Journal des affaires et de la gestion hôtelière

Innovation: The Secret to Going From Small to Big

Mr Steven David Strauss

In my book, The Big Idea: How Business Innovators Get Great Ideas to Market, I examined how innovative, visionary entrepreneurs were able to take new, unorthodox ideas and turn them into global businesses and brands. It was never easy. Whether it was Sergi Brin and Larry Page of Google creating a new way to find information on  the Internet, or Chester Carlson inventing the Xerox Machine in his home, or George de Mestral in France inventing Velcro, creating an innovative new product takes a big idea, perseverance, money, hard work, and a little luck. Innovation is also the secret that can take an unknown entrepreneur or company from small to big -quickly. In this speech, I share fascinating stories like these (as well as stories of innovation that did not work, such as the DeLorean auto) and show why the big idea is the easy part. Executing on that idea and manifesting it is what makes the difference. The speech will show participants how products and brands that are well known and successful today often started out as something very different – the vision of an entrepreneur who saw things differently. This entrepreneur, like then audience members, was not well known but what they did have was the intelligence, ability, and drive to create an innovative product and share it with the world. The speech shows audience members the steps to take to innovate, and is interesting, fun, and informative. I conclude that there are 7 secrets to successful innovation. They are: The big idea, A committed entrepreneur, Simplicity, The first mover’s advantage, Persistence, Risk-taking, and, Synergy and teamwork.