Glenn Llopis - The Innovation Mentality: Six Strategies to Disrupt the Status Quo and Reinvent the Way We Work

The Innovation Mentality stands out from the rest by its elegant simplicity to point out the obvious: We are no longer what we used to be. Enterprises that are focused on the past and the present will miss the future. Llopis knows where Americas profitable future will be. He has lived it.

MIKE FERNANDEZ, CHAIRMAN, MBF HEALTHCARE PARTNERS

Llopis has identified a winning strategy for 21st century leadership: be forward thinking, embrace diversity of thought, and commit to strategically aligning the needs of your people, consumers and business.

ROBERT W. STONE, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF CITY OF HOPE, A CANCER RESEARCH AND TREATMENT INSTITUTION DEDICATED TO INNOVATION IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

Llopis approaches business issues of diversity, leadership, and innovation from a fresh perspective and has crafted a book that is both inspirational and highly applicable. The Innovation Mentality is a must read for anyone who wants to leverage rapid demographic shifts in the workplace and marketplace to achieve personal and professional success.

TAYLOR FLAKE, VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES GLOBAL GROUPS AT PEPSICO

Our evolution and growth as a business is founded on an unwavering commitment to putting people, customers, and associates at the center of what we do. The six strategies in The Innovation Mentality elevate and strengthen our core values by reinforcing the importance of creating environments where authenticity is encouraged and deeply valued.

GISEL RUIZ, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE DIVISION AT WALMART

When it comes to our diverse, multigenerational workforce and customers, leaders have been solving for the wrong things far too long. The Innovation Mentality provides the wisdom to solve for the right things and guide companies of any size to seize one of the last remaining true bastions of growth opportunity.

FRED DIAZ, VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, NORTH AMERICA TRUCKS AND LIGHT COMMERCIAL VEHICLES, NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC.

The Innovation Mentality clearly identifies how diversity of thought drives people and business to grow and evolve together. Llopis guides organizations to renew and reinvent how they lead to establish competitive advantage in todays fiercely competitive marketplaces.

DAVID L. CASEY, VICE PRESIDENT, WORKFORCE STRATEGIES AND CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER AT CVS HEALTH

We need time-sensitive and people-sensitive leadership strategies to drive growth in more diverse workplaces and marketplaces. Llopis breakthrough methodology provides that and reminds us that leadership must have intimacy with both the people and the businesses that we lead and serve.

JORGE CABALLERO, SENIOR TAX PARTNER AT DELOITTE TAX

Llopis knows first hand that what moves peoples minds and hearts is what moves business. In a world of accelerating and volatile change, any company that ignores the lessons of this book does so at their own peril.

ROBERT C. WOLCOTT, CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION AT THE KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY AND COFOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE KELLOGG INNOVATION NETWORK

Glenn Llopis tells it like it is: businesses are creating opportunity gaps rather than seizing the right opportunities for growth. This book not only tells us why but also shows how the workplace and marketplace must embrace the courage diversity of thought brings to rebuild an organizations and leaders mindset to seize previously unseen strategies for growth.

VICTOR CRAWFORD, COO AT ARAMARK

The Innovation Mentality captures exactly what is missing in business today: an investment in people, competency requirements, and an overall mindset that converges workforce and marketplace and places people at the center of our capital management and growth strategies.

NIK MODI, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT RBC CAPITAL MARKETS

A new set of skills and strategies are required to be successful in the reinvented American economy. Glenn Llopis clearly maps out these strategies and teaches us how to operationalize them in a socially and ethically responsible manner. The Innovation Mentality is a must read for anyone looking to create true sustainable opportunity and growth.

ADLAI WERTMAN, DAVID C. BOHNETT PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MARSHALL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

The Innovation Mentality hits all the right notes when it comes to business growth. What makes Llopis six strategies different is theyre profoundly human. Leaders must have the courage to seize the demographic shift and make innovative thinking a core competency. Diversity of thought is a strategic imperative to building the future.

STEPHANIE NEUVIRTH, VICE PRESIDENT, TALENT ACQUISITION AT MARS PETCARE

Entrepreneur Press, Publisher

Cover Design: Andrew Welyczko

Production and Composition: Eliot House Productions

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ebook ISBN: 978-1-61308-359-8

To my wife, Annette, and my daughter, Annabella Marie.

Annabella: Your grandfather, Frank Llopis, will always be my

hero but you are my inspiration to stay hungry enough to see,

sow, grow, and share opportunities for the advancement

of global enterprise and humanity.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

L ong before the world knew the name Fidel Castro, my father, Frank Llopis, came to the U.S. from Cuba to attend high school at the Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia. His letters from his days as a student there are filled with stories of his seeking to understand the customs and cultures of his host country and to connect with the people. Dad was especially good at creating opportunities for others. In one of my favorite letters, he describes taking his passion for photography and turning it into a way to make friends and money. He noticed that many of his classmates enjoyed taking pictures, too, but they all had to walk three miles to develop the film and paid a high price per print. So, my father built a darkroom in his dorm and sold prints to the students for half the price and none of the walking. He soon found himself making lots of memories on paper and fast friendships in life.

Had the technology been available back then, I like to think my father would have given Mark Zuckerberg a run for his money. In fact, like Zuckerberg, my father ended up going in a different direction than the one college pointed him in. He graduated from Cornell University with a degree in chemical engineering in 1940 and returned to Cuba. But after a short stint as an engineer for Colgate-Palmolive-Peet and then running his own vinegar distillery, he decided to pursue his passion for music and became a famous Latin musician, TV, and radio personality in the 1950s. His quartet, Los Llopis, was the first to integrate the youthful beats of American rock n roll and the liquid wail of a steel guitar into the rhythms and sounds of Cuba, originating Cuban crossover music. During this time, at the height of the famed Tropicana Nights, he also met my mother, Jenny, a prominent Cuban dancer and model. They toured together, and he became an international star, performing throughout South America, Latin America, Spain, and Mexico.