---
title: How to Foster Innovation to Drive Company Strategy
description: "Will and Sean conclude their 5 for 15 RepOps series with the discussion of a critical (yet often unrecognized) component of business development: innovation. But how does innovation play into revenue operations? Check out today’s episode of Aligned to find out."
image: https://www.fitzmartin.com/hubfs/17%20Square.jpg
---

![17 Square-1](https://www.fitzmartin.com/hubfs/17%20Square-1.jpg)

Centricity Podcast Episode 17 July 14, 2021

# How to Foster Innovation to Drive Company Strategy

Will and Sean conclude their 5 for 15 RepOps series with the discussion of a critical (yet often unrecognized) component of business development: innovation. But how does innovation play into revenue operations? Check out today’s episode of Aligned to find out.

**Innovation is integral to company success.**

- A common thread throughout revenue operations - different people are responsible for understanding various customer aspects. Marketing might need to think about long-term strategy while sales develops one-on-one insights directly from prospects. And, of course, current customers provide innovative ideas you know your audience will like.
- The takeaway? Innovation needs to be a part of the revenue operations conversation because there are multiple stakeholders in the conversation. 

**Innovation is a posture change. **

- You can have the right framework, alignment, and programming. But if you refuse to innovate, you’ll be the next Blockbuster - the shining star that burned too quickly.
- But what do we mean by innovation? Innovation is asking questions. How else could we build it? What else can we do with this? How else can this be applied?
- The command-and-control management model leftover from World War Two inspired this lack of innovation in the workplace. Moving to a distributed approval process for innovation can help you avoid this issue.

**Idea-killing structures have to be shifted.**

- As an executive, think about how an idea would disseminate through your company to be understood and seen. Is it accessible to everyone? Are certain people encouraged to participate over others? 
- Make your company aware of biases. People are taught to see something one way, and our brains will frame new ideas to fit that expectation. 

**How to determine the most important thing to develop in the company? **

- Develop quarterly objectives with the execution maximizer system.
- Implement programs to generate innovation. Give each of your employees fake capital and see where they choose to invest in the company. 
- By avoiding a command and control top-down model, you recognize good ideas based on what has the most investments.
- What’s the key takeaway from this episode? Shift the way you drive innovation in your company.
- Check out Sean’s book [Shift](https://www.amazon.com/Shift-Practical-Business-Driven-Executive-Marketing/dp/1605440574/) to learn how to develop your marketing strategy and skills.
- Aligned is a podcast for executives of emerging middle-market companies, executives of rapidly growing businesses, and executives pursuing growth and looking for new levers to pull. FitzMartin is a sales-first company driven by those things, and we want to pursue those things, and we know that you do, too.
- To connect with Sean Doyle, find him on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-m-doyle/), or learn more about FitzMartin on the [company web page](https://fitzmartin.com/?hsLang=en). 

You can also connect with Will Riley on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/weriley/).

Listen here or on [iTunes](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/will-riley-how-to-foster-innovation-to-drive-company/id1472052181?i=1000527229284) • [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4QBMktGiLp0JQfprPmoiVr?si=PAWTwex4TmetmBdbtbuzrA&dl_branch=1)

[Download](https://www.fitzmartin.com/hubfs/Will%20Riley%20_%20How%20to%20Foster%20Innovation%20to%20Drive%20Company%20Strategy%20-%20017.mp3?hsLang=en)