Hayden Cardiff
Founder / Chief Innovation Officer
As a part of our “2020 Vision”, we established 5 core values at Idelic. For those of you who know me, you can probably guess that Passion is easily my favorite of the bunch, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about another one of those core values: Innovation.
Innovation is a term that is too often used as an empty-calorie description but lacking in real meat or action. In today’s world, we generally see this when incremental improvement gets masqueraded as real innovation. Iterative advancements in products are essential to the innovative process, but should not be mistaken for innovation itself. Radical new ideas frequently, and often necessarily, start out as raw and cumbersome prototypes that need feedback and improvement from customer use. This iteration helps users to be OK with the bugs, knowing that you’ll eventually get to a polished product, but the original creation of something new was the real innovation.
This balance of innovation and iteration is delicate and can often be a double edge sword. Focusing too myopically on enhancing the next feature can put an inordinate amount of emphasis on incremental iteration at the expense of big-picture innovation. Although the next feature improvement might sound exactly like what customers want, spending too many resources here trades smaller short-term wins for massive long-term gains.
Over the past several years, Idelic has gone through several healthy cycles of delivering innovation and product iteration. In March, we raised a $20M round of investment from top-tier firms like Highland Capital, AXA Ventures, Origin Ventures, TDF, and Birchmere Ventures to further accelerate our focus on innovation. The trucking industry is at a crossroads of technology adoption that would enable operational excellence and we’re poised to continue to provide best-in-class solutions that allow fleets to make that transformational leap forward.
It takes more than lip service and marketing propaganda to prove real value that turns innovation into lasting impact. It takes executive dedication and company-wide commitment to take big swings and challenge the status quo. With that in mind, we as a company are up-shifting to ride this wave of innovation and I’ve decided to start with myself.
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be leading the next chapter of innovation at Idelic by stepping into the role of Chief Innovation Officer. I cannot express how excited I am about this shift as it will allow me to focus on the specific activities that help drive change and innovation not only at Idelic but in the industry at large.
Idelic is uniquely positioned to drive change within trucking. We have a vision to arm fleets with insight and direct answers they need to effectively and safely manage their operations and each of their drivers. We have a vision to enable carriers to fight back against fraud and nuclear verdicts. We have a vision for every safe and effective fleet to have insurance that accurately reflects their dedication and performance. We also have a vision to connect and empower drivers and align their success with the success of the fleets they work for.
I’m excited to be able to help push this vision forward and I invite you to help me. I know the changes we need to see require our collective efforts, but I’m energized to be a part of the movement that innovates and transforms our industry. If this resonates with you, please reach out! Whether you’re a fleet, service provider, or industry professional, I’m looking forward to speaking with you.