How I Source Innovative Ideas

After three decades in the apparel business, I'd like to think I've figured this business out — but technology has, in some ways, made me a novice again.

At this point in my career, I have more to learn about the consumer, about the business, and as a leader than ever before. It's getting more difficult to keep up as technology rapidly accelerates the flow of information.

With consumer buying power running 24/7; creativity and speed outweighing big budget spend; youthful employees and business partners available day and night — it can be intimidating if you're not well prepared, or worse, if you try to resist the inevitable.

Levi Strauss & Co. is at a crossroads in its history. As a pioneering company, we continue to focus on shaping the future through exciting products, brand experiences and innovative and sustainable business models.

In order to lead and compete ferociously in the radically changing retail landscape, we also have to innovate the way we organize, strategize and execute at the leadership level. We’re tasked with embedding technology into every aspect of our company, which can be tricky for any brand that’s so well known for its legacy and heritage.

The good news is that executives and leaders have more support than ever — we just have to continually make the effort to tap into it. Now is the time to jettison the top-down mentality. It’s time to embrace a bit of organized chaos.

I’ve learned that old hierarchical management models need to give way to flattened organizational structures, matrix models, breakfasts with different groups of employees — these are all good first steps to speed up the flow of internal information and ideas. The nuggets and perspectives I gain from each breakfast with employees all across the business help me to recalibrate on what matters most. I almost always come away with a good idea that our leadership team didn't initiate.

And to really leverage all the available talent, we need to make it a priority to continually organize and reorganize our entire brain trust. That means leveraging experienced employees, new employees, functions with geographies, external knowledge, internal knowledge, and growing our increasingly global workforce.

As leaders, each piece we move brings new ideas and experiences to the forefront. Each "task force" we employ to work on a specific idea can unearth new ways of thinking and working, promote teamwork and allow new leaders to emerge from all levels of the company.

Of course, objectives, action plans and accountability should continue to be expected. After all, it's critical to keep an organization externally focused on its “North Star”. In our business, that means staying connected to consumers, anticipating their desires and serving our wholesale customers. Simplicity is still our friend.

Guaranteed: There will still be plenty of distractions to pull our organization off course, from processes that begin to take on a life of their own, to teammates who may not be able to keep up with the rapid evolution of our business, to meetings without purpose or subsequent action.

Above all, the mantras "good ideas can come from anywhere" and "diversity of thought" need to be embraced and facilitated — now more than ever — to become part of the organizational DNA of heritage and legacy brands everywhere.

Why? To keep up with competition and, more importantly, to usher in new creative, relevant and effective ways of thinking. Leaders need to be held accountable for facilitating and allowing those innovative ideas to surface.

It’s hard to keep up with the rapid-fire advancements happening all around us, but leadership and success today don’t require us to know it all. We don’t — and shouldn’t — need to drive important matters from the top down. We have the tools surrounding us to compete, keep pace and leap frog ahead.

Like Levi Strauss & Co., heritage and legacy brands everywhere should leverage their entire talent pool and combine it with the rapid improvements in technology to unearth a whole newfound ecosystem of organizational capabilities and possibilities.

This is how we source creative and innovative ideas at LS&Co. We create and recreate unique and diverse teams to strategize and problem-solve across all levels, departments, and divisions. And I urge other companies to do the same. The result? An organization that knows exactly what it needs to know and one that will keep pace at the front, just fine.

Now, it’s your turn. How do you source great innovative ideas at work?