Our Fluxible sponsors are a diverse and exciting group of organizations. This is the first in a series of Sponsor Spotlight posts that reveal just how amazing our sponsors are.

Like death and taxes, commoditization of products is a given. As products mature, so too does the competitive landscape, and before you know it, everyone’s doing it. The once unique product now has lots of company, and it is no longer a differentiated offering.

The same can be said for innovation. Once a differentiating feature of companies looking to attract brilliant minds, now has become table stakes; that is, many companies have come to bake innovation into their product development lifecycle. The big question then, is on how to push the boundaries of innovation so as to prevent it from becoming a commodity.

How do you innovate on innovation?

The folks at Shopify Plus have a simple answer. Bake it into the culture of the company. By designing a culture of innovation, it just becomes a part of a company’s DNA, so you’re always evolving. Now it’s not just about developing new ideas for products, but well beyond to recruitment, communication, team dynamics, to name just a few examples. And once it becomes a part of everything a company thinks and does, it will never become commonplace.

“Shopify Plus succeeds by breaking traditional rules and innovating to create new frameworks.”

Loren Padelford, GM of Shopify Plus in the heart of Uptown Waterloo, has big ideas when it comes to innovation and its place in organizations.  In looking at their growth over the last 18 months, it seems this approach might actually be working.

ShopifyPlus post b“For us, innovation isn’t just about delivering new code, or new product ideas. It’s about leaving everything we know about running a world-class company behind, and writing a new book on what amazing looks like,” says Loren. By baking innovation into their very DNA, they have altered their approach to every aspect of the business, including recruitment, sales processes, and account management. Now, not every idea is going to make it to the big time; some experiments are just that -- experiments that flop. But even in that there’s learning and that’s a huge plus.

Here are just a few ways in which Shopify Plus, one of this year's Fluxible sponsors, has designed their culture of innovation.

  1. Experiment with seating arrangements
    The Shopify Plus team seized the opportunity to try something new with seating assignments when they moved into their new building. Rather than assigning employees desks in traditional team arrangements, employees were free to choose their own seats for two weeks. Encouraged to move around daily and to sit next to colleagues they wouldn’t typically encounter during the work day, employees reported that they learned things they wouldn’t have if they had been forced to sit in traditional groupings. By physically sitting somewhere different, it’s only natural that you think differently, too.

  2. “Open” leadership team meetings
    Information is power. It powers change and enables people to make better decisions and it’s what has led the Shopify Plus Leadership team to hold open meetings. Anyone in the company can tune into the weekly sessions to gain insight on what challenges and priorities the organization faces. Especially for teams growing as quickly as Shopify Plus, it’s the only way information can be disseminated to all areas of the business fast enough.

  3. Weekly lightning talks
    On any given Friday afternoon at the Shopify Plus office, you will find employees drink in hand, gathered to listen to their colleagues enlighten them on a variety of topics. From bees to Shoe-ducation, employees are encouraged to given short talks on topics that are specifically not related to the product space. By doing so, new ideas are shared and new relationships forged.

It’s not news that new ideas foster new ways of thinking which, in turn, fosters new ideas. But what is interesting is that Shopify Plus has gone well beyond traditional models of innovation, and proudly designed into every aspect of its being. No longer is it tied only to the product development lifecycle; by extending it to every corner of the business, Shopify Plus has and will continue to innovate on itself. And that, is innovation at its finest.

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