To do this, special guests hosted lift and shift sessions after different sets of speakers. The concept and terminology is based on an the idea that attendees can listen to other business ideas and practices, break the concepts down to basic principles, and extrapolate different meanings and applications for their business.

“Lift and shift is the Unleash WD concept of taking the best idea from other industries and applying them to wholesale distribution,” Beveridge explained. “By listening only to wholesale distribution experts, companies may seek to improve their practices rather than to experiment with entirely new business models.”

Redefine Success

Jay Steinfeld, founder and CEO of Blinds.com, Houston, started the conference with an intimate look at his company’s atmosphere and way of doing business. With only a 5 percent turnover rate, Steinfeld explained that he has found success with his employees by creating a space where they can feel safe, recognized, and able to experiment without fear. The office is bright, colorful, and has open areas to collaborate. It is a rule at the company that everyone is allowed to sit in on any department meeting, and the practice is encouraged.

Although Steinfeld spent a considerable amount of effort in creating an open and collaborative atmosphere for his employees, he stressed that this atmosphere wouldn’t mean much without the drive to constantly improve. In fact, it is one of the questions asked during the interview process at the company, “What are you doing to improve your personal life?” The phrase continues to remain relevant once hired, as it is written on a white board where employees can write their personal goals and projects each month.

“Improving is a way of life,” he explained. “Being in the continuum of improving, that is the definition of success. I set goals and I reach goals, but my goals do not define my success. If you are only successful when you reach your goals, then you define yourself as unsuccessful every other moment.”

Steinfeld illustrated his point by discussing the larger-than-life glass test tube found at Blinds.com. In it are some big colored marbles as well as quite a few smaller clear marbles. Each marble signifies a business experiment taken on by the company and its staff. The large colored marbles signify the success of an idea and the clear marbles celebrate the failure of an idea, according to Steinfeld. His point with the test tube was to provide a visual picture to his employees that recognized the overall efforts of the staff to be innovative as opposed to only herald the successes.

“Don’t make your goals your definition of success,” he warned the audience. “Make your definition of success continuous improvement.”

Set Creative Boundaries

In looking directly at innovation, Curt Hill, vice president of Customer Assurance for Cisco, San Jose, Calif., discussed the need for creating a culture of innovation. What he didn’t discuss was installing a large slide, a free snack bar, or nap pods like those found in Google headquarters. Instead he honed in on the need to set an end state before setting the staff loose to innovate. The key, he explained, is to know the boundaries that innovation must occur in. Hill illustrated his concept by referring to a bowling alley. The pins are the end state and the gutters are the boundaries. In essence, the staff can bowl or create all they want, but their goal remains the same, and they must stay in their own lane and within the boundaries.

“Make your end state as simple as possible,” said Hill. “Once you’ve set the end state, set the boundaries. Then let the creative juices flow.”

For more information on the conference and its storytellers, visit www.unleashwd.com. While there, take advantage of the resources, webinars, and other items that Unleash WD provides for wholesale distributors.