Smart business owners know that having the right people is the key to sustained growth and profitability. To flourish as a business, you need engaged employees, loyal customers, and close suppliers.

Getting the right people on board doesn’t happen by accident. You need great leadership with a vision for the future. You also need a pathway to get to that future. Without a pathway, the vision is hollow.

What is the pathway? Innovation.

Innovation is the pathway to the vision of the future. Innovation is how a team co-creates the future. Innovation creates the energy that engages employees, inspires customers, and motivates partners.

What could it mean if your company could be known in your space:

• The best company to work for by current and future employees?

• The best provider by current and prospective customers?

• The best partner by current and potential suppliers?

Being a category leader creates an innovation premium. You get the best talent. You attract the best customers. You work with the best partners. This drives sustained growth and profitability.

I fear that many leaders cast a vision for the future. They work to build a great culture of growth around this vision. However, in the daily work of operating a business and the quarterly demands of hitting goals, the future gets overshadowed by the urgent. Thus, the vision gets lost, the culture gets weakened, and the status quo sets in. Employees become less engaged. Customers become vulnerable. Partners look for additional options to hedge their bets.

The Best Employees

People go to work for a paycheck. They engage in work because of purpose. Companies that engage their innovative employees (particularly those with the Working Geniuses of Wonder and Invention) create energy across the organization that attracts and retains great talent. The best people want to come to work for the best companies.

The Best Customers

Customers buy products and services to get a job done. At this level, they are always vulnerable to change to a different vendor. They change from customers into loyal clients when they discover an innovative company that works to understand their needs and is always improving the way they deliver value.

The Best Suppliers

Every business relies on suppliers and partners to deliver. Just as employees and customers have a choice to engage, suppliers have a choice to truly engage as partners. Companies that innovate attract the best partners and become their favorite customers. This leads to strong relationships.

Conclusion: Back Your Vision with Innovation

The takeaway is simple. Just as talk is cheap, vision is cheap. What’s needed is action. The action to create the future in your vision is innovation.

Companies that prioritize innovation engage their innovative employees in a continual process to come up with new ideas, pilot them, and bring them to market. Without these processes, the company is simply paying lip service to innovation. The vision becomes hollow. Employees settle into disengaged minimal performance. Customers become vulnerable to competitors. Partners hedge their bets.

If you want the best employees, customers, and partners,, random acts of innovation don’t cut it. If you want the highest growth, profits, and valuation, get proactive about innovation.

Curious how this could work in your company? Check out A Visionary’s Guide To Unleashing Strategic Innovation and schedule an Executive Briefing to discover how you could create an innovation premium.

Originally Published on Darrell Amy's LinkedIn.