On the Job: Champions of Innovation
By Kim Weaver Spurr

nnovation may salvage Burlington Chemical Company, says Sam Moore, vice president of research and development.

The company Moore's grandfather started in the early 1950s was faced with a challenge in the late '80s. It was founded as a dye and chemical manufacturer primarily to serve the state's textile business.

And the textile business in North Carolina was going bust.

"As the '90s progressed, we began to see our textile business declining. We had embarked on an initiative to grow the business by creating cleaner, greener products designed for the environment. We began to get involved in the triple bottom line of sustainability - that a company's existence has to include more than just profits," said Moore, who sits on the advisory board for UNC Kenan-Flagler's Center for Sustainable Enterprise.

The company formed a new division, Luberos™, to make industrial lubricants from non-petroleum-based products, increased focus on performance chemicals and began to target the segments of the textile industry that should survive. That seed of innovation "is beginning to bear fruit," Moore said.

"The jury's still out about whether we'll be able to make this transition," he said, "but the ideas of sustainability have given us an edge with our customers. It's given us a competitive advantage in the marketplace we might not have had.

"The only thing a small company like ours can thrive on is innovation. If we don't create, we don't eat."

For Jennifer Smalec Draper (MBA '00), innovation is "front and center to what I do." She's in a newly created position at Starbucks: program manager for new concept development in its licensing business.

"When you work for a company that has been as successful as Starbucks, you can suffer from the illusion that you have the Midas Touch - that everything you do will be a success," she said. "Even though we have been successful, we have to be vigilant. In the world of food service, we have to constantly innovate."

Draper explores new growth opportunities for "licensed" stores, which are found in airports, convention centers, supermarkets and hotels.

"If you're in an airport, are we delivering the best customer-maximum experience an airport traveler wants to have? We need to constantly and critically look at what we offer the customer," she said. "I'm charged with looking out over the horizon at opportunities and doing due diligence to help us grow as a business unit."

The Starbucks licensed store group has a "Turtle Award" for people who stick their neck out and champion new ideas, she said. And products like the Frappuccino® Blended Beverage would never have been created had the company's chairman Howard Schultz not encouraged innovation. The story of Frappuccino's creation is told in Schultz's book, "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time."

"It takes a leader who's open-minded enough to realize that innovation is essential to progress," she said. "The firms that have really excelled have been the ones that have encouraged innovation over a long period of time."

Kayrn Withers (BSBA '96) has a different sort of bottom line. As director of development for the International Justice Mission (IJM), her bottom line is saving lives; and it takes considerable innovation to do that.

"We have to operate innovatively because we are taking on systems of abusive practices and established corrupt regimes," she said. "Thinking creatively is critical for finding successful ways to navigate the many cultural, governmental and legal landscapes in the 26 countries IJM serves."

The young, human-rights organization based in Washington, D.C., takes on cases of abuse in developing countries where victims cannot seek relief from local authorities. Made up of people with legal and law enforcement backgrounds, the organization tackles false imprisonment, torture, land rights and sexual violence against women and children.

Withers recently returned from a trip to Cambodia, a country known for its sex tourism industry and listed as one of the worst offenders by the U.S. Department of State's 2002 Trafficking in Persons Report.

"I cannot look into the faces of these children, contemplate the horrors they are experiencing and then not find resources to do something about it," she said.

As director of development for a national nonprofit, Withers must convincingly sell the merits of her organization to potential donors and institutions who are finding their dollars increasingly stretched in tough economic times.

"There's only so much money out there," she said. "What will make this person or organization fund the IJM?"

Withers credits b-school for helping her realize the value of innovation and how to apply it to her work in the nonprofit world.

"Kenan-Flagler helped me learn how to think strategically," she said. "The small classes encouraged innovation and creativity, not being satisfied with the status quo. I think this is the key - whether you're trying to be the No. 1 dot-com or striving to bring justice to more people."