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Addressing gatherers on the last day of the NRF Big Show, Robert Safian, editor-in-chief and managing director at Fast Company, introduced the concept of "Generation Flux" and what it takes to be part of it.
Generation Flux refers to the rapidly shifting era in which we live, as well as the kinds of people best positioned to take advantage. Age does not matter — the requirements are adaptability, flexibility and the willingness to slip out of our comfort zones and risk being embarrassed.
"We live in a time of chaos," Mr. Safian said. "Business should be operated in a next-two-hour mindset and be prepared to deal with it."
Mr. Safian explained the concept with examples ranging from chaos theory to physics to soccer, illustrating along the way with stories from the pages of Fast Company. But it was Steven Jobs he used to illustrate the four key lessons to becoming a member of Generation Flux:
1. Take your ideas from everybody.
Mr. Jobs married his organization's design strength with its engineering capabilities to elevate Apple to a dominant company. "Innovation often happens in the spaces between silos," Mr. Safian explained, adding that leaders should not focus on small bureaucratic pieces of their businesses. John Landgraf, who runs FX, once advised getting all intelligent ideas together because problems today are so complicated, we do not know which combination of intelligences will resolve them.
2. Redefine the corner office.
Mark Parker, CEO of Nike, re-curates his office regularly to keep himself fresh. He also walks the halls of Nike constantly and asks associates for ideas. Likewise, Mr. Jobs dedicated his time on the most risky projects at Apple while Tim Cook kept the trains running on time.
3. Edit and amplify.
When Apple launched, it eventually began rolling out too many products and it lost its way. Mr. Jobs came back after being fired, pared back the product line, and each product became more valuable. When Mr. Parker took over as CEO of Nike, Mr. Jobs called and advised him to cull his product line. "We can't keep all of those balls in the air all of the time. We have to recognize what we are really best at," Mr. Safian said.
4. Find your mission.
When employee engagement is low, creativity is low. Yet the cost for paying those people, when engaged, is not higher. Robert Wong of Google Creative Labs operates on what he calls the Four Ps — not price, place, promotion and product, but purpose, people, products and process. When a company has purpose, it will propel the other Ps.