Al Leandre on Innovation

As Told to Elizabeth Macanufo 

January 2010

Combining his engineering and business backgrounds, Al Leandre (University of Michigan - Ann Arbor '02) founded Vyalex Management Solutions, Inc., an engineering and program management consulting firm that uses technology to help its Department of Defense (DOD) clients set goals and adopt strategies to avionics engineering analyses, acquisition management and work force development. The firm leverages innovative work force development concepts to help DOD develop a work force pipeline that begins with local students in the community. Al Leandre has won numerous awards over the years including Maryland’s Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise Award in 2007 and Black Engineer of the Year Entrepreneur Award in 2008. Following are his thoughts on innovation.

Innovation is an action that has direct results and consequences. It is usually in the form of a superior technology or a superior idea. Sometimes you have the idea first and then form the technology. Other times the idea itself becomes the innovation.

Innovation becomes important for businesses when competition arrives. All industries have enjoyed economic profit due to scarcity of competition. Without competition, pioneering corporations had market dominance and could set prices and limit costs. Their business strategies were irrelevant because they made money. All industries conform to competition in time.

Individual businesses adapt their strategies to survive or suffer the consequences. The way to survive is to introduce innovation. Innovation becomes the means to survive and potentially to thrive. The only way to maintain a dominant market share is to prevent competitors from entering the market. When this happens, innovation is stifled.

Once you have embarked in the direction of innovation, technology will follow. The action part of innovation involves taking the technology and then engineering it to an actionable solution. The engineering is the means to deliver on the idea.

I was trained as an engineer. My way of thinking is that innovation has to be one of the best ways of competing and winning. In business, I have no choice but to be innovative. My competitors are often bigger and more dominant, yet I continue to compete and win. The key to my success is simply the ability to innovate my services so that my offerings are differentially better. The client rewards our firm with the “buy,” because relative to our competition, our products and services compare better.

I don’t think you can learn innovation in a classroom, although I do believe it is possible to learn about innovation. In rare occasions, innovation can happen suddenly. The more usual path actually takes a long time. It will come by repeated actions over a long period of time along a certain path. The true test of innovation is to take the basic concept to the next level. The next level is also the innovation.