Stoel Rives Hosts Roundtable with Seattle Executives on Building and Maintaining a “Culture of Innovation”

In late July, Stoel Rives LLP hosted a panel with seven Seattle-area business leaders in which they discussed how they build and maintain a culture of innovation at their respective companies. The Puget Sound Business Journal, which produced the event, published an article summarizing some of the executives’ remarks titled “Innovate or perish: Seven Seattle CEOs offer tips for encouraging change and curiosity.”

The panelists suggested such ideas as: 

• Offer opportunities for employees, regardless of rank, to pitch ideas and see their idea become a product.
• Make sure employees feel that it is safe for them to continue solving problems and making mistakes—thus avoiding the shift from innovation to complacency.
• Provide employees everything they need to feel inspired to innovate.

Executives on the panel included Bryan Trussel, CEO, Glympse; Shakil Haroon, CEO, Mpirica Health; Dan Belliveau, CEO, Coffee Flour; Rob Lilleness, CEO, Smartlabs; Julie Sandler, Managing Director, Pioneer Square Labs; Heather Redman, partner, Flying Fish Partners; and Ben Waters, CEO, WiBotic.

Read “Innovate or perish: Seven Seattle CEOs offer tips for encouraging change and curiosity,” published July 27, 2017.

Stoel Rives has celebrated innovative companies and their accomplishments since hosting the first Innovation Awards in Salt Lake City in 2002. Each consecutive year, the law firm has celebrated new and exciting developments from businesses. In its commitment to foster innovation across the country, Stoel Rives has since expanded its Innovation Awards program to Boise, Idaho (2006) and Sacramento, California (2016). In 2017, the firm partnered with the Puget Sound Business Journal as a presenting sponsor of the publication’s inaugural awards program in Seattle, Washington.