[Alt Text: A light bulb on a black background to help illustrate the innovation that Elijah Norton has.]
You can listen to any business gurus, coaches, highly successful entrepreneurs, or top CEOs talk, and when it comes to the topic of how to be and stay successful in business, you will hear one thing in common: the need to innovate and stay creative in our approaches.
Today we are all living in a volatile world where change is the name of the game. A plethora of new technologies have come to play a big role in how we live, think, spend our time, connect with others, and more. And needless to say, the business world is not immune to the above.
If anything, the business world is more susceptible to constant change and flux than anything else we can imagine. In business, what works today may become a thing of the past in as little as a couple of months. As whole skill sets become obsolete with the refinement of technology, upskilling and reskilling have become the new buzzwords in workplaces all over the world.
Therefore, it is little surprise that business leaders constantly stress the importance of innovation for organizations to stay relevant and competitive in their respective markets. For example, in an interview, Elijah Norton (founder and president of Veritas Global Protection and often hailed as a great visionary, influencer, and thought leader) remarked that innovation has been and stays the key to his success as an entrepreneur.
According to Elijah Norton, in the extremely competitive business environment of today, nobody can afford to be content with the status quo. You fall behind as soon as you stray from the path of innovation and your competitors will be too happy to close in on the opportunity!
Tips on How to Be (and Stay) Innovative
1. Know your industry inside out and recognize the pain points
Of course, you cannot innovate unless you have a clear sight of the end result of your innovation. A thorough knowledge of your industry will provide you with a good understanding of what it is lacking and where there is room for improvement.
To refer back to Elijah Norton again, once he started in the Vehicle Service Contract (VSC) industry, he soon recognized that the industry is reeling under the lack of innovative spirit on the part of the major players in the market. The vehicle protection plans hardly benefitted the drivers in any meaningful manner; the state of customer service was abysmal, and the customers were far from receiving their money’s worth.
Accordingly, he decided to grab hold of the problem by the scruff of its neck. He started his own company Veritas Global Protection, designed plans keeping the main requirements of his clients and customers in mind, and built an efficient, helpful, and responsive customer rep team. Elijah Norton came to earn the reputation of being a visionary leader in less than five years. His company had grown from a two-person enterprise to one generating over $100m per year in annual revenue!
2. Stay up-to-date with current technological trends
All business leaders today need to be aware of everything happening around them. However, most of all, they need to keep themselves updated about everything on the technological front. Automation, machine learning, big data, ioT, a lot has been happening in the technology space. A good leader needs to know which technologies can help his particular field of operations and how to make the most of these technologies.
3. Build a great team
Continued innovation is only feasible with a great team working for you, a team that can work with minimal supervision. Here, the task of a business leader happens to be two-fold.
First, he must be able to recognize and hire the right people for the requirements at hand. Secondly, he should clearly see his immediate goals and communicate them to the team. Then, as long as he has the right people in charge, the latter will take care of the innovation.
Here again we may cite Elijah Norton and his philosophy of hiring. In the same interview mentioned above, the Veritas Global Protection leader comments on how he emphasizes hiring the right person the first time. Elijah remarks that his hiring philosophy is that either he will hire the right candidate or he won’t hire at all.
4. Put your customers first
This is related to the first tip we mentioned. The reason you strive to innovate is because you want to provide a great user experience to your customers, presumably something that your competitors cannot. And once you adopt a customer-centric approach for your business, your motivation to innovate will never dry up.
Elijah Norton knows that without customers, there would be no business.
Elijah Norton and Veritas Global Protection: How They Strive to Be Innovative in Their Operations
[Alt Text: A shelf with a bunch of headsets on them. This helps to illustrate how Elijah Norton and Veritas Global Protection strive to be innovative in their operations.]
We’ve already mentioned how Elijah Norton focuses on innovation and how his innovative zeal has made him a top entrepreneur in the country and his company a major player in the industry.
However, Elijah Norton is also someone who will never be content with the status quo and who firmly believes in continuous learning. This is amply illustrated in the global expansion efforts he initiated for his company back in 2019. The initiative had two objectives.
The obvious one was the aspiration to widen Veritas’ area of operations. At the same time, however, the move was also inspired by Elijah Norton’s eagerness to learn more from global trends and from serving and understanding the differing needs and requirements of the different markets around the world.
Again, the innovative spirit of Veritas Global Protection became evident when they more recently introduced their unique ‘Electric’ and ‘Exotic Vehicles’ vehicle protection plans. The Veritas electric vehicle protection plan covers nearly all types and models of electric and hybrid cars and offers coverage for all major electric components found in these cars (this is in stark contrast to the industry trend where ‘electric coverage’ excludes pretty much everything except the battery).