Austin Ligon, former 15-year CEO of Carmax, came to speak to my accounting class at Belmont University's College of Business today and had some very interesting things to say. Among the many opinions and insights he gave, one thing rose above the rest to me.
When one enters a company, organization, church, etc. and has new ideas, he or she is often greeted with a resounding "We've already tried that." Many times, the idea is not the problem. The company just hasn't found the right way to implement the idea yet. Allow room for failure. You don't abandon the idea if it is a good one, just learn one way how not to implement it.
I wish I could have asked him another question, but I was out of time. He has a close relationship with Circuit City, as Carmax was basically birthed out of Circuit City. The company was recently featured in Jim Collins book, Good to Great, but recently has lost its greatness status and is forced to play catch up with other innovated companies such as Best Buy. Too bad I couldn't get his take on the situation as he has a close relationship with CC's former CEO, Alan Wurtzel.
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