure.

TIP – Foster a culture where staff are green and growing, not ripe and rotting. Replace static job descriptions with an evolving collection of projects (tasks that have a start and finish), and prototypes (tasks or responsibilities that are ongoing).

5. Pride – the sin of arrogantly believing your own publicity.

Whenever a company starts to believe they have arrived and bask in their own glory – the end is nigh. Once you believe that you have the best products or services and decide to relax, then in these days of massive change you will soon be overtaken. Take heed – just because you are on the right track doesn’t mean you can’t get run over.

TIP – invest in continuous improvement and if no decent competition exists to beat then compete with yourself.

6. Greed – the sin of focusing on short-term profits.

Investors are a fickle bunch that want to invest in a company that will be around for decades, yet only look at the last quarter’s results. It’s little wonder that incentive based CEOs focus only on quick wins – not having the stomach for long term innovations that will future-proof their business.

TIP – Choose investments and costly innovations that have a combination of both short and long term gains.

7. Wrath – the sin of finger pointing at failure.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained is no longer a mantra that exists in organisations today. Victimising those who have tried and failed has produced gun-shy employees and leaders that scramble around for safe options. Options that are rarely the best solution – merely ideas where no mud will stick. Leaving important decisions to committees that have no face only a due diligence check list to butt cover in the future. Innovation cannot survive in that environment.

TIP – Experiment to Fail fast. Celebrate those who try and fail, not those who don’t try at all.

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