You are Now an Innovator

The Three Principles of Innovative Thinking

Our region is full of innovative businesses and organization lead by innovative thinkers. We got in their minds and had them pass that knowledge to you, our readers. By following these principles, everyone can incorporate innovation into everything they do.

By Michael Dallas Miller SEDCOR Marketing and Communication Coordinator

As Americans, we idolize our inventors. We love the risktakers, the adventurers, the people who are willing to head into the unknown to discover or create something totally new and radically different.

Lewis and Clark. Alexander Graham Bell. George Washington Carver. Emelia Earheart. Steve Jobs.

In our own lives, we all know a tinkerer possessed with an idea and consumed with a passion to bring it life.

For us at SEDCOR, we have the immense privilege of meeting those innovative thinkers on a near-daily basis. We get to meet the growers, the manufacturers, the technologists, the machinists, and the entrepreneurs who work tirelessly to run great businesses, update old methods, and create so many products that make all of our lives better.

We believe innovative thinkers are made, not born. And that everyone can incorporate innovation into the way they think, speak, and do business.

PRINCIPLE #1: KNOW YOUR PROBLEM

Russ Monk and his team at WaterShed have been developing new products for over thirty years from their bright blue building in northeast Salem, many of which have been used and trusted by military and first responders for decades.

In the recent era of pandemics and wildfires, they have been working overtime. In 2019, Russ and his team rapidly invented a new material to fill a gap in the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) market, supplying local hospitals with hundreds of thousands of gowns when few could be found. Then, after the devastating fires in the Santiam Canyon (and all over the West Coast), WaterShed developed and launched their Surge Kits, emergency-preparedness systems designed to be strategically positioned and easily moved wherever they are most needed. More recently, as cities contend with rising homelessness, WaterShed was contracted to build small homes which they call Compact Livables.

All of these inventions coming from a company most known for rain jackets.

Monk says the first step in creating a new product is to have remarkable clarity on what he calls the “critical needs” of the project. Start, he says, by searching for solutions that already exist. “If you identify those critical needs and you can pull something off the shelve to address those needs, go with that first. If the off-theshelf solution doesn’t tick all the boxes, you now have better context and a good starting point to work from.”

“When it is finally time to innovate,” says Monk, “keep it as simple as possible. Don’t invent things that already exists to solve problems you don’t have. Borrow from existing industries— materials, systems, technologies. Sometimes innovation comes simply from applying an existing solution to a novel situation.”

PRINCIPLE #1 CHECKLIST: ❏ Clearly articulate the problem you need to solve ❏ Write a list of critical needs—keep it as short as possible ❏ Find existing solutions ❏ When it is time to innovate, keep your solution as simple as possible ❏ Surround yourself with creative minds who are equally passionate about solving that problem

PRINCIPLE #2 CHECKLIST: ❏ When it is time to develop, experiment with rapid iterations ❏ Get feedback early and often from multiple sources ❏ Listen to the feedback, but trust your gut

PRINCIPLE TWO: MAKE GOOD MISTAKES

At Indy Commons in Independence, Kate Schwarzler helps passionate people transform their ideas into reality. This happens through their coworking space, regular events, and a new kitchen wherein food-centric entrepreneurs can make good mistakes (with expert guidance) to learn valuable lessons.

Schwarzler says each business idea is different, but every person with a concept should be willing to get messy and do some rapid iterations. “Perfection is not the goal in the beginning” says Schwarzler. “It’s best to approach it with an open mind and be prepared to make changes. Talk to as many people as you can about your product and get input on every stage, not just what you hope the end result will be.”

While developing a new idea, innovative thinkers have to get comfortable with a very messy process. To highlight this fact, Indy Commons has hosted annual Fail Fests, where people have gathered to celebrate the beautiful business of making mistakes. Schwarlzer says, “Any mistake is good if you take the time to learn from it! Failure often puts people on the path to success.”

Too often, failure (or, more specifically, the fear of failure) has kept a great idea from ever reaching a market that could benefit from it. Schwarzler believes passion can override that fear and an innovative thinker must embrace fast failure as well as have the humility to receive feedback--both positive and negative—from as many sources as possible. “An idea is worth the time and energy it takes to develop it when you’re convinced that even if it fails, you’ll still be happy you pursued it.”

“Get honest feedback...positive feedback from friends and family is different than getting validation from an actual customer PRINCIPLE THREE: AS YOU LAUNCH, BUILD TRUST AT ALL POINTS IN YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN

Many times, innovators have to discover and create markets that barely exist if they exist at all. The path from raw material to processing to production to customer to end-user is rarely mapped out. For local hemp producers, there was no map at all and most in the industry (growers to retailers) were driving blind.

But for the team at Red Barn Hemp, they did enough things right to find success in an incredibly tumultuous market.

Giavanni Accurso, Red Barn’s Director of Research & Development, has witnessed a saturated market (in the early days, everyone was growing hemp with nowhere to process it) to the bottom of the market falling out during the pandemic. They focused on quality at every step of the production and built solid relationships with their white-label customers.

“Developing relationships with companies that have common goals is key,” says Accurso. “Making sure that we can support

a client through whatever dynamic changes may come to their industry or business develops trust. You can always provide a quality and reliable product, but at the end of the day if you aren’t on a journey to help people find solutions, your path to market may just be a one and done deal.”

Hemp still exists in regulation purgatory; it can be hard to build trust with the end-user when production and labeling are not uniform or universal. This is why Red Barn uses third-party verification and certification (they were one of the first hemp growers to be Global GAP certified) to build that trust.

“Making sure we stick to our ethos and foundation of quality always brings us back to our common goal. Third-party verified

Giavanna Accurso, Director of Research And Development, Iverson Family Farms and FSOil