Developing an Entreprenurial Mindset

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When Dave discussed the different resources used when taking opportunities throughout his career, he always mentioned the importance of leaders when innovatng. He stressed the impact his leaders had on him inspiring him to talk with them about his ideas. When Dave developed a new service in the employee appreciation industry, he worked directly with his manager who offered experience in the industry to help develop his idea in implementing a brochure type program for OC Tanner. The other resources he needed to use to develop his idea of creating a brochure based service was working with the IT team, Design team, Process team, Production team, and many more departments to piece this whole process together to develop and then working with the Sales, Marketing, and Client Services department’s to know how to get his new idea moving. Without these resources, Dave would not have been able to get his idea off the ground. Without the departmental resources throughout the company, this service would have been a nothing but a good idea. The collaboration that happened within the departments gave Dave’s idea and vision a place at OC Tanner and is still currently being used today.

When asked about the risks involved, Dave responded that because there are so many checks and balances at OC Tanner before having something implemented, he didn’t see a huge amount of risk involved. There is a risk of your reputation if something doesn’t go right, but he brought some unusual insight with risk in the corporate world. Even though he knows that OC Tanner does great things for people in the work place, he would remind himself that he is not “finding a cure for cancer”. Dave would put his ideas in perspective that would help himself see that his ideas were good enough to try. With this mindset, he would push through his ideas because he would ask himself, “What’s the worst that could really happen? Is anyone going to die over this choice?”

Because Dave had multiple opportunities to create business change, he was able to shake the employee recognition industry in a huge way. Because of Dave’s opportunity to find a way to incorporate the internet in the employee appreciation space, the business completely changed how they give employees a career achievement experience and are now able to order online. Because of the new product that Dave discovered, OC Tanner now has a brochure option that recipients can not only keep as a keepsake but also give them a much different experience of celebrating their anniversary than any other company in the appreciation space. Dave was able to bring unique value through his innovation that have generated millions of dollars of revenue for OC Tanner.

When asked about what motivated Dave to pursue opportunity and get through the roadblocks in developing his ideas, he responded that it was his leaders that lifted him. Along with his leaders he has a huge passion for providing recognition experiences to employees and has a desire to better their experience. Between being passionate and being inspired and motivated by his leaders, Dave was able to be successful multiple times throughout his career at OC Tanner.

The Take-Aways

The first take-away that I received from Dave was understanding the space he was in before changing it. As talked about in the interview, Dave always did his homework in the fact that he would understand the current condition and uses of an idea before looking for a different and more innovative option. It’s like the idea or saying of “you have to know the rules before you break them” and that was a motto that Dave seemed to live by in the employee recognition industry.

The second take-away I found from Dave was the importance of great leadership in the work field. He attributed a lot of his success to his leaders. With great leaders in the corporate world, or at least building that relationship with them, your voice is more likely to be heard. He mentioned one leader multiple times as someone that always saw potential in him. This leader is fought for him when job openings were open to move up in the company and also took his ideas to the executives to push through. To be able to sell someone important, in this case a leader, is key to being successful as an innovator.

The third take-away is closely connected with great leadership. It’s the fact that you have so many resources around you. You have the opportunity to talk with people who can play devil’s advocate or who may think differently from you to push your ideas around. If we allow ourselves to listen to those who have problems in an industry and can develop ideas from their hardships or their ideas. Being engaged with those around us is the main way we can develop an idea into a great idea. It’s the reason we can take an idea and make it a reality. We just have to be willing to put ourselves out there with those around us.