Mark Seremet, president and CEO of Zoo Entertainment Inc., understands that, in the ever-changing world of technology, you must innovate to stay on top. Since being founded in the spring of 2007, Zoo Entertainment Inc., a developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software, has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the region because of its ability to generate new ideas.
“As an organization, not just externally but internally, we are very open,” Seremet says. “You have to encourage communication and you have to encourage ideas from everyone regardless of what their position within the company is.”
That openness and ability to have free-flowing ideas within the organization has led to revenue of $45 million through September 2010.
Smart Business spoke with Seremet about how he motivates Zoo Entertainment Inc. to innovate.
Identify your company direction. The most important thing to keep in mind when dealing with your organization is communication. Everybody needs to understand where this company is going, how can I help us to get there and understand what the metrics are that the company is measured on to know if you’re successful or not. If you’re not communicating and telling people what’s going on, what’s important to the organization, you’re unlikely to get innovation around the areas that you need it. You may get some innovation and some innovative ideas, but they may not fit with where you’re going with the company.
We have monthly meetings to communicate the direction of the company. You have to communicate how the company is doing, where we’re going, new initiatives that are being driven. At the end of the meeting, we have a period where anybody can bring up comments, ideas, thoughts, criticism whatever it may be. … We encourage anybody’s views there. You have to continually reinforce it, because it’s a message that people get every month. A lot of times, when you’re working in an organization, you don’t want to just feel like it’s a job or you’re stuck and you don’t really know how you fit into the whole thing. So we talk about how all of those pieces work. You just have to keep communicating that message and what’s important to the company every month.
Create an innovative culture. It’s interesting to look at other businesses that are innovative or maybe models that are working that may be similar to your industry but not necessarily in your industry. Then learn all you can about what that company is doing and what some of the drivers are in their success and then try to employ those same drivers into your business. That’s a good way to explore innovation and culture around that innovation. When you think innovation, you often think of technology, but you don’t necessarily just innovate around tech. You could innovate in customer communications, manufacturing, whatever it is. There is a lot you can do just by looking at these other organizations and applying that knowledge to your own company.
That culture comes from the leader, the CEO. I think it’s important that CEOs manage by walking around. It’s important that CEOs personally communicate with as many employees as they possibly can. They will learn a lot about the organization, and at the same time, they are encouraging people to bring things up. You’ve got to have a culture where employees know that we want to hear these ideas, we want to pick some up and move with them, and we also want to reward people for having created an innovative idea.
Be open-minded. If you’re open-minded, you will see a lot of ideas that larger companies don’t get an opportunity to look at because they have a very regimented and bureaucratic structure. To be innovative, you have to listen to people. If you’re myopic, then you won’t see what’s happening around you both within your organization and externally.
A lot of innovation can be customer-driven. If a customer sees improvements or sees potential ways to improve your product or recommends a new product to you, you’ve got to be listening to that. A lot of innovation is driven by being open-minded and having a reasonably flat structure where people can communicate effectively.
We foster the idea internally with people externally that we are looking for new games and ideas and anybody can propose them and they can communicate with the executives about it. Your idea might get shot down … but the environment and the culture is such that we want to hear those ideas. I think the biggest driver behind innovation is solving real problems. You’re creating a better product or experience for consumers.
HOW TO REACH: Zoo Entertainment Inc., (513) 824-8297 or www.zoogamesinc.com
