I’m finishing the edits for my new book, SPARK, and came across some interesting insights from Michael Jager, Creative Director of JDK, a design firm in Burlington, Vermont whose claim to fame is their work on Burton Snowboards.

“To me the essence of leading, following or nurturing a culture of innovation starts with the depth of your belief in differentiation and the importance of differentiation. What drives it? Is it your desire for progression, something that you need to do to be successful as a brand, as a consumer product, or as an individual?

It goes back to a respect for differentiation. It means the willingness to take that risk and not be afraid of it but also finding pleasure and desiring progression.

The idea of progression is what I’ve used to help guide my thinking. To me, having a commodified existence is pretty painful and useless. People and companies that are followers instead of leaders don’t necessarily always stay on the path to commodification. Certainly, it’s not a very exciting place.

You can certainly be a second place company following innovations and tweaking other people’s ideas and remain in a place beyond commodity but I don’t want to be one of those people nor work for a culture like that.

It’s far more interesting to become an inspired protagonist in a market. And, by taking that position, it means that you need to be deeply connected to the culture that your products exist in and the people that use them; yet rely on your intuition about where things will be.”

Is your brand an inspired protagonist?