How to turn your team members into an innovative startup team

Entrepreneurs are usually highly creative and innovative, but many innovative people are not entrepreneurs. As it takes a team of people to build a great company, the challenge is to find that small percentage of innovative people and then nurture the tendency rather than stifle it.

A while back, I read a book titled The Rudolph Factor (http://www.amazon.com/The-Rudolph-Factor-Innovation-ebook/dp/B002D9ZL0K), by Cyndi Laurin and Craig Morningstar, which is all about finding the bright lights that can drive innovation in your business. The story most specifically targets big companies, such as Boeing, but the concepts are just as applicable to a startup with one or more employees.

The core message is that real innovation and competitive advantage are more people-based than product- or process-based. Every good entrepreneur needs a people-centric focus to ferret out creativity and innovation in his/her team and to build a sustainable...