“Apple to Zappos” is today’s up-to-the minute story of how innovative companies are thriving by turning business-as-usual upside down. Through data research, executive interviews and in-the-trenches client projects with many of today’s thriving companies, leadership expert, Will Marré, shows how big companies like Apple, Nike, and Cisco, and smaller ones like Clifbar and Elite Service Systems and scores of others are becoming unbeatable.

In the depth of the recession leadership expert, Will Marré, saw that several of his clients were thriving, even hiring new talent and buying new technology. Most of all, he began to investigate why some companies like Apple and Hyundai were ferociously growing while competitors in the same industries were floundering. He recruited a team of researchers from the University of California San Diego and Clemson University’s MBA program and began to study companies’ strategy and leadership at fast growth, market dominate, high innovation companies versus the industry laggards. The research teams continue to examine data and interview senior executives at companies marked by 7 competitive indicators: 1) growth, 2) profitability, 3) innovation, 4) sustainability initiatives, 5) employee engagement, 6) social responsibility, and 7) brand insistence.

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The research project now called “21 Companies for the 21^st Century” is identifying the leadership mindset and business practices that are leading to breakaway innovations and benchmark-busting results.

The research is revealing some astonishing insights.

Successful leaders are telling us that the 21^st century demands business strategy that is fundamentally different than the 20^th century leadership models most are following.
The new economics of sustainable innovation combined with new demands by consumers and employees has changed how economic value is created.
Most lagging companies’ leaders are not yet asking the right questions let alone coming up with the right answers.

What The Audience Will Learn

Relevance is Strategy. Our 21 Company research reveals that both consumers and employees are cynical of visions and purpose statements. They want to know “Who are you and why should I care?” Promising a decent job or a quality product is no longer sufficient. The new economics of sustainable innovation require a relevant promise to accomplish specific goals that will make a positive difference to the world and the future. As Mark Parker at Nike told us, “In the 21^st century there is only one path. We must be pro people, pro planet and pro innovation.” Cisco CEO, John Chambers put it most succinctly, “We want to be more than the best in the world. We want to be the best FOR the world,”

Ethics is Vision. We are learning that general distrust of leaders is at a high point. Viewing ethics as a legal obligation only makes a search for loopholes more devious. Over investing in corporate responsibility yields tangible dividends. As Beth Benson of Clifbar told us, “Handling our product recall with over-the-top candor and timing has made us stronger with our retailers, consumers and employees.” And as Bob Corcoran of GE said when we asked if Wall Street cared about sustainability he responded, “It doesn’t matter. Our job is to turn our values into value.” That’s a whole new mindset.

Innovation is Culture. Only healthy growth produces sustainable abundance. This requires constant innovation. But it’s not easy. Most employees are disengaged. As Tony Huish, CEO of Zappos said, “It’s not the job that wears us out. It’s the playground rules and forced conformity and a culture that promotes it that burns us out.”

Culture is set by the energy of leaders. Procter and Gamble Chairman, A.G. Lafley, said, “Innovation is the core job of a leader. It’s value creation.” We now know that the most innovative companies that create a unique value advantage have the most innovative senior leaders. Leaders of fast growing companies are themselves both strategic and product/service innovators. Increasingly they are examining the great environmental, health and social challenges of our world to invent value. IBM told us, “When you stand for something more than money or a business goal, you see dots to connect you never saw before.”

One thing is clear, random acts of innovation are not enough. The most innovative companies are showing us how their new skills, new processes, and new tools of leadership innovation are producing new results.

Legacy is Personal. The future has little need for generic leaders who only have functional skills. Increasingly companies are searching for extreme talent. Extreme talent can also be grown. It is the result of dedicated personal development. Great companies are becoming communities of expert thought-leaders who learn, create and mentor. They focus on making “their difference.” New brain learning research has now identified a specific path to merge personal passion with development of unique expertise that produces extraordinary talent. As Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, said, “Imagine the greatest thing you can do. Do that.”