Encourage risk taking during uncertain times

 “If you don’t make failure acceptable, you can’t have original and unique.” That’s what Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former Walt Disney executive and now leader at Dream Works has to say in an excellent New York Times interview entitled: entitled: “The Benefit of a Boot Out the Door”

The toy industry has been being understandably cautious since the recession hit. This is, however, an industry that thrives on the new and different. Caution maybe a wise course for the short terms but a disaster in the long run. The movie business is similar to the toy industry in that they are both driven by innovation. That was why I was so struck by Katzenberg’s admonition to managers:

In the world today, the most important thing is making people feel secure. We’re in a moment when people don’t want to gamble. In my business [the movie business], if you stop being creative and innovative, you’re finished…You must be original and unique. Now if you were putting an equation up on the white board and you wrote “original + unique = …risky.”    And if you said, “risky = what, the answer would be “failure.” If you don’t make failure acceptable, you can’t have original and unique.

This is a powerful statement that we should all take to heart.   You just can’t have innovation without risk. It’s scary but it’s true.