Tradition Meets Discovery: Strategic Innovation for Manufacturers with Bruce Vojak

In this thought-provoking episode, Lisa Ryan welcomes Bruce Vojak, a leading authority on strategic innovation with a unique combination of deep and broad experience. As a business advisor, board member, senior fellow with The Conference Board, and author of two highly regarded books on innovation published by Stanford University Press, Bruce helps mature companies in mature industries survive and thrive in an increasingly volatile, complex, and ambiguous world.

Bruce shares his journey from engineer and techie to innovation strategist, sparked by his fascination with remarkable innovators—not their processes or cultures, but the people themselves. This curiosity led him to decades of research exploring the question: "How do they know what to do?" His work focuses specifically on mature manufacturing companies, making his insights particularly relevant for today's industrial leaders.

What Is Innovation?

Bruce clarifies a common misconception: innovation isn't just creativity or something new—it must have financial impact and marketplace value. While many manufacturers focus on lean implementations, Six Sigma, or equipment upgrades, true innovation changes the basis of competition in an industry. It creates advantages or protects against disadvantages in transformative ways.

He illustrates this with compelling examples:

1. The Carrot Evolution: From knife peeling to safety peelers, then to Oxo's ergonomic design and finally pre-peeled baby carrots that increased overall consumption
2. Moneyball: How the Oakland Athletics revolutionized baseball team optimization using sabermetrics instead of gut feelings

The lesson? Innovation exists in every industry, you just need to start looking for it by asking questions you didn't think you needed to ask.

The Greatest Risk: Not Innovating

For manufacturers at the maturity stage of their lifecycle, the biggest danger is retreating to familiar ways of doing things without questioning unarticulated assumptions. Bruce emphasizes that the real risk isn't making big innovation investments—it's failing to ask the right questions at all.

He frames innovation investment through two financial lenses:

1. Insurance: Protection against being blindsided by market changes
2. Options: Opportunities for future growth beyond the "bond-like" steady returns of optimized manufacturing operations

Both require relatively small initial investments, often just time and attention, but provide critical protection and opportunity.

Navigating Rapid Technological Change

With AI and other technologies transforming business at lightning speed, Bruce advises companies to focus on three critical elements:

1. Internal Alignment: Both strategic and tactical
2. Strategic: Are we really going to invest in innovation?
3. Tactical: What about this specific idea or problem?
4. Alignment failures can derail innovation even at individual contributor levels
5. Simple Processes: Especially for small and mid-sized companies
6. Don't need elaborate systems
7. Focus on incremental, poker-like bets
8. Emphasize learning cycles over "failing fast"
9. Innovation Exemplars: People who see patterns before others
10. Not just idea generators, but individuals who navigate organizations to get buy-in
11. Examples include Tom Osborne at Procter & Gamble (feminine hygiene products) and Nancy Doss (Oil of Olay transformation)
12. Often "the most important people you've never heard of"—not always the CEO or owner

Creating Innovation-Friendly Culture

Bruce and Lisa explore the tension between fear of change and the need for psychological safety. Key insights include:

1. Learning Over Failing: Reframe "fail fast" as "learn quickly"—small bets teach you about applications and opportunities you'd never consider
2. Bridging Generations: Combine the "tradition" of experienced workers with the "tradition" of digital-native younger employees to unlock discovery potential
3. Managing Resistance: Sometimes alignment requires marginalizing those who simply won't get on board, but winning people over winsomely should always be the first approach

The conversation emphasizes that even in an automated, technology-driven world, people and culture remain at the heart of successful innovation.

Real-World Innovation Examples

Bruce shares powerful examples of innovation exemplars in action:

1. West Tech Automation Solutions: A mid-sized manufacturer that accepted a radical request to collaborate with competitors in a virtual room, creating new business models and ongoing revenue streams
2. Steve Jobs and Apple: Taking off-the-shelf technology and transforming it through design perspective and deep understanding of human needs

These examples prove that you don't need to be a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to innovate—mature manufacturers can achieve remarkable results by putting their minds to it.

Getting Started with Innovation

Bruce's approach begins with assessment:

1. Start with informal confidential conversations to discuss your situation
2. Conduct formal assessments with leadership teams or functional groups to identify hangups and efficiencies
3. Work through workshops and ongoing advisory relationships
4. Focus on both owners/presidents and the innovation exemplars within the organization

His guarantee? You'll learn whether there's something to act on or defend against—delivering both the "option" for growth and "insurance" against disruption.

Actionable Takeaways for Listeners

1. Redefine Innovation for Your Organization
2. Move beyond incremental improvements like lean and Six Sigma. Ask: What could change the basis of competition in our industry? What advantages can we create or disadvantages can we avoid?
3. Question Your Assumptions
4. Identify and challenge your unarticulated assumptions. Ask questions you didn't think you needed to ask—that's where breakthrough opportunities hide.
5. Start with Small Bets
6. Don't make massive innovation investments. Use incremental, poker-like bets that minimize risk while maximizing learning opportunities.
7. Find Your Innovation Exemplars
8. Identify the people in your organization who see patterns before others and can navigate the company to get ideas implemented. They're often not in the C-suite.
9. Secure Strategic and Tactical Alignment
10. Get clear organizational commitment at two levels: (a) Will we invest in innovation at all? and (b) What about this specific idea? Address misalignment quickly and directly.
11. Create Learning Cycles, Not Failure Cycles
12. Replace "fail fast" with "learn quickly." Each small experiment should teach you something valuable, even if the original hypothesis doesn't pan out.
13. Bridge Generational Traditions
14. Combine the wisdom and experience of long-tenured employees with the fresh perspectives and technological fluency of younger workers to unlock discovery potential.
15. Build Psychological Safety
16. Create an environment where people can experiment without fear of being thrown under the bus. Focus on learning lessons and moving forward together.
17. Think of Innovation as Insurance and Options
18. View innovation investments as (a) insurance against market disruption and (b) financial options for future growth—both are critical for long-term sustainability.
19. Start with an Assessment
20. Begin your innovation journey with an honest assessment of your current capabilities, hangups, and opportunities. Reach out for expert guidance to identify where to focus first.

Connect with Bruce Vojak

Ready to explore how innovation can transform your manufacturing business? Connect with Bruce on LinkedIn at Bruce Vojak or visit his website at Breakthrough Innovation Advisors to schedule a confidential consultation.

Bruce is also the author of two highly regarded books on innovation published by Stanford University Press, offering deep insights into the people and practices that drive transformative change in mature industries.

For more episodes, insights, and actionable strategies for manufacturers, stay tuned to the Manufacturers Network Podcast with Lisa Ryan.