Whether you are a large or small company, your biggest asset isn't your cash in the bank.

It's your employees. They are the ones with the best understanding of what can be improved at your business, what your problems are, and where your greatest opportunities lie.

Too often, however, companies are too focused on the innovation itself — on the product or concept — and fail to invest in the innovators.

During our recent Innov8rs Connect - Talent & Teams online event, we heard from Alex Goryachev, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Fearless Innovation, and the managing director of Cisco’s global Co-Innovation Centers.

He spearheads several award-winning international programs and initiatives to accelerate innovation – whether that impacts operations, businesses processes, or technology, and he shared why and how it's all about empowering your employees to innovate.

Alex Goryachev’s talk as recorded during Innov8rs Connect – Talent & Teams. Check the summaries from all talks in the event playbook. Free download via https://innov8rs.co/get-playbook-tt/

Empower Your Employees

It's simple: If you have the right employees and focus on providing them with the best experience, innovation will happen. If you claim your business is focused on innovation but never invest in the right talent, it won't.

Employees need to have ownership of their experience, whether that's by making changes in the cafeteria or through the ability to work remotely. They also need to be empowered to have ideas about the company's work itself, and they need to know where to bring those ideas.

Cisco, for example, has been named the #1 World's Best Workplace. What is one of their secrets?

Employees there say that their opinion matters. They know what they're innovating towards, their ideas are heard, and their opinions are asked when company strategy is shaped. Providing that clarity of purpose and the knowledge that each individual can make a difference goes a long way toward getting the best of your employees' efforts and ideas.

To read the full summary of Alex's talk, download the Innov8rs Connect - Talent & Teams playbook via the button below.