1. Founder & Former CEO for 16 years,
Cleveland, Ohio - Sept. 26, 2016
Presentation to:
By Michael Feuer
Founder & Former CEO for 16 years,
OfficeMax
Now Founder & CEO
Max-Ventures LLC
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top
© 2016 Max-Ventures LLC. All rights reserved. .

2. From Michael Feuer’s books The Benevolent Dictator & Tips from the Top
What is Innovation?
How to Achieve it?
From Michael Feuer’s books
The Benevolent Dictator
&
Tips from the Top 2

3. Playwright, literary personality
Innovation
“Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream of things that never were and ask why not.”
George Bernard Shaw
Playwright, literary personality
Nobel Prize winner
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 3

4. Innovation Leads to Disruption. Disruption Leads to Breakthrough.
What is Innovation? How to achieve it. Everything you wanted to know about innovation but were afraid to ask.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 4

5. Innovation or as Nike says: Change or be a casualty of change
How to break the innovation bottleneck
or as Nike says:
Change or be a casualty of change
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 5

6. What’s Wrong With This Picture?
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 6

7. The Right Way
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 7

8. Legendary Innovators Steve Jobs, Apple Ray Kroc, McDonalds
Thomas Edison, Inventor
Innovators are everywhere -just need to find them.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 8

9. First Step: Remove Caps
in business, career, life.
Business today is going through evolutionary and, at times, revolutionary changes
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 9

10. If it ain’t broke, break it
and after it’s fixed, break it again & again again.
Must break old rules & create new ones to customer needs.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 10

11. Once you change you must continue to change
Don’t allow your products and services to be commoditized.
You must position your services to distinguish what you do from competition by creating a better mouse trap.
Then must tell people.
Flirting in the dark doesn’t work
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 11

12. What does it take to innovate?
Reality and fear can be good motivators.
But, you don’t have to start in a garage to think like an Entrepreneur
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 12

13. Start by Stirring the Pot
“We’ve always done it that way” mentality can make an organization obsolete.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 13

14. Don’t Second-Guess/Negotiate with Yourself
Beware, if you hear hoof beats behind you look for horses, not zebras.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 14

15. What is a Benevolent Dictator?
Not as scary as it sounds
When the time for talking is done – somebody has to make the decision
Ideas are like clay
GOYA: Ideas come from seeing, feeling & doing
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 15

16. Lessons to Learn Learn one, Do one, Teach one
“No” really means “Maybe”
Skin in the game, make the team own the outcome
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 16

17. #19 to start in an industry of 20
Was OfficeMax a Copycat or Innovator? My own case study that can apply anywhere
#19 to start in an industry of 20
Started in 1988 with one store & $20K
Grew to $5 billion with over 1,000 stores
The untold story of my 3 P formula:
Persistence + Perspiration=Performance
The Benevolent Dictator 17
Tips from the Top

18. Innovation is also taking something someone else did and making it better.
History teaches us Pioneers are sometimes
those who wind up face down in the mud
with arrows in their backs.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 18

19. Knowing when to pull the plug. Not everything will always work.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 19

20. Enough Already, Let’s Get Down to Basics
“How To” innovate. Lessons that have worked for me. How to get started:
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 20

21. Lessons You Can Put to use Starting Today
Dream, Dare, Do
If you can think it, you can do it.
So try!
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 21

22. Need to Make Time to Dare to be Great
“We’ll get to it someday” mentality
never works
“Too much to do”… a huge cop-out
“Need immediate results”
We’re not creators or innovators? Always remember, most times: “The dumbest farmers grow the biggest potatoes.”
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 22

23. Every organization needs dreamers, doers and supporters to be great.
Can’t promulgate innovation and hope the Good Fairy will Make it Happen
Every organization needs dreamers, doers and supporters to be great.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 23

24. Point Your Team in the Right Direction
You wouldn’t get in the car to drive to your vacation spot unless you had an idea of where you’re going.
Don’t worry about
detours along the way.
Getting a little lost
can be a good thing - leads to
more discovery.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 24

25. Checkpoints Need to keep off the rocks
so as not to waste time or get hurt.
The Benevolent Dictator 25
Tips from the Top

26. It’s not the End; It’s just the Beginning26
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 26

27. If You do Your Jobs Right, You’ll never be Done:
Celebrate Success, but like anything – Don’t overdo it.
Innovation is a way of life not a final destination.
Disruption is the goal, to change something and replace it
or make better.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 27

28. Cars, Computers, Software, Fashion, healthcare and how people live
Planned Obsolescence ensures Products /Services aren’t commoditized, which is the beginning of the end
Create elasticity for your goods or services by initiating continuous change. Just look at Apple.
Cars, Computers, Software, Fashion, healthcare and how people live
The list goes on and on…
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 28

29. Start Now by Asking What If’s
Look for Low-Hanging Fruit, not Going to the Moon
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 29

30. Two-Team Approach Variety is the Spice of Life Stir the Pot
Thinking only hurts at the Beginning
Make it part of the routine
Have checkpoints along the way, free-for-all meetings can be fun.
Plan A, B & even C.
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 30

31. Without innovation and disruption you’ll become a casualty of change
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 31

32. Make the journey as enjoyable as the destination
Dream, Dare & then Just Do It – Today, Tomorrow, Forever
The Benevolent Dictator
Tips from the Top 32