J. Andres Jordan
I truly believe that the way we are organized – the way the companies are organized – stove-piped, pillars - does a disservice to innovation. I believe that all of us – each human – is innately, a creative being. We're actually creative beings. We started being creative when we're kids, but you notice as you grow up you start becoming – you know, you have this hierarchal systems that we've designed in companies to to manage us, but I think that system tends to – then of course the larger the company gets the worse it gets. They tend to stove-pipe things and that kills creativity
So what we do is we see the innovation process sort of as a teaching tool, a learning tool. So what we do is we come up with an idea and you have buy ins from different groups in the company and those people become sub-sponsors, let's say, to the idea, right? So that's been very successful for us. We bring sponsors from each group that we need in order to launch the idea. So sales, sale support, operations, finance and they become part of a virtual team across the world.
We're a global company so we have people in Europe, people in Asia, and they become the sponsors for that idea. And the way you get those people is you float an idea and see who emerges and who is interested in being part of that idea – creation, generation. So that's how collaborate across, silos.