In this interview, Symantec CEO Enrique Salem explains his view that innovation should not be confined to a small, specialized group but should be a responsibility shared by every employee. He stresses the need to build a culture that declares innovation essential, publicly recognizes and rewards innovators, and showcases their achievements across the organization. Salem identifies major technology trends—cloud computing, mobility, and consumerization—as fertile grounds for new ideas and highlights how breakthroughs in these areas can improve productivity and customer experience. He advocates for an environment where no idea is dismissed, failure is accepted as part of the process, and collaboration refines concepts, ultimately enabling occasional breakthroughs that can transform the company and its customers.
Chapters
When you think about innovation inside of a company like Symantec, what you have to do is— innovation isn't done by a small group of people in a specific area or location. A lot of times people associate innovation with a few technologists. I think that's fundamentally wrong. Everybody inside the company is responsible and can drive innovation, and so you have to start with a culture that that says innovation's important, great companies are built on innovation, and we will reward it and we will recognize it. When a small group of people drive something or deliver something new that's innovative, call them up on stage. Congratulate them. Put an article out in your local intranet and say, this is what innovation looks like. And people quickly start realizing that maybe it's not that hard, that they too can be be the innovator and drive new things at the company. And so you start with the culture that everybody is involved, and then you have to recognize it and reward it. Well, I think there's tremendous opportunities because there are so many big changes happening inside of technology. What do I mean by that? Mobility, cloud computing, these areas of— we like to call consumerization. And so I think these create great opportunities for innovation. What this means is that we're in an environment where you can innovate in any of these big new areas. We're seeing tremendous breakthroughs in new applications being developed every day that drive meaningful productivity. We've seen some great innovation examples in driving customer experience, where it's easier to get things done. And so I fundamentally believe in the areas of cloud computing, in the area of mobility, there's great opportunities to drive meaningful innovation. You want to inspire innovation? I think you have to make it clear that there's no bad idea. You want people to try things. You have to have people feeling like if they try and aren't successful, that's okay, because most ideas, most great innovation is rarely one individual. It's usually somebody tries something, somebody else says, "Oh, we can make that better." And so I think part of driving innovation and recognizing innovation is making sure people realize we're going to try things. We're going to challenge the status quo. We're not going to allow ourselves to say, well, that's how we've always done it, and so that's OK. And so what you have to do is encourage people to fundamentally believe that if they try new things and they aren't successful, that's OK. And you have to be able to say to them, because once in a while we will have a breakthrough. That potentially can change your life, others' lives, or the company.
