The Secrets to Harnessing Innovation and Driving Your Business Forward Pulling from three generations of business leadership experience, Shilo Sazwan shares his best advice as he takes on a new role at Sage Potash.

You've probably heard the saying, "Don't fix it if it isn't broken." While that philosophy can be true in many ways, in the world of business, if you're not constantly innovating, finding efficiencies, and pushing the envelope then you're likely to be left behind by the competition.

No one knows this better than Shilo Sazwan. "The term innovation can sound more sophisticated than it often is," says Sazwan, who was recently appointed Strategic Operations Partner at Vancouver-based Sage Potash, an exploration and development company that's dedicated to advancing the development of the U.S. domestic potash supply.

"Sometimes, innovation is a complex path or results in high-tech, best-in-class technology," he says. "But the best type of innovation, in my eyes, is when it's a simple operational adjustment that immediately impacts your bottom line."

To Sage, Sazwan brings three decades of strategic operations experience and three generations of family history in the fertilizer industry. In 1964, his grandfather, Richard, founded a Canadian company called Tiger Chemicals, transporting and distributing soda ash and calcium. As the company grew, it began to specialize in sulphur fertilizer and calcium chloride production.

Richard's son-in-law, Clark, joined the company rising from truck driver in 1973 to leading the business by 1991 with his wife, Denise Sazwan. A few years later, Clark's son, Sazwan, entered the family business, as well. Renamed Tiger Calcium, Sazwan eventually oversaw the business's 500 employees as COO, and was instrumental in developing multiple fertilizer and calcium plants with custom in-house technologies.

Sazwan plans to pull from his family's long history as pioneers in the fertilizer industry to help Sage Potash continue development of an innovative evaporation process that's critical to creating potash, a fertilizer that contains one of the three essential agricultural nutrients, the others being nitrogen and phosphate.

We caught up with Sazwan to discuss his new role at Sage Potash and his top tips for harnessing innovation within a growing business. The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How do you define innovation?
Sazwan: To me, innovation is about doing (anything) better—whether it's improving the functionality of machinery or technology, discovering and developing new channels or partners for your business, or listening to your customers and creating easier ways to get your product to them. I enjoy watching everything in a plant, analyzing all the parts and how they work together, and figuring out how they can perform at their peak capacity.

How do you plan on innovating in your new role at Sage Potash?
Sazwan: Sage will be focused on mechanical evaporation and solution mining techniques, which have lower environmental impact, lower capital costs, scalable mine sizes, shorter timelines to production, and lower workforce requirements—and all work above ground compared to traditional underground mining and evaporation ponds. There are no other U.S. potash companies currently utilizing both mechanical evaporation and solution mining techniques without solar evaporation in the U.S.

For me, I look at this project like it's my Mona Lisa and I want to paint my masterpiece.

My plan for innovation will be focused on building and leading the best team to design the most productive, cost-effective and lowest cost-per-ton of potash production facility. To build a culture of innovation, you need to create and build a team who are qualified subject matter experts, informed across key areas of the business, engaged in setting the pace forward, and motivated to innovate. Developing human capital inside your own business is pivotal so you have a team around you who can help navigate the business through changes, updates or future challenges as well as being rewarded for creating solutions that maximize output and minimize costs.

What's an important lesson you learned from your father and grandfather that has shaped your leadership style/mission today?
Sazwan: My family and I are very close. I spent a lot of time with my grandfather and my father, and I used to go for lunch with my father almost every day. I was always learning from my own family and then teaching what I knew to others from a young age.

My grandfather always told me, "People come to work to make money so pay them well. Treat them with respect but also be firm." I believe that is still important. I would add that we must think more about creating safe and environmentally friendly working environments (especially in mining/manufacturing plants) as well as listen to your employee's feedback. It's important that your people understand how they are contributing to the growth of the company and feel a part of that growth.

Innovating in business is bound to ruffle some feathers—internally as well as externally among the competition. As a leader, how do you deal with criticism or other negativity that comes?Sazwan: Being a champion for innovation within a family business was not an easy dynamic. However, it taught me how to seek out the right internal alliances and how to effectively communicate my vision/concerns to get others on board with these new ideas.

What is your biggest tip or secret when it comes to harnessing innovation?
Sazwan: I believe innovation stems from obsessing with product quality and process optimization. Do not be afraid to stop and look deep into your own company to analyze processes and infrastructure and listen with genuine curiosity to your people. How is it working? What challenges are your people having? I don't believe in things being easy – there is always a need for change, and you need to embrace it from the top to encourage conversations and new ideas to harness a culture of constant innovation from within.

I recommend looking at each stage of your operations and notice what is being done well, and what isn't, then determine if any challenges are either people, process or technology related or a combination.

Talk with your people and tell them to be blunt with you about their day to day, and about the business. Ask them what they would change to make their job more productive. Get their feedback and do it face to face. Be in their workspace so they feel more at ease to be open with you. Growing up in the family business, I have worked every job, so I enjoy getting into the details with everyone – every job has a vital part to play to making the plant a well-orchestrated machine.

Don't be afraid to replace anyone who is inhibiting your business vision, culture, and innovative workspace. You need to set the tone for your business, bringing the right people in that believe in your vision, and want to grow with the business.

A company that has the right team, startup capital, product, and is focused on innovation can become a successful industry leader. It will also naturally attract and retain a higher caliber of engaged employees who will be motivated to contribute to innovation across the company.

As a leader, how do you spot the need for innovation across different departments and functions?
Sazwan: Work alongside your staff and experience what they do. You will see the challenges they deal with firsthand. The goal is to truly understand the day-to-day and how every job is done in your business. You need to know what it takes to get that job completed quickly and efficiently.

Different areas of your business may need more of your attention than others at any given point and you need to know how you can make an impact on the business when needed. Spend time with people across your company doing these tasks – not just the managers or directors. Get them to show you what could be done better to improve their output.

Is there anything else leaders can do to harness innovation to drive their business forward?Sazwan: Yes, gaining external insight on innovation is as vital as looking within your own company. For example, looking at different companies outside of your own industry that use similar processes and see how they are doing things to improve. What one company is doing with new technology, or procedures can often be implemented in other industries, as most manufacturing is based on the same fundamentals.

Another way to harness innovation is working with your suppliers. Having built eight plants now, I have developed several technologies and machinery by collaborating with equipment manufacturers that accelerated our processes, while increasing product quality and output. The equipment manufacturers would send me their prototypes; I would then rebuild and modify them ensure it worked within our plant process and engineering and then I would send it back to them so they could copy and distribute these products to other clients.

You can also learn a lot at industry conferences or networking events. Most people at these shows love to talk, and if you can be a good listener, you will come away with a wealth of knowledge.

Click here to learn more about how Sage Potash is innovating potash and helping to improve the agriculture industry.