Creating Possibilities in Opportunities & Innovation

In March 2009, one conversation challenged me to think about new career possibilities I had never imagined.

At the time, I was the head of finance for a Coca-Cola franchise bottler in Kenya with annual revenues in excess of $100 million. I had been in my role for three years and I was considering career options beyond the Coca-Cola system.

The chance conversation was with a Franchise General Manager at the Coca-Cola Company based in Nairobi. In speaking with him, I realized that my next role would be pivotal in my career path towards General Management.

He asked me to consider for my next role a Commercial (Sales) role within the Coca-Cola system! There was no job opportunity on offer.. but he awakened me to the need to gain functional leadership experience beyond finance as a strategic pivot towards my career aspirations for general management.

18 months later, In September 2010, I was appointed as Commercial Manager for the Coca-Cola franchise bottler in Kenya leading a sales force of 350 people! When the announcement was made by the Managing Director to the greater management team, somebody asked, “Andrew who?” And there were undoubtedly many others who questioned the sanity of both myself and my appointing authority. That marked the beginning of the most rewarding and challenging transformational leadership role I have ever had. Two years later, I had grown as a leader and made great strides in realizing my own vision of inspiring others to greater heights.

My commercial experience shaped me to be the leader I am today.

Today, the Franchise General Manager whose advice awakened me to my abundant possibilities, is the President of a Business Unit at the Coca-Cola Company.

So, What Does This Have to Do With You?

The story is told of a shoe factory that sends two marketing scouts to a region in Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying,

SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES

The other writes back triumphantly,

FANTASTIC BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY STOP THEY HAVE NO SHOES

Which of these approaches you choose when you are at cross roads in your professional life makes all the difference in the world.

Three key learnings from my experience with regards to investing in opportunities and innovation: Create Possibilities, Seek Opportunities and Innovate! (C.S.I)

Create Possibilities

“Everything is first created in the mind and then in reality”. The starting point is creating possibilities in your mind. In the book The Art of Possibility, Ben and Rosamund Zander offer great advice on living in a world of possibility. In the book, they share the concept of downward spiral vs possibility thinking with the illustration below:

Invest time in activities that expand your thinking of possibilities. These include defining your vision, conversations, reading, learning and exploring new ideas. Most importantly set aside the time to Think Possibilities.

Seek Opportunities

Pursue opportunities that stretch you beyond your comfort zone. You have to consciously invest time in seeking opportunities to achieve your goals. You also need to be prepared for the opportunities you seek by investing in your capacity ahead of demand (subject of the next article). “Ask and you shall receive”- the key is knowing what to ask and how to ask for it. Just as there are unlimited possibilities you can create, there are unlimited opportunities you can seek.

Innovate

What is your claim to fame? My former Managing Director always asked me what would be my signature claim to fame. Looking back it would be impacting the culture of the business in Kenya through an innovative organizational change management initiative 99+ Its Personal!

In every opportunity, aspire to leave your mark through innovation. There are always opportunities to do things Smarter, Faster & Better!.. that is the essence of innovation.

In previous articles (Show Me The Time; and Who is in Your Inner Circle) I shared the goal of targeting to invest 20% of productive time in a week in the Creative (Self Leadership) quadrant. This is equivalent to a minimum investment of 20 hours per week invested in Relationships (40%); Opportunities (20%), Innovation (20%) and Capacity (20%). Therefore in addition to investing 40% of the allocated productive time (8 hours) in relationships per week, the target should be to invest an additional 40% in Opportunities and Innovation for cumulative 8 hours. In the next article I will explore investing in Capacity for the remaining 20% allocation of 4 hours.

Are you investing your time in Opportunities and Innovation?

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What other tips can you share? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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