Lynn Tilton, CEO of Patriarch Partners discusses how she uses innovation to reignite struggling companies.

Lynn Tilton has made her fortune by being able to reignite companies that are financially dead. I asked Tilton how she was able to accomplish this with such ease.

“ Reigniting them is through innovation, that is really the key. But it is ‘incremental innovation’.” Lynn explained.

“It’s not going for the next new Facebook or the next new iPad. Because when you start with a struggling company that kind of goal will meet failure 99% of the time. That is so unusual that someone creates the next product that takes the country forward. But if you can take your product closer to your customer and know what is driving their needs or driving their excitement, you can move things along”

Tilton gave me an example of what Patriarch Partners does. “When we first bought Stila makeup it was really very close to liquidation, so I needed to get the market to know it’s back. And I helped them create a makeup player which was teaching every women to use her makeup in her own home. Celebrity makeup artists could be downloaded to your iPod. So when they went out to the press when they were coming back with this new innovative product, nobody asked them about their financial difficulties, nobody asked them if they would be here in the long term. They just got excited about innovation.”

“So it’s literally just by moving your product forward, closer to what the customer needs.” Tilton continued. “The customer wants to keep you close so they don’t miss out on the next product or the next service, or the next event”.

How does a CEO become smarter about innovation? Watch our informative video interview with Lynn Tilton of Patriarch Partners to find out how to recharge your business.

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