Innovation and Creativity in the Digital Age

In this episode:

In this episode of Learning In Action, host Bryan Benjamin sits down with Dr. Shane Wang, Associate Professor of Marketing at Ivey Business School, to explore the role of innovation and creativity in leadership within the digital age. They delve into how leaders can unlock innovation within their teams and leverage cutting-edge technologies and data-driven strategies to maintain a competitive edge.

Dr. Wang highlights the importance of creating a psychological safe environment where teams feel supported in taking risks and collaborating cross-functionally to encourage new ideas. He also explores the potential of emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, cloud computing and data analytics, to maintain a competitive edge. In the episode, Bryan and Dr. Wang discusses the challenges of implementing new ideas, including resource constraints and resistance to change, and how leaders can overcome these by setting clear goals and managing risk and uncertainty.

Listeners will gain practical insights on leadership styles that drive innovation, including visionary, adaptive, and transformational approaches. They will also learn about the significance of continuous learning and adaptability as essential qualities for leaders looking to navigate the complexities of the digital world and lead their teams through successful innovation.

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What is Learning In Action? 

Hosted by the Ivey Executive Education at Ivey Business School, Learning in Action explores current topics in leadership and organizations. In this podcasting series, we invite our world-class faculty and a variety of industry experts to deliver insights from the latest research in leadership, examine areas of disruption and growth, and discuss how leaders can shape their organizations for success. 

The Ivey Leadership Certificate Podcast Mini-Series

Learning In Action presents a special six-part series: the Ivey Leadership Certificate Podcast—designed to equip emerging leaders with strategic insights, practical frameworks, and the mindset to thrive at the executive level. In each episode of this mini-series, Bryan Benjamin sits in conversation with a professor from Ivey Executive Education to discuss timely challenges affecting leaders today.

Episode Transcript:

[MUSIC PLAYING] 

BRYAN BENJAMIN: Welcome to our six-part series on the critical dimensions of leadership. I'm Bryan Benjamin, and today's episode is all about innovation and creativity in the digital age. We're thrilled to have Dr. Shane Wang with us today. Shane is a professor at Ivey Business School and an expert in data analytics and marketing in the digital marketplace. 

Innovation is not just a competitive advantage, it's a necessity. Leaders need to foster creativity and stay ahead of technological advancements in order to drive growth and to keep their organizations thriving. Today, we'll be discussing how leaders can unlock innovation within their teams and apply cutting-edge technologies and methodologies to maintain a competitive edge. 

So let's talk about the role of innovation in leadership. Innovation is a big word, and we hear it being discussed on a daily basis. So innovation is often, I would go as far as to say, a bit of a buzzword in business today. But from your perspective, why is it so critical for leaders to focus on fostering innovation in their organizations? 

SHANE WANG: For us, the business world today, it's often very easy to see there's a big change, but it is very hard to see their significance during this, why this happened and when it's happened. So often, we give us the excuse, oh, it's too busy. An innovation is too critical and because it takes time. So I would say, it's because of the long-term growth, because of adaptation and because of the competitive advantage in the changing market. That is why sometimes the leader, they hesitate. And also it takes time for them to build and create an atmosphere for their employee to get used to. 

So for the long term, short is it takes time. Then it is important just to develop a new product, or when I say it is innovation, is to change the atmosphere, change the environment and most importantly, to respond effectively to what customer needs today, what is the technology, what is the market shift? 

And I always think innovation is the most important thing in today's business because it will help your organization remain relevant and ready to seize opportunity in the future. 

BRYAN BENJAMIN: Makes a lot of sense. When I hear the word relevant, I look at organizations striving to not only create competitive advantage, but to continually stay relevant in a really rapidly changing environment. 

So there's the mindset of the individual leader. Let's expand that to talk about, how can leaders cultivate a creative mindset within their teams in order to drive the necessary innovation and even to simply encourage new ideas and new ways of thinking? 

SHANE WANG: So this is a leader. Today to become a leader is difficult. It's not that easy. And first of all, the same thing for here, for not only the industry and also the academic as well. You have to motivate the students and keep them learning. 

I would say, from the very beginning, you have to encourage those psychological safety. What does that mean? I think is that you have to encourage your employee to-- they are able to take the risk. You give them encouragement. 

And then by that time, you provide some flexibility. You tell them clear objective. So do not form the KPI they have to meet. And after that, you can give them some trial and experiment to give them opportunity to brainstorm and to learn not only from their own department and across department. You have to create a cross-functional collaboration. That means you want to breed, bring different skill set. And from the different viewpoint, to solve the problem. 

And most important, I think by leading this practice, you want to build a new team culture, that everybody wants to learn from each other, everybody wants to take the risk, and also maybe some rewarding system to give some trials and also experimental testing to this innovation-driven world. And that's what I think. As a leader, this is something you want to take the responsibility, you want to give encouragement. 

BRYAN BENJAMIN: That's a great way to frame it. And I pick up on some of the words you said right at the beginning, around psychological safety and creating that space, where people are comfortable and confident to share new ideas. Because, as we all know, not every new idea immediately turns into a success. And sometimes there are challenges and even failures on the path to driving innovation, and that environment, where people are comfortable experimenting and testing, and as you say, maybe in lower risk situations, as we start to build that culture. 

So let's go back to how can organizations stay competitive in this digital age? So what are some ways that leaders can ensure their organizations stay ahead of the curve in this fast-paced, ever-changing market in which organizations are competing? 

SHANE WANG: Having been this area, data-driven world for more than 15 years, and so I would argue, I use several-- let me starting with several words. I call it first is DDDM. Guess what is DDDM? It's data-driven decision making. 

So we talk about a lot of buzzwords, and we talk about innovation. Another buzzword we heard a lot for the last, I would say, 10 years, about analytics So we want to use the analytics to understand market trends, understand the customer behaviors, understand your internal performance to help the leaders to make the decision. 

So I would say, these days, it's decision is all about the data. In the digital world, data-driven is something important for us. Because we talk about doing business, think about old days, we talk about the B2B and B2C. so some of the content I create when I was teaching, I always tell-- to share with some of the participants, to tell them, these days the world is called C2M. It's customer drive the market. Customer leads to the market. So we are in a world foster customer-centric approach. Stay close to the customer. Get feedback. This feedback could be online review, could be survey, it could be anything. Continue to track in the rating based on their needs and keep organization aligned with the market demands. It's not you demand. It's not the designer demands, but the customer demands. 

In the end, I will say, because of digital world, everything is moving very fast, as you said, Bryan. We need to leverage the emerging technology. So stay updated, experiment, if you want to do some easy implementation, starting with technology. These days, we heard about AI, machine learning. Try to help us unlock this capability. 

So as a leader, I think it's important for leaders to understand-- they don't need to necessarily understand the coding and how, but they have to understand why. And finally, we want to build some strategic partnership in this world as well. 

With academic, you see that a lot of executive trainings. And Ivey provided a great, great program and also maybe cloud, with some tech startup as well. And industry players, and they try to share the benefit and the resource with those academic. So that would be something data-driven, customer-centralized, and leverage new technology, and try to build some strategic relationship. So that is something good for the leader in this digital world. 

BRYAN BENJAMIN: Let's play off of technology a little bit. We can't go too far into our conversation without talking about the huge role that technology plays in modern innovation. So what are you seeing in terms of emerging technologies that leaders need to be paying attention to? And ultimately, how can they leverage some of these new technologies to drive that innovation we've been discussing within their organization? 

SHANE WANG: I would summarize everything into usually the big, big umbrella of my specialties. It can be categorized into about four letters, A, B, C, D, plus everything. So what is A? AI. So what is B? Blockchain. What is C? Cloud computing and internet of things. What is D? Data. 

So let me start with A. So AI can help us make decisions. And leaders can leverage AI to improve their operation and try to develop some smart product. 

And what is Blockchain? Blockchain is something not just a cryptocurrency because it provides transparency, security. What is cloud, C? And C is the real time data. Think about it. As you said, Bryan, these things are moving fast. We are able to capture real time, up-to-date, dynamic data. And they are all connected. Through what? Through cloud, through internet of things. 

The final thing is data. So no matter you're working on which industry-- maybe some industries are different, like financial services and some of the technology Overall, I will argue in this technology world, how do you prepare this transformation of this technology innovation? There will be A, B, C, D, plus any of the industry. We're able to explore those technology and forcing innovation labs and a partner with tech tools from to create, I would say, not data-driven this time, innovation-driven culture to keep your organization competitive in this digital age. 

BRYAN BENJAMIN: Yeah, I like that, the frame, and I completely appreciate that there is so much. And we could do an in-depth conversation on any one of those conversations and topic areas that would take up a whole podcast unto itself. But I think that's part of what being a leader is, is needing to know a little bit about a lot and not necessarily having to be an expert, but understanding what these pieces are and how they start to interplay. 

So let's shift towards moving from ideation to implementation. So once leaders have identified innovations, whether it's a solution or a new idea, potentially something that addresses a challenge that they're facing, what are some of the challenges that you've seen in leaders being able to implement new ideas? Let's talk about the challenges. Then let's talk about maybe what they could do to potentially overcome them. 

SHANE WANG: The first one I would say is resource constraints. Maybe limited budget, limited time. And you have to recruit a lot of skill sets, like a desk expert, whatever. I think, as a leader, you should prioritize the high impact project and prioritize something that will help your firm, help your organization. Try to explore partnership at first to prioritize and optimize the resource. So resource constraint is one of the big challenge these days. 

The second challenge, as I mentioned already, is resistance to change as an employee. So I think that thing could be done by some communication and psychological safety. So the leaders can overcome this by communication with a clear vision, involving team as early as possible. Try to make sure everybody in the team, they clearly know the vision of the company. So resistance of the change is easy to fix. And then resource constraint, and it's better to prioritize as a leader. 

And also I would say, you have to provide a clear metrics. Another big, big challenge at the very beginning is the unclear metrics for success. How do we define success? Think about these digital worlds. And when we're starting about 10 years ago, if you want to track the internet performance, people try to track your browsing behavior, Check the click-through rate. These days everybody wants to check about the sales rate. I will think without a clear successor of metrics, it is very, very hard to evaluate the impact of the innovation. 

So as a leader, you should define some quantifiable, measurable goal at the very beginning. For example, you want to measure the customer satisfaction. You want to grow revenue growth. And it really depends on at which period, which metrics is most important. 

And then I would say, the other two things for the long run, first of all, is new technology takes time. It takes money will be complicated. So leader can play sometimes a long time to testing, adjusting. So you may want to integrate with some of the existing system and try to let different departments work together. 

And finally, you should be able to manage your risk and uncertainty. So as a leader, your job is to-- you take the full responsibility if you are not able to achieve a certain goal. And you have time to pilot some new ideas and with some small skills before full implementing. 

So put it all together, there will be the resource constraint. It's a challenge. Resistance for change is a challenge as well. And unclear metrics, like the quantified, how do we define success is also a challenge. And also, how do we manage those risks and uncertainty at different periods? That will be a challenge as well. So this is what I think. And at this moment, if you want to do some innovation, what we'll have for leaders. 

BRYAN BENJAMIN: For sure. And I think the effort to spent actually defining what could success look like is hugely important. And in something that we've seen often, not get the attention that it needs to. It's that old adage, what gets what gets measured, gets done and gets implemented. 

Let's talk about leadership styles. We've covered a lot of ground so far, from new innovations to mindset and culture and teams and challenges. Are there leadership styles or approaches that you've seen be more effective maybe than others when it comes to fostering that creativity and innovation that we're looking for in this digital world? 

SHANE WANG: So the flexibility is essential for navigating this complexity of the innovation digital world. As a good leader and the innovation style of the leader, I would say there are different types of leadership. 

First of all, I would think like the visionary. If you want to become a great leader, you need to be a visionary, You have to set up both future-oriented goals to inspire the team and make sure that the larger purpose, what the companies really want. This approach actually motivates the digital space, and it is important. And it provides a very good team start and where to go. This is the first thing, I think is the visionary. 

The second thing I would think is adaptive leadership. That means as a leader, you should be flexible and responsible to the change. What is important these days in digital world because these things are moving very fast? These leaders should encourage small scale experimentation and also, with a quick response. Once you figure out something that's not working, you have to cut, you have to stop, you have to move on to a different trials. It creates a safety and environment, which team can try different new ideas. 

The third type of leadership I would call is transformational. So transformational means they are able to survive in this competing world and then motivate employee beyond their status quo. Because maybe some of the traditional industry, some of the employees, oh, I'm doing well for my current job. And just to meet my KPI, I'm done. 

But transformational leadership will actually encourage team members to think innovatively and challenge the existing assumptions that the culture already built. And try to pursue a shared purpose, which will make the fast-changing digital environment in the right way, in the right direction. 

So you have to enable to help your employees to challenge themselves. So I call it transformational leadership. As a visionary leadership, adaptive leadership, and transformational leadership, this is something important in this digital age. 

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BRYAN BENJAMIN: The idea of abandoning something that isn't working really jumped out at me. And I think many of us, probably all of us, have been in a situation where they have a new idea or an innovation or I'm moving forward on something, and maybe I hold on to it a little bit too long, when it becomes evident that either it's not working or it's not going to have the intended impact. 

How do you let go of an idea when it isn't working? Anything that you've seen work particularly well, or any learnings that you'd encouraged leaders to think about? Because we can get pretty vested in something, especially if we're the architect behind the idea. 

SHANE WANG: Totally agree. So I think another word I want to bring here is called balance. So you have to balance those creativity with the strategic goals by aligning innovation efforts closely with the business objective for your company, and set a clear priorities to ensure creative projects contribute to the long-term outcome. That means you need to have some short-term goals and long-term goals as well. As a leader, your job is to balance those creativity, innovation, and your long-term and short-term goal. 

And by implementation, you need to set up a very clear KPI for those pilot programs and also to allow those experimentation in a safety boundary. For a certain boundaries, you cannot do it. And enable ideas to test, and also I use another word, which I like the most, is redefine at a certain stage before a full scale implement. 

So you do some trials, and once you think it's ready and you can move on, and you can redefine some of the KPI at a certain stage. So the job for a leader is to balance the creativity, strategic goals, and also the innovation to help the company grow for the long-term outcome. That's my understanding. 

BRYAN BENJAMIN: Yeah, I like the idea of breaking it down. And so maybe sometimes it is an absolute, it's not going to work or it is going to work. But I imagine many scenarios is, it's not working as I intended it to, but it doesn't mean I need to necessarily fully abandon if I've broken it down into different bite sizes. There's probably something, at minimum, learnings that I can take with me as you move it forward. 

SHANE WANG: Because I keep learning progress, so these days, for the digital world. And as a leader, you are learning by doing at the same time as well. That's why you have to always shift and redefine the current goal. Maybe does this one meet your long-term strategy company? And should we try to redefine something? I think is adaptive learning progress. 

BRYAN BENJAMIN: That adaptive learning progress. We always have to be learning and be curious. What's one piece of advice that you can give leaders who are looking to drive innovation in their organizations, especially in today's digital landscape? 

SHANE WANG: So your job is cultivating the culture of the continuous learning and adaptive learning. We know that this year, you can see that the Nobel prize for the physics and also the chemistry, they also awarded to the AI. So think about the AI, these things. And one of the important thing for AI is, what, is deep learning, is machine learning. 

And especially for this fast-evolving digital world, the innovation is not just a one-time. It takes a long time and take several times innovation. It requires a workforce. That is the curiosity you have to bring, and equipped with a lot of emerging technology and insight as well. Adaptive learning. Keep learning. So this is something important. And keep bringing your curiosity as a leader to help the company in engaging and your employees. That is something I think is important for today's business and in today's digital landscape. 

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BRYAN BENJAMIN: If you're interested in learning more, Shane's module on leading innovation and creativity in a digital market is available as part of the Ivey Leadership Certificate. This program equips leaders with the tools they need to stay ahead in a fast-evolving business world. 

So join us next time with Dr. Laurel Austin, where we'll be talking about business resilience and risk in leadership. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time.

Note: This article was originally published under our former name, The Ivey Academy. We are now known as Ivey Executive Education.

About Ivey Executive Education

Ivey Executive Education is the home for executive Learning and Development (L&D) in Canada. It is Canada’s only full-service L&D house, blending Financial Times top-ranked university-based executive education with talent assessment, instructional design and strategy, and behaviour change sustainment. 

Rooted in Ivey Business School’s real-world leadership approach, Ivey Executive Education is a place where professionals come to get better, to break old habits and establish new ones, to practice, to change, to obtain coaching and support, and to join a powerful peer network. For more learning insights and updates on our events and programming, follow us on LinkedIn.