How organizations encourage employees to be innovative
In today’s knowledge age, the creativity and entrepreneurship of staff are the competitive edge that companies thrive on. Canadian HR Reporter talked to CEOs about how their organizations encourage employees to be innovative.
Alan Gershenhorn
President
United Parcel Service Canada
UPS was created in 1907 and is now one of the world’s largest express courier and package delivery companies with 370,000 employees around the globe. UPS Canada, which started its operations in 1975, employs more than 6,500 people.
Just recently, UPS updated its charter and the mission statement directly addresses innovation.
“It’s actually embedded in how we expect people to think,” says Alan Gershenhorn, president of UPS Canada. “It’s almost wrong not to be innovative at UPS. It fortifies our organization through new discoveries and opportunities,” he says.
Gershenhorn is a veteran of the company, moving from the front line to the upper ranks in a career spanning 23 years. He says a major part of his success is due to his innovative ideas and he’s been involved in the launch of various UPS products and services. It’s important to have a solid “promotion-from-within” policy to encourage innovation, he says.
“We’ve got a very strong career development process where people are promoted with a tremendous amount of lateral rotation between functions,” says Gershenhorn, who has held positions in operations, engineering and marketing. “It gives everybody a good view of the total picture of the organization, which breeds the ability for our people to innovate because they understand the business from a holistic perspective.”
UPS Canada has invested heavily in the most current technological innovations, which has helped it to become leading edge in the industry. A few months ago, one of its latest developments was unveiled — the UPS electronic return label. It allows businesses to e-mail shipping labels directly to customers who are returning merchandise. Today, more than 11 million of the 13-plus million shipments are uploaded electronically by customers, Gershenhorn says. The new software makes it more convenient for the customer with the instant delivery and makes returns less complicated.
That’s just one of the many ways UPS has acted on innovative ideas to make gains in the the marketplace, and it would not be possible if UPS did not foster an environment of innovation, he says.
Much of UPS’ originality is based on a “blueprint for innovation” four-quadrant model, with two sides dedicated to the “can’t fail” internal and external ventures and the “can fail small and fast” projects.
The “can’t fail” category is for those ideas that will flourish and enable the company to grow such as UPS’ recent acquisition of Mailboxes Etc. Inc.
“We looked at whether it leveraged the core competencies and skills that we’re expert at, and that it drives the internal growth of our business. It was an attractive market and Mailbox Etc. is one of our biggest customers, it certainly drives the growth of UPS.”
The “can fail small and fast” category is when ideas are in the initial phases, attempting to get off the ground.
UPS entertains those ideas with caution — an element of risk-taking is required.
“We experimented with the grocery delivery business a few years back, and after understanding the business model and taking a little bit of risk...we pulled out,” he says. “We make sure we don’t spend excess time and money on something that’s not going to go.”
These types of risk-taking endeavours are manufactured out of the UPS Innovation Complex in Atlanta, known as the Innoplex. Innoplex provides an environment for employees from a number of different functions and disciplines to work together and come up with new e-commerce initiatives, develop or re-launch products and move the ideas to completion. The building’s design has lots of natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows, no walls, informal collaboration areas and numerous electronic white boards. All of the furniture is on wheels so when employees have a new idea mulling in their head, they can wheel their workstations around the office.
“Our people will go down and work for a short time period there. It encourages everybody to work together in a team environment.”
The HR department plays an important role in many of UPS’ initiatives. They steer organizational performance through the use of balanced score cards with four checkpoints: customer satisfaction, innovation and learning, financial, and internal business processes. So, they’re the gatekeepers, making sure we take a balanced approach to the business, says Gershenhorn.
Other HR responsibilities include the career development of employees and ensuring the innovation policy is reinforced in training. HR has also developed rewards, including stock incentive plans, and placed talented staff in mentoring programs to guide them towards career advancement.
“We have a long legacy since 1907 of innovation. The combination of our strong legacy supported by our charter, the promotion from within, and the commitment to innovation...we constantly monitored the marketplace and innovated to where we are today.”
Glen Gibson
CEO
Crawford Adjusters Canada
Crawford Adjusters Canada, a claims administration company based in Kitchener, Ont., has 850 employees across the country.
Glen Gibson, CEO of Crawford Adjusters, is a little suspicious about his vice-president of HR, Steve Anderson. “I think he has a strategy to take over the company,” says Gibson. Not long ago, HR had a very small role to play at the claims adjuster, but after Crawford and ACI - Adjusters Canada Incorporated merged a few years ago, Anderson and his department have become involved in almost all aspects of the business taking on roles and responsibilities beyond those of most HR departments.
“The HR piece has really kind of exploded on us,” says Gibson. “A lot of our HR, up until about seven or eight years ago was done by the president and an executive committee. It was very ad hoc, and we ran a successful company but at that time we were about half of the size we are now and we could get away with it, I suppose. Steve was our first HR person and he sort of led us to the water and got us to drink from it.”
In terms of innovation, in the last couple of years, Crawford has made changes to solve one of the fundamental problems most claims adjusters face.
“One of the things that is the Achilles heel of our business is the weather. As a loss adjuster when you go through the winter we have just gone through which was very mild, we don’t get as much weather-related claims activity. So as a corporation we are trying to staff for peaks and valleys and the weather is a variable so it makes our business planning very difficult.” And so, Crawford set out to diversify its business.
“We said to ourselves, ‘What are the core competencies of a loss adjuster?’ Investigation, evaluation of information, negotiation and settlement.” The next step was to look at where those competencies could be applied in other settings. “We tried to think out of the box, and I know that is a common phrase, but we said, ‘Well traditionally we act for insurance companies but who else could take advantage of our skill set?’”
That lead to a move into the class action administration business. Crawford served as administrators in the hepatitis C federal government class action and the Ontario government Walkerton case, for example. “In terms of innovation we are sort of the cutting edge and the leading edge of that in the Canadian market. It has helped us in the market and lessened the blow of this past winter.”
Crawford is also using technology more today to improve its services and is counting on HR to make sure the technology is being used effectively.
“Our customers, the insurance industry, they are looking for efficiencies and savings from their vendors,” says Gibson. In Crawford’s case, a well-run claims management system offers a solution.
Rather than outsourcing IT, Crawford has kept its IT department in-house and that has enabled them to create their own claims management system.
“We’re really thankful we don’t have to (rely on an external IT provider) because if you outsource you are in queue and you tell me how many IT companies are delivering when they say they are going to deliver? So what we do is we go back to our front-line people our support staff, our adjusters and our lawyers and ask them what they would like to see the system do next.” With the IT department in-house it is much easier to make those adjustments.
But while having a good claims management system helps the organization perform better, it is also important to make sure employees are using it effectively, says Gibson. “So with our HR division — our training group — we did a gap analysis and we did surveying and we came up with a listing or tests that show us what we want them to know and then we wanted to test them to see if they know how to do it. And the second thing, if they didn’t know how to do it, was teaching them how to do it.
“At the end of this month, there shouldn’t be a person in this corporation that doesn’t know how to use our systems to their maximum benefit and if they are not using them at that point that just tells me that they are not willing and if they are not willing then it is time to move on.”
John Brooks
President and CEO
Adherex Technologies Inc.
Adherex Technologies Inc. is involved in finding treatments for cancer and other diseases. This young company is based in Ottawa with about 28 employees.
With the prestigious distinction, Ottawa Innovator of the Year (2001), John Brooks, president and CEO of Adherex Technologies Inc., is the right person to talk about innovation. The award — presented by the National Research Council Canada and the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation — was given to Brooks in recognition of his creativity and contributions to Ottawa’s economic growth, image and quality of life.
Adherex has developed a product, Exherin, which has the potential to target and destroy the abnormal blood vessels feeding cancerous tumours, eventually starving the tumour. The technology enables Adherex to develop alternative treatments for several life-threatening diseases and complicated medical conditions. Brooks led the creation of the company’s research operations and has raised more than $25 million of equity capital to fund Adherex. With these groundbreaking accomplishments, Brooks is still very humble about his win.
“I didn’t expect it at all. You expect these awards to go to the high-tech companies that employ thousands of people,” says Brooks. “It’s an exciting new approach to cancer therapy and there is a lot of excitement built around that. But we’re where we are because of the successful and creative ideas of the staff.”
Though Adherex’s staff is small, they are full of big, innovative ideas. Brooks says the most important element in fostering innovation among employees is letting them have the freedom to talk about their ideas without being censored.
“Innovation comes when people are free to use their imaginations and you’ve got to encourage that. You have to recognize the best ideas don’t come from senior management all the time,” he says. “We’ve come up with some bad ideas too, but that’s what you want — people to feel free to bring up comments and talk freely about things.”
Brooks says a culture of inclusiveness produces the best results for innovative thought. This kind of culture comes from people who feel what they’re doing is important and that their opinions are valued, he says. Staying true to this philosophy, Adherex employees meet once a month to hear about the different responsibilities of each department, and find out about the new projects they are embarking on. It’s important to note attendance for these meetings is voluntary.
“We’re trying to create a culture where people have some freedom. They’re free to attend or not to attend as they see fit,” Brooks says. “It sort of takes on a bit of fun and there’s an interest. It’s not just another corporate event. Not everything can and should be voluntary, but the creation has done a lot to foster the culture.
“(The meetings) give people a better understanding of how each department fits into the overall scheme of things.”
HR is usually at the centre of initiatives, such as the voluntary meetings, among various other projects. Adherex works with a network of scientists from around the world and HR is at the forefront of maintaining the relationships with external scientists. Not to mention, like most HR departments, they must have a keen eye for talented job candidates, considering the company hopes to double in size soon.
What it all boils down to, says Brooks, is people at Adherex care about what they are doing which makes all the difference in the ability to come up with innovative ideas. As Adherex moves forward with their platform technology, Brooks says he sees the team becoming even stronger. “I am very pleased with the direction our company is going.”
Jeffrey Rohne
President and Chief Operating Officer
Qunara Inc.
Qunara Inc. specializes in e-business solutions and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. Headquartered in Winnipeg, the firm has 270 employees across Canada.
You’ve got to know a thing or two after spending more than 30 years in the technology business. Drawing from his vast experience, Jeffrey Rohne, president and chief operating officer of Qunara Inc., says he’s learned over the years that e-business is all about innovation.
The competition in this industry is diverse and intense and the only way to differentiate from the rest is by innovation, says Rohne. Risk taking is at the forefront of the kind of leading-edge innovation Rohne talks about. It’s absolutely critical for success.
“We don’t have problems with trying something new and stumbling or skinning our knees. Without some failures, you don’t get progress.”
With innovation in mind, Qunara merged with Exocom Group Inc. in 2001 to accelerate its growth in the North American marketplace. In the past few years, many companies that have decided to merge have ended up with some major challenges, but Rohne says the merger was “just right.” Especially since the firms worked on a number of joint initiatives the year before.
“We’ve come through a very successful integration. We made certain the merge was a good fit and the culture was complimentary,” he says. “The leaders work well together and are indeed innovative, so both parties brought to the table this notion of being leading-edge in the technology area.”
Qunara now provides professional IT services, including strategic consulting, development, implementation and integration services, sales and software for businesses — with a focus on delivering Internet-enabled solutions and expertise to clients. The very nature of the business requires risk taking, says Rohne.
“We encourage this risk taking and learn from our mistakes. Our clients rely on the fact that we’re innovative...which is based on the fact that we test solutions for clients and deal with the risks internally,” says Rohne.
Rohne says this notion of innovation must be evident long before you become a Qunara employee. During the initial phase of the hiring process, candidates are screened for their innovative potential.
“From an HR perspective it’s a matter of hiring the people that are already innovative. People comfortable with the unknown and continuous learning.”
More importantly, managers who hire need to take heed of this requirement as well. Qunara has to hire people who are lifelong learners, they must recognize the importance of delivering cutting edge solutions to clients, that’s just part of an ingrained practice at our company, he says.
In addition, there are a number of ways to encourage, reward and recognize employees who go that extra mile once hired. They include peer and management recognition rewards, an employee of the year award and the president’s award. Being innovative is incorporated in the criteria for each award.
“That encourages employees to know it’s important to us,” Rohne says.
Rohne also has his own marketing campaign of late. Since the merger, he’s made it a point to visit the various offices on a monthly basis and talk with every employee, encouraging them to bring forth any ideas they may have.
“This is not a company that has a specific product. We develop unique applications and require the best of what we can do as individuals and as a team.”
Rohne’s mission for Qunara is to foster learning, growth, and risk taking. That’s a motto he lives by and his secret to success.
“That’s a part of who I am. I couldn’t work in an organization where that culture doesn’t exist. My whole career has been about dealing with risk and innovation.”
Dave Colcleugh
Chair, President and CEO
DuPont Canada Inc.
DuPont Canada produces a wide range of products from synthetics and polymers to automotive finishes, and employes more than 3,300 people in Canada at manufacturing sites and offices nationwide.
“Innovation is right at the very top of our vision statement,” says Dave Colcleugh, chair, president and CEO of DuPont Canada Inc.
“Many people have vision statements and put innovation in it but we take it very seriously. We think of ourselves as a science company. We try to brand ourselves as a science company and that is really the creation of knowledge. So clearly (innovation) is important to us.”
In an industry where the shelf life of a product is only about three years, and ideas are the lifeblood of success, Colcleugh says DuPont has remained competitive on a global stage by being innovative, by generating new ideas and ensuring the right processes are in place to turn those ideas into new products.
Notably, DuPont Canada still does much of its research in Canada. “We have a growing investment in our research and development organization (in Kingston, Ont.) and it is really the last research and development organization of any significance for a multinational in Canada. We are adding more people into that because they are getting results quite frankly.”
For example, DuPont is getting heavily involved in alternative fuel exploration. “We have taken (our) creative polymer science capability and begun to enter the new and quite exciting world of fuel cells,” says Colcleugh. One membrane created by DuPont is used in fuel cells already. “But we are getting involved more deeply in all the materials that are in the fuel cell and that is a global DuPont venture but specifically DuPont Canada is playing a significant and integral part in that through our research and development organization in Kingston.”
In its liquid packaging organization (the plastic membranes used to package milk, for example), DuPont is working on a new product which could significantly help developing countries.
“What we have been able to do with that pouch system is develop a new machine and new films which allows us to produce a pouch like material for dairies that doesn’t need refrigeration. This has a tremendous opportunity for developing countries.”
Colcleugh says HR plays a vital role in ensuring the organization can attract and retain the valuable minds that drive these innovations.
“It is sort of planning around what the businesses need here in terms of those innovative minds, sourcing them ... looking for where they are, finding ways to reward them properly and then once we have them, not only retaining them but developing them.”
But the scientists are just one part of a larger organization and Colcleugh counts on HR to run as efficiently as possible to support the entire company and to oversee the processes and practices the organization has in place to ensure it remains innovative.
Innovation is kind of like health and safety in that everyone is expected to play a part, says Colcleugh. But DuPont takes a very structured approach to ensuring continued improvement and HR has ownership of that objective. Each unit and group has frameworks, processes and models to improve performance and aside from overseeing that process, HR is also expected to improve its own performance.
“The HR organization like all of our businesses has translated their work into process steps, they look at ways of making those process steps less wasteful, take out costs. The mapping of these processes allows us to create less waste but more importantly it allows people in HR to spend more time growing their business,” says Colcleugh.
“Our HR organization is run like a business quite frankly. (It) delivers business value whether it is to the research centre or a product line business. It is a supplier to an integrated value chain. So they think of themselves as having to earn a profit and by creating value their customers won’t go somewhere else. We allow people to go outside of the company if a business unit decides it is not getting the service it needs from HR or from finance, they can go get the business somewhere else. Quite frankly not many (business units) do that because it causes (HR and other groups) to get really good at what they do.”
Alan Gershenhorn
President
United Parcel Service Canada
UPS was created in 1907 and is now one of the world’s largest express courier and package delivery companies with 370,000 employees around the globe. UPS Canada, which started its operations in 1975, employs more than 6,500 people.
Just recently, UPS updated its charter and the mission statement directly addresses innovation.
“It’s actually embedded in how we expect people to think,” says Alan Gershenhorn, president of UPS Canada. “It’s almost wrong not to be innovative at UPS. It fortifies our organization through new discoveries and opportunities,” he says.
Gershenhorn is a veteran of the company, moving from the front line to the upper ranks in a career spanning 23 years. He says a major part of his success is due to his innovative ideas and he’s been involved in the launch of various UPS products and services. It’s important to have a solid “promotion-from-within” policy to encourage innovation, he says.
“We’ve got a very strong career development process where people are promoted with a tremendous amount of lateral rotation between functions,” says Gershenhorn, who has held positions in operations, engineering and marketing. “It gives everybody a good view of the total picture of the organization, which breeds the ability for our people to innovate because they understand the business from a holistic perspective.”
UPS Canada has invested heavily in the most current technological innovations, which has helped it to become leading edge in the industry. A few months ago, one of its latest developments was unveiled — the UPS electronic return label. It allows businesses to e-mail shipping labels directly to customers who are returning merchandise. Today, more than 11 million of the 13-plus million shipments are uploaded electronically by customers, Gershenhorn says. The new software makes it more convenient for the customer with the instant delivery and makes returns less complicated.
That’s just one of the many ways UPS has acted on innovative ideas to make gains in the the marketplace, and it would not be possible if UPS did not foster an environment of innovation, he says.
Much of UPS’ originality is based on a “blueprint for innovation” four-quadrant model, with two sides dedicated to the “can’t fail” internal and external ventures and the “can fail small and fast” projects.
The “can’t fail” category is for those ideas that will flourish and enable the company to grow such as UPS’ recent acquisition of Mailboxes Etc. Inc.
“We looked at whether it leveraged the core competencies and skills that we’re expert at, and that it drives the internal growth of our business. It was an attractive market and Mailbox Etc. is one of our biggest customers, it certainly drives the growth of UPS.”
The “can fail small and fast” category is when ideas are in the initial phases, attempting to get off the ground.
UPS entertains those ideas with caution — an element of risk-taking is required.
“We experimented with the grocery delivery business a few years back, and after understanding the business model and taking a little bit of risk...we pulled out,” he says. “We make sure we don’t spend excess time and money on something that’s not going to go.”
These types of risk-taking endeavours are manufactured out of the UPS Innovation Complex in Atlanta, known as the Innoplex. Innoplex provides an environment for employees from a number of different functions and disciplines to work together and come up with new e-commerce initiatives, develop or re-launch products and move the ideas to completion. The building’s design has lots of natural light with floor-to-ceiling windows, no walls, informal collaboration areas and numerous electronic white boards. All of the furniture is on wheels so when employees have a new idea mulling in their head, they can wheel their workstations around the office.
“Our people will go down and work for a short time period there. It encourages everybody to work together in a team environment.”
The HR department plays an important role in many of UPS’ initiatives. They steer organizational performance through the use of balanced score cards with four checkpoints: customer satisfaction, innovation and learning, financial, and internal business processes. So, they’re the gatekeepers, making sure we take a balanced approach to the business, says Gershenhorn.
Other HR responsibilities include the career development of employees and ensuring the innovation policy is reinforced in training. HR has also developed rewards, including stock incentive plans, and placed talented staff in mentoring programs to guide them towards career advancement.
“We have a long legacy since 1907 of innovation. The combination of our strong legacy supported by our charter, the promotion from within, and the commitment to innovation...we constantly monitored the marketplace and innovated to where we are today.”
Glen Gibson
CEO
Crawford Adjusters Canada
Crawford Adjusters Canada, a claims administration company based in Kitchener, Ont., has 850 employees across the country.
Glen Gibson, CEO of Crawford Adjusters, is a little suspicious about his vice-president of HR, Steve Anderson. “I think he has a strategy to take over the company,” says Gibson. Not long ago, HR had a very small role to play at the claims adjuster, but after Crawford and ACI - Adjusters Canada Incorporated merged a few years ago, Anderson and his department have become involved in almost all aspects of the business taking on roles and responsibilities beyond those of most HR departments.
“The HR piece has really kind of exploded on us,” says Gibson. “A lot of our HR, up until about seven or eight years ago was done by the president and an executive committee. It was very ad hoc, and we ran a successful company but at that time we were about half of the size we are now and we could get away with it, I suppose. Steve was our first HR person and he sort of led us to the water and got us to drink from it.”
In terms of innovation, in the last couple of years, Crawford has made changes to solve one of the fundamental problems most claims adjusters face.
“One of the things that is the Achilles heel of our business is the weather. As a loss adjuster when you go through the winter we have just gone through which was very mild, we don’t get as much weather-related claims activity. So as a corporation we are trying to staff for peaks and valleys and the weather is a variable so it makes our business planning very difficult.” And so, Crawford set out to diversify its business.
“We said to ourselves, ‘What are the core competencies of a loss adjuster?’ Investigation, evaluation of information, negotiation and settlement.” The next step was to look at where those competencies could be applied in other settings. “We tried to think out of the box, and I know that is a common phrase, but we said, ‘Well traditionally we act for insurance companies but who else could take advantage of our skill set?’”
That lead to a move into the class action administration business. Crawford served as administrators in the hepatitis C federal government class action and the Ontario government Walkerton case, for example. “In terms of innovation we are sort of the cutting edge and the leading edge of that in the Canadian market. It has helped us in the market and lessened the blow of this past winter.”
Crawford is also using technology more today to improve its services and is counting on HR to make sure the technology is being used effectively.
“Our customers, the insurance industry, they are looking for efficiencies and savings from their vendors,” says Gibson. In Crawford’s case, a well-run claims management system offers a solution.
Rather than outsourcing IT, Crawford has kept its IT department in-house and that has enabled them to create their own claims management system.
“We’re really thankful we don’t have to (rely on an external IT provider) because if you outsource you are in queue and you tell me how many IT companies are delivering when they say they are going to deliver? So what we do is we go back to our front-line people our support staff, our adjusters and our lawyers and ask them what they would like to see the system do next.” With the IT department in-house it is much easier to make those adjustments.
But while having a good claims management system helps the organization perform better, it is also important to make sure employees are using it effectively, says Gibson. “So with our HR division — our training group — we did a gap analysis and we did surveying and we came up with a listing or tests that show us what we want them to know and then we wanted to test them to see if they know how to do it. And the second thing, if they didn’t know how to do it, was teaching them how to do it.
“At the end of this month, there shouldn’t be a person in this corporation that doesn’t know how to use our systems to their maximum benefit and if they are not using them at that point that just tells me that they are not willing and if they are not willing then it is time to move on.”
John Brooks
President and CEO
Adherex Technologies Inc.
Adherex Technologies Inc. is involved in finding treatments for cancer and other diseases. This young company is based in Ottawa with about 28 employees.
With the prestigious distinction, Ottawa Innovator of the Year (2001), John Brooks, president and CEO of Adherex Technologies Inc., is the right person to talk about innovation. The award — presented by the National Research Council Canada and the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation — was given to Brooks in recognition of his creativity and contributions to Ottawa’s economic growth, image and quality of life.
Adherex has developed a product, Exherin, which has the potential to target and destroy the abnormal blood vessels feeding cancerous tumours, eventually starving the tumour. The technology enables Adherex to develop alternative treatments for several life-threatening diseases and complicated medical conditions. Brooks led the creation of the company’s research operations and has raised more than $25 million of equity capital to fund Adherex. With these groundbreaking accomplishments, Brooks is still very humble about his win.
“I didn’t expect it at all. You expect these awards to go to the high-tech companies that employ thousands of people,” says Brooks. “It’s an exciting new approach to cancer therapy and there is a lot of excitement built around that. But we’re where we are because of the successful and creative ideas of the staff.”
Though Adherex’s staff is small, they are full of big, innovative ideas. Brooks says the most important element in fostering innovation among employees is letting them have the freedom to talk about their ideas without being censored.
“Innovation comes when people are free to use their imaginations and you’ve got to encourage that. You have to recognize the best ideas don’t come from senior management all the time,” he says. “We’ve come up with some bad ideas too, but that’s what you want — people to feel free to bring up comments and talk freely about things.”
Brooks says a culture of inclusiveness produces the best results for innovative thought. This kind of culture comes from people who feel what they’re doing is important and that their opinions are valued, he says. Staying true to this philosophy, Adherex employees meet once a month to hear about the different responsibilities of each department, and find out about the new projects they are embarking on. It’s important to note attendance for these meetings is voluntary.
“We’re trying to create a culture where people have some freedom. They’re free to attend or not to attend as they see fit,” Brooks says. “It sort of takes on a bit of fun and there’s an interest. It’s not just another corporate event. Not everything can and should be voluntary, but the creation has done a lot to foster the culture.
“(The meetings) give people a better understanding of how each department fits into the overall scheme of things.”
HR is usually at the centre of initiatives, such as the voluntary meetings, among various other projects. Adherex works with a network of scientists from around the world and HR is at the forefront of maintaining the relationships with external scientists. Not to mention, like most HR departments, they must have a keen eye for talented job candidates, considering the company hopes to double in size soon.
What it all boils down to, says Brooks, is people at Adherex care about what they are doing which makes all the difference in the ability to come up with innovative ideas. As Adherex moves forward with their platform technology, Brooks says he sees the team becoming even stronger. “I am very pleased with the direction our company is going.”
Jeffrey Rohne
President and Chief Operating Officer
Qunara Inc.
Qunara Inc. specializes in e-business solutions and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. Headquartered in Winnipeg, the firm has 270 employees across Canada.
You’ve got to know a thing or two after spending more than 30 years in the technology business. Drawing from his vast experience, Jeffrey Rohne, president and chief operating officer of Qunara Inc., says he’s learned over the years that e-business is all about innovation.
The competition in this industry is diverse and intense and the only way to differentiate from the rest is by innovation, says Rohne. Risk taking is at the forefront of the kind of leading-edge innovation Rohne talks about. It’s absolutely critical for success.
“We don’t have problems with trying something new and stumbling or skinning our knees. Without some failures, you don’t get progress.”
With innovation in mind, Qunara merged with Exocom Group Inc. in 2001 to accelerate its growth in the North American marketplace. In the past few years, many companies that have decided to merge have ended up with some major challenges, but Rohne says the merger was “just right.” Especially since the firms worked on a number of joint initiatives the year before.
“We’ve come through a very successful integration. We made certain the merge was a good fit and the culture was complimentary,” he says. “The leaders work well together and are indeed innovative, so both parties brought to the table this notion of being leading-edge in the technology area.”
Qunara now provides professional IT services, including strategic consulting, development, implementation and integration services, sales and software for businesses — with a focus on delivering Internet-enabled solutions and expertise to clients. The very nature of the business requires risk taking, says Rohne.
“We encourage this risk taking and learn from our mistakes. Our clients rely on the fact that we’re innovative...which is based on the fact that we test solutions for clients and deal with the risks internally,” says Rohne.
Rohne says this notion of innovation must be evident long before you become a Qunara employee. During the initial phase of the hiring process, candidates are screened for their innovative potential.
“From an HR perspective it’s a matter of hiring the people that are already innovative. People comfortable with the unknown and continuous learning.”
More importantly, managers who hire need to take heed of this requirement as well. Qunara has to hire people who are lifelong learners, they must recognize the importance of delivering cutting edge solutions to clients, that’s just part of an ingrained practice at our company, he says.
In addition, there are a number of ways to encourage, reward and recognize employees who go that extra mile once hired. They include peer and management recognition rewards, an employee of the year award and the president’s award. Being innovative is incorporated in the criteria for each award.
“That encourages employees to know it’s important to us,” Rohne says.
Rohne also has his own marketing campaign of late. Since the merger, he’s made it a point to visit the various offices on a monthly basis and talk with every employee, encouraging them to bring forth any ideas they may have.
“This is not a company that has a specific product. We develop unique applications and require the best of what we can do as individuals and as a team.”
Rohne’s mission for Qunara is to foster learning, growth, and risk taking. That’s a motto he lives by and his secret to success.
“That’s a part of who I am. I couldn’t work in an organization where that culture doesn’t exist. My whole career has been about dealing with risk and innovation.”
Dave Colcleugh
Chair, President and CEO
DuPont Canada Inc.
DuPont Canada produces a wide range of products from synthetics and polymers to automotive finishes, and employes more than 3,300 people in Canada at manufacturing sites and offices nationwide.
“Innovation is right at the very top of our vision statement,” says Dave Colcleugh, chair, president and CEO of DuPont Canada Inc.
“Many people have vision statements and put innovation in it but we take it very seriously. We think of ourselves as a science company. We try to brand ourselves as a science company and that is really the creation of knowledge. So clearly (innovation) is important to us.”
In an industry where the shelf life of a product is only about three years, and ideas are the lifeblood of success, Colcleugh says DuPont has remained competitive on a global stage by being innovative, by generating new ideas and ensuring the right processes are in place to turn those ideas into new products.
Notably, DuPont Canada still does much of its research in Canada. “We have a growing investment in our research and development organization (in Kingston, Ont.) and it is really the last research and development organization of any significance for a multinational in Canada. We are adding more people into that because they are getting results quite frankly.”
For example, DuPont is getting heavily involved in alternative fuel exploration. “We have taken (our) creative polymer science capability and begun to enter the new and quite exciting world of fuel cells,” says Colcleugh. One membrane created by DuPont is used in fuel cells already. “But we are getting involved more deeply in all the materials that are in the fuel cell and that is a global DuPont venture but specifically DuPont Canada is playing a significant and integral part in that through our research and development organization in Kingston.”
In its liquid packaging organization (the plastic membranes used to package milk, for example), DuPont is working on a new product which could significantly help developing countries.
“What we have been able to do with that pouch system is develop a new machine and new films which allows us to produce a pouch like material for dairies that doesn’t need refrigeration. This has a tremendous opportunity for developing countries.”
Colcleugh says HR plays a vital role in ensuring the organization can attract and retain the valuable minds that drive these innovations.
“It is sort of planning around what the businesses need here in terms of those innovative minds, sourcing them ... looking for where they are, finding ways to reward them properly and then once we have them, not only retaining them but developing them.”
But the scientists are just one part of a larger organization and Colcleugh counts on HR to run as efficiently as possible to support the entire company and to oversee the processes and practices the organization has in place to ensure it remains innovative.
Innovation is kind of like health and safety in that everyone is expected to play a part, says Colcleugh. But DuPont takes a very structured approach to ensuring continued improvement and HR has ownership of that objective. Each unit and group has frameworks, processes and models to improve performance and aside from overseeing that process, HR is also expected to improve its own performance.
“The HR organization like all of our businesses has translated their work into process steps, they look at ways of making those process steps less wasteful, take out costs. The mapping of these processes allows us to create less waste but more importantly it allows people in HR to spend more time growing their business,” says Colcleugh.
“Our HR organization is run like a business quite frankly. (It) delivers business value whether it is to the research centre or a product line business. It is a supplier to an integrated value chain. So they think of themselves as having to earn a profit and by creating value their customers won’t go somewhere else. We allow people to go outside of the company if a business unit decides it is not getting the service it needs from HR or from finance, they can go get the business somewhere else. Quite frankly not many (business units) do that because it causes (HR and other groups) to get really good at what they do.”
