Embrace Failure and Strategize Success: How to Innovate and Drive Business Growth
In order to innovate, you might fail along the way. But these three steps will help you get through it.
Embrace Failure and Strategize Success: How to Innovate and Drive Business Growth
Failure is inevitable in business. It's a lot of trial and error to get something right whether it be for your internal processes or systems with staff, which is the stuff your customers don't see, or whether it be with your product or service, what you provide to your end customer. In fact, you really can't be innovative without trying new things.
But sometimes trying new things doesn't work out.
Historical Insights: The Case of New Coke
One of the most documented exemplars of this risk involving global soft drink giant Coca-Cola in 1985. In an ambitious attempt to outpace Pepsi, the company introduced New Coke, a product marked to have a surefire sweet success. But reality held a different script.
CBS News narrates how this well-intended novelty met a bitter reception from Coke fans. A mere 13% welcomed the new recipe, leading to a strong wave of consumer activism compelling Coca-Cola to return to its original formula. The company responded by launching "Coca-Cola Classic," just 77 days after the debut of New Coke.
The recovery from this setback offered Coca-Cola a crucial insight: the brand was fiercely loved, passionately defended, and its consumers longed for a voice. An entrepreneur faces such critical junctures not as markers of defeat, but as signals for learning from missteps and pressing on.
Embracing Future Amid Uncertainty: A Three-Step Guideline
So how do you move ahead amidst uncertainty, risk, treacherous competition, potential failures, and real failures?
Start with these three steps:
1. Interpret the Outcome:
In order to move forward, you have to clearly understand what occurred and what the outcomes were. This can be achieved with some honest evaluation. You can’t learn from your mistakes if you don't understand the root causes.
2. Decipher the Reason:
Can you identify the process or lack thereof that caused the mistake? Talk to your customers and/or your employees. Learn about why they think things went wrong or did not respond the way you anticipated.
3. Acceptance and Peace:
We might not be able to rewrite the past, but we undoubtedly can learn from it. Attaining peace with past events opens the door to harnessing new opportunities and crafting a narrative effective for you and your business.
The greatest asset you can have in your own business is to be fully present every day, in an active mental state. You aren't focused on the past or the future, but the present — right here, right now, with whatever you are doing.
It's hard to measure, but you know it when you feel it. Feeling it will be rewarding because you're fully honoring what is in front of you -- taking the lessons of the past to shape a better future.
As Leo Tolstoy once wrote, "Remember then: there is only one time that is important - Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power."
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Want to furrther dive into the concepts of embracing failure and cultivating emotional intelligence in business?
Listen to Episode 135: Feeling It Out Versus Figuring It Out With Amy Eliza Wong on the Breaking Beliefs Podcast
In this episode, you'll expand your understanding of the importance of self-awareness, empathy, and adaptability when facing challenges. Get inspired by the conversation between Amy and Eliza Wong, a Conversational Intelligence Expert. Embark on this eye-opening journey and enhance your leadership skills by adopting a growth mindset—embracing failures as opportunities to learn and innovate. Don't miss out on this enlightening conversation!
Disclaimer: This post is an updated version of a previous article, which first appeared on Inc.com on August 31, 2017.