Innovation Starts with a Diverse Team

How do you define innovation? How do you encourage and champion that at your company?

Yeah, so innovation is, in my mind, really around having the courage to try new things, developing a culture in which people are not afraid to fail. If you’re too afraid to fail, then I think you’re going to be held back, you’re not going to be bold. And I’m not just talking here about product innovation. Obviously, Juniper is a very innovative product company. But I’m talking about innovation that can come literally from any part of the company and address any part of how we do business, from processes to product.
So, I think it’s important that you create an environment in which people feel it’s safe to take risks and to fail. Of course, if they do fail, then the important thing is to learn from this failure so that we don’t repeat mistakes in the future. And with that, you develop this feeling of empowerment to explore.
And I think there’s another element to innovation, which is that, innovation is seldom around Eureka moments that are experienced by a single individual. They’re really, great ideas come at the cross section of different smaller ideas. And of course, this is where diversity really is important. If you want a diversity of ideas, then I think you need to seek to build a diversity of people in your organizations, different skills, different backgrounds, different life experiences, and that’s why I believe D&I is so important to any company.