IGNITING THE SPARK
3rd OCTOBER 2025
Share with your team
Innovation requires agility, the ability to adjust quickly to any new situation, altering your attitude and behaviours to your new reality – never truer for the export industry. It also requires leaders who are intelligent, ingenious, creative and can enter a ‘flow’ state. But how can we transform ourselves and hone/develop such skills? We will never escape a routine business without momentum, thus our potential growth can be minimised.
Change is the only constant and so we need to learn to lean-in to the possibilities that it brings. It is all about momentum and a focus on the future.
The simple 9-dots exercise showed us all that we tend to problem solve within the parameters we already know. We stay inside the box, both personally and professionally. We will only solve problems in new and innovative ways if we step outside what we know, out of the comfort zone and into the unknown. We need to set goals, not limits. Again, often the export business can be more about daily firefighting and paperwork than strategy. We need to focus on strategy.
Agility is often associated with speed or structure but actually it is mostly about courage. Having the motivation to swim off in a different direction (remember that riptide lifeguard lesson) takes courage and commitment, both traits worth developing as a leader. Sometimes the new direction succeeds because of a creative spark (that French Café with the giant teddies)
The paradox is that while all organisations want their people to be innovative and creative, they then often restrict that same creativity by having processes, ways of working and limiting systems – the “this is how we do things around here” problem. But ultimately there is only one person that can work on and develop your creative spark, and that is YOU yourself. You have to take personal ownership of creativity, curiosity and ideation.
You do not get a six-pack by just turning up at the gym once. It takes a lot of time, training and dedication, daily. The same is true of creativity. It is a muscle you have to work and develop, and to be guaranteed it will deliver when you need it to, you have to work it every day. Yes, the day-to-day operational stuff has to happen, but the growth, the expansion, the success will likely come from elsewhere.
Too many of us in the corporate world do not have any creative outlet on a regular basis (play an instrument, draw, paint, write for pleasure). We apologise for our ‘lack of creativity’ (recall the wonderful portrait a Fellow attendee drew of you that day). We need to find our way back to the way children approach risk and explore the world – with natural curiosity and open minds.
Children explore the world taking risks. As adults we have a mistaken understanding of success and failure. We see them as a continuum, opposite ends of achievement. They are in fact just two-sides of the same coin and reality. You cannot have one without the other and modern society sadly has only placed a value on one aspect of the equation. If you are to succeed, either personally or professionally, you are going to have to get comfortable with risk, failure and vulnerability (side note – watch Brene Browne’s Netflix documentary entitled “The Call to Courage” for a great masterclass on courage and vulnerability in leadership).
Failing fast is the secret. Success is earned by those that fail, get up fast, and try again. It is only by doing new things, exposing yourself to new people, new ideas and new experiences on a regular basis that you can rewire your brain to find new ways of addressing old problems. We say ‘no’ on a surprisingly frequent basis, without even realising it.
Learn to say yes to it all. Learn from your mistakes and your experiences rather than letting them pass. Take more risks. Do things that make you feel slightly uncomfortable for the very reason that they make you feel uncomfortable. Watch your professional and personal life change forever once you challenge your routine every day.
There cannot be courage without vulnerability. One cannot exist without the other. Similarly, success needs trial and failure to flourish. There are no rewards without some risks taken. No growth without personal challenge. No celebration without some sacrifices. Look around you and ask yourself “what am I trying this week that is new”?
Sometimes you have to stand-up and put yourself to the test. T-A=B. Thinking and Talking about doing things minus actual Action equals Bullshit. You need to actual step up, engage and make a difference
Remember habit and routine are the enemy of creativity. Learn to be bold, brave and step outside your comfort zone regularly. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Do things that scare you a little and a lot. The things you already do and know will never change you. Your life will shrink or expand in proportion to one’s bravery. Keep moving forward. Your professional and personal transformation is in your own hands. I suggest you do something about it.
Transformation is a verb, an action-based discipline
Finally, the realisation that momentum, courage, space, play, risk, agility and intelligence are the foundations of creativity. Einstein famously said that creativity was ‘intelligence having fun’.
We need to understand that Transformation is driven by innovation (somewhat like an infinity loop perhaps, as both elements fuel the other). Innovation is itself driven by creative ideas and those creative ideas need time, space, curiosity and support to develop.
So, if we truly want to transform our business, it starts with fostering creativity in the everyday.
You cannot wait until the critical moment to ‘turn on’ your creativity. We need to invest far earlier in our creative spirit (at an individual level) and at a general philosophy (at the organisational level). You are the leader of your business team. They look to you for guidance on creativity and innovation, on risk and growth.
If you want to have a team that lives that value on a day-to-day basis, then you need to be their spark as a leader.
More content from Ken
To get a more detailed feel for Ken Hughes content, check out his Blog – The Blue Dot Consumer. Widely read by those in the marketing, customer experience and retail worlds, it is full of in-depth discussion and content relating to all things consumer.
FAILING TO INNOVATE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RISK, FAILURE & RESILIENCE
I am successful, not at everything but at some things. I am a failure, not at everything but at some...
THE POWER OF RISK: CULTIVATING A FAILURE-FRIENDLY CULTURE FOR SUCCESS
A SIMPLE HACK TO POWER BETTER PROBLEM SOLVING
For those too lazy to read blogs, and to view further visual content and past performances from Ken Hughes, check out the YouTube channel where he discusses all things consumer and customer experience related.
A Business Playbook Inspired by Taylor Swift’s Tribal Fandom
If you were inspired by today’s keynote and would like a deeper dive into Customer Intimacy, Customer Connection and building Tribal Belonging, get yourself a copy of Taylormaking: A New Era of Modern Branding and Customer Connection.
