|
 |
Hatching Innovations
|
By Kevin Kipp
J. Carter Williams
Manager of the Chairman’s Innovation Initiative
The Boeing Company
Nice work if you can get it. Not only is Carter Williams thrilled
that he’s helping create jobs, his dad would be proud of what he’s
doing.
As manager of the Chairman’s Innovation Initiative—essentially a
company-wide in-house business incubator—at Boeing, Williams and
his team look for ideas and practices inside Boeing that might make
it as a stand-alone business.
“My father was a corporate lawyer specializing in M&A for a well
known firm in New York,” Williams says. “We’d sit at the dining
room table on Friday nights, and he’d ask our opinion about what
we would do on one or another of his billion dollar deals. He always
reminded us how important it was to think about the jobs.”
That was back in Rye, N.Y., and was part of an education that included
boarding at Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., and degrees from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute— mechanical engineering—and MIT’s
Sloan School of Management.
In 1989, between earning his bachelor’s and MBA, he began his career
with Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas then, on the F/A-18 program. Although
MIT (and some other opportunities) distracted him in the ’90s, Williams
jokes, “At age 35, I’m a virtual lifer at Boeing.”
In other positions at the company, Williams has been involved in
engineering, manufacturing and R & D.
Boeing materials say The Initiative taps employees’ “talents and
creativity...to develop new solutions for our current customers
and new customers for current technology.”
If somebody at Boeing has an idea that he or she thinks could make
it in the market place, Williams and his colleagues get involved,
“evaluating the strategy, and helping write the business plan.”
Less than 2 percent of what The Initiative team reviews will ever
be spun out, Williams says, “but about half of what we look at will
be reintegrated somehow into the current enterprise. We get a lot
of good ideas and suggestions for operations as we vacuum up business
ideas.”
Another benefit inside: “People feel better about pitching things
to their bosses. They like the company better even if we didn’t
select their ideas. They feel they’re better for the experience
and more effective in their careers.”
The Initiative, Williams believes, will help engender an entrepreneurial
culture at Boeing: “We’re aimed at the white spaces between our
businesses, and we look for individuals who are falling between
the cracks...people who have a hard time explaining their ideas
in the context of the current business. Instead of getting lost,
we create an avenue for them to pursue something that creates value
while being cool.
“Nobody’s doing anything wrong,” he adds, “but sometimes it’s as
though they’re explaining an ‘orange opportunity’ in an ‘apple operation.’”
Williams acknowledges his work resembles 3M’s vaunted new product
research & development, “but they keep [innovation] inside the company.
They look at it from a sales and revenue perspective. We appreciate
it for its contribution to the entrepreneurial culture and look
at it from a perspective of return on equity, like a venture capital
firm.”
He wouldn’t name his favorite innovation or idea so far “You ask
me to pick my favorite child?” but his first-born is AVCHEM, a company
that serves manufacturers by managing chemicals and hazardous materials
(labeling, documenting, reporting, handling and disposing of paints,
sealants, adhesives, lubricants) in compliance with EPA and other
regulations.
“Mark Reighard is now president & CEO of his own company, instead
of a manager,” Williams says. “He’s working three times as hard
and having 10 times as much fun...and making more money, too.”
He says his road to honcho started with a white paper, followed
by drafting and redrafting a business plan, and a make-it/break
it presentation: “It’s called the Gate 3 Review. It’s one of the
stressful days you always remember. That’s where you get the authority
to spin out the company.”
Along the way, Reighard says, “The Initiative provided the technical
assistance in areas you don’t know about. Should we be a C-corp
or an LLC? And The Initiative helps with financing. A guy like Carter
also provides contacts in the real world, along with guidance and
networking in the business community.”
AVCHEM opened its doors in June 2001, and now employs 23. Boeing
has a minority equity position; management has the rest.
“What we are seeing is that even though people are successful in
the company,” Williams posits, “there is more potential in the company
that could be brought to bear. Mark is more productive and happier.”
Williams wants his team’s experience applied “to the culture of
Boeing...to make people happier in their jobs, to want to contribute
their talents, and to be rewarded financially for making Boeing
more successful.
“Many people think those variables are hard to get in line,” he
says. “Fundamentally I think they’re wrong. I’m not sure what the
secret sauce is, but if you approach the decision-making differently,
if you stop saying it can’t be done, that’s the first step.”
Kevin Kipp runs Bubble Communications, a creative services and
community relations firm in St. Charles. |
|
|
|
|
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
