Entrepreneurs are always asked to ideate, but when were we ever taught to ideate? This paradox is at the heart of innovation, according to Aaron Palileo, Director of CIA Bootleg (Creative Intelligence Associates Bootleg), who is at the cutting edge of innovation and creativity. He also spends much of his time teaching entrepreneurs about these topics as the Program Director for Marketing and Branding Innovation Programs for the Ateneo School of Management. Here, his work intersects with a personal belief of mine — that entrepreneurial innovation plays an integral role in business.
If you’re wondering how you can innovate as an entrepreneur, disrupt the status quo, or ideate for business growth, read on. My conversation with Mr. Palileo is full of rich lessons for entrepreneurs from a unique mind in business, creativity, and the academe.
CREATIVE DESTRUCTIONEntrepreneurs aren’t just businessmen, according to Mr. Palileo. There are fundamental differences between the two. “A business owner,” he says, “is someone who literally owns a business, manages it, makes sure that profitability is there, the operational efficiency is there.” An entrepreneur is so much more.
In typical academic fashion, he quotes economist Joseph Schumpeter who said that an entrepreneur is someone who practices “creative destruction” — long before the term “disruptor” was even coined. Mr. Palileo then followed that up with some classic Peter Drucker who said that innovation is a specific tool of entrepreneurs.
This echoes my own personal experience that entrepreneurs are problem solvers who are not satisfied with the status quo. Oftentimes, they disrupt — yes, even destroy — the status quo and replace it with something of greater value. To do this, they need to know how to innovate.
“Innovation is impactful improvement,” Mr. Palileo explained.
MINDSET THAT DRIVES INNOVATIONHow can entrepreneurs create this “impactful improvement?”
The answer is creativity — a discipline that is sorely lacking when it comes to training entrepreneurs, he notes.
To help entrepreneurs and creatives with the challenge of creativity, Mr. Palileo wrote the Creativity Handbook. This book is “designed as a workbook wherein, sure, I give the principles [for creativity],” he explained. As an exercise-driven book, it can help anyone generate ideas. And it’s not just for entrepreneurs. It’s for anyone “whether you are in the culinary arts, whether you’re a musician, whether you are a graphic designer,” he added.
In our conversation, which can be viewed in full on the RJ Ledesma Podcast, Mr. Palileo explained how entrepreneurial innovation starts with finding an inspiration, a problem, or an objective that you want to solve.
Only when you find this objective or problem you want to solve does ideation begin. And when it comes to ideation, what is important is a mindset of asking “What is different?”
“The great ones,” Mr. Palileo said, explaining what he learned from conversations with some of the country’s top creative minds, “they will always say, ‘What is everyone doing? Hindi ko gagawin ’yon (I won’t do that).”
Finally, entrepreneurs need to ground creativity with what meets business objectives, what delivers. “It’s not enough to be different,” he says. “It needs to deliver… You need to delight people.”
D-I-S-RUPTIn Mr. Palileo’s Innovation Course for Entrepreneurs (ICE) in the Ateneo, he trains entrepreneurs to innovate. Over the course of 18 weeks, these entrepreneurs go through a rigorous bootcamp to learn entrepreneurial innovation.
The first module is Discover. “Even before you discover out there, you have to discover your inner entrepreneur,” Mr. Palileo said. “Who are you really? What is your bent? Are you more of an analyst? Are you empathetic?”
With this knowledge, internal discovery leads to discovering opportunities. He continued, “The most important [thing] is discover who you are, then discover the opportunities in your industry and your company.”
The second module is Innovate, and the last module is Strategize. Together Discover-Innovate-Strategize spells out the beginning of DISRUPT.
Mr. Palileo told us how it all comes together, saying, “Now that you have found an objective, an opportunity, and you’ve ideated and tested some of the ideas you have, by then, meron ka nang magandang (you have a nice) innovation. So, the last part is strategizing and storytelling.
“So how will you bring this to life?” he added. “What would be the different touch points? What would be your strategy for the next year to ramp up this innovation?”
ENTREPRENEURIAL INNOVATION IN ACTIONPut into practice in his work as Director of CIA Bootleg, Mr. Palileo has worked with clients such as AC Health, Ayala Land, Carmen’s Best, Globe, Mega Sardines, Serenitea, and more.
With CIA Bootleg, he employs scientists — psychologists, sociologists, and semiotics experts who study culture — to see the company through a different lens, get to the root of a client’s enterprise DNA, and use it as a springboard for innovation.
His advice for entrepreneurs: “I think the most important thing really for entrepreneurs that are already working and have great momentum is to ask yourselves, ‘What is your corporate or your enterprise DNA? What is the core essence of your company that can connect your past, explain your present, and then predict your future?’”
RJ Ledesma (www.rjledesma.com) is a Hall of Fame Awardee for Best Male Host at the Aliw Awards, a multi-awarded serial entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and business mentor, podcaster, an Honorary Consul, and editor-in-chief of The Business Manual. Mr. Ledesma can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. The RJ Ledesma Podcast is available on Facebook, Spotify, Google and Apple Podcasts. Are there entrepreneurs you want Mr. Ledesma to interview? Let him know at ledesma.rj@gmail.com.
