The current edition of the Harvard Business Review (July-August 2010) includes an article by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler of Forrester Research, entitled “Empowered.” In it, the authors talk about the need for corporations to “unleash their employees to fight back” using the same social media tools that angry customers are increasingly using against corporations.

Today’s latest social media tools, like Twitter and Facebook, have given the individual customer unprecedented power to take his or her grievance to the masses. One of my favorite such incidents in the last year involved musician Dave Carroll, who took on United Airlines for rejecting his damage claim after baggage handlers broke his guitar. In response, he wrote a humorous ditty called “United Breaks Guitars,” and posted a video of him performing the song on YouTube — which has received nearly nine million views to date.

United’s brand took a beating, and it is not alone. As Bernoff and Schadler point out, these types of single-customer social media firestorms are popping up all over the place, and corporate executives are scrambling to figure out how to effectively respond.

Granted, I am not suggesting that customers, who have a legitimate complaint against a business entity, lay down their new social media guns. On the contrary. I applaud the creative use of technology by a customer to hold a company’s feet to the fire — when a genuine wrong has occurred. But what I also applaud, and encourage, are companies which are beginning to embrace these same technology tools to tell their side of the story.

In a number of my past blog postings, I have called on executives and managers to empower employees to think more creatively, and incentivize them to take risks and to challenge corporate routine. And empowering employees to leverage the same social media tools at work as they use at home opens up a whole new front in cost-effective corporate communications, while better utilizing employee talent.

Of course, this type of empowerment is not without risk as the authors of “Empowered” note. It requires a clear set of internal ground rules that govern both management and employees. But if properly designed and executed, the benefits of engaging employees in leveraging social media will far outweigh the costs of not doing so.

I’m in the process of building a house in McLean, Virginia, and have spent countless hours in the past six months trying to find a good stucco and plaster subcontractor.

We have a very capable architect and equally capable builder, but our struggle has been to find a stucco applicator who uses old-style lime-based stucco and technique similar to that used for centuries in areas like New Orleans, Savannah, Middleburg (Virginia), and throughout much of Europe. Ironically, I would’ve had no trouble rounding up such a subcontractor if I were building my house 75 years ago.

Today, the home building market puts a premium on cost, ease and quickness of application, and a seemingly perfect finish. Guaranteed not to crack for 10 years! But what will it look like in 15 years, in 25 years? Would it simply need a touch up, or a tear down?

Unfortunately, architects and home builders are merely responding to what customers are asking for — or frankly, not asking for.

So maybe I’m the odd woman out on this, but I prefer a look and finish that appears hand-crafted, not perfect. I long for a time when subcontractors were referred to as artisans, not applicators. Sure you will pay more initially, but the immeasurable pleasure derived from hand-applied fit and finish is worth it for the decades I plan on enjoying it.

Some of the finest Persian rug weavers in the world intentionally included a small imperfection in their handmade carpets. It’s as if to say, “yes, I am handmade, one-of-a-kind, and I wasn’t made on a factory assembly line.”

Call me old-fashion, but I think we could all learn something from the old Persian rug weaver’s mentality, whether it’s a house we build or a company we build.

Treat your employees as one-of-a-kind. Treat them as artisans. Cultivate their creativity and incent them to try new approaches. Celebrate their successes, and dwell less on their failures. Otherwise you serve to discourage the needed risk-taking that could make your company great.

In short, spend less time worrying about making it perfect, and more time on making it right and in a way that will last a lifetime.

No, this is not a blog about a sequel to the 1989 movie starring Tom Cruise, “Born on the Fourth of July.” It’s about Sir Paul Smith, famed British fashion designer who was born on July 5, 1946.

Known for his bright color stripes and self-described “classic with a twist” creations, Paul Smith fell into fashion design literally by accident. After dropping out of school at the age of 15 in Nottingham England, Smith’s father escorted him into a nearby clothing warehouse and offered him up as an errand boy. Young Smith’s interest at the time was not in fashion, but in cycle racing.

It was Smith’s cycling to and from the warehouse on deliveries that kept up his interest in the job, until he had a serious accident two years later. During his six-month recuperation in the hospital Smith decided that fashion design may be more his speed than cycling. And the fashion world has never been the same.

Although Paul Smith’s reputation was built primarily as a designer of menswear, today he has 12 different fashion lines, including women’s wear, shoes, pens, watches, and furniture. His collections are wholesaled in 35 countries, with 15 shops in England including his flagship store in Notting Hill.

According to London’s Design Museum, Smith is regarded as Britain’s most consistently successful fashion designer, which is not lost on the Japanese. His products are sold in 200 stores throughout Japan alone – where his label outsells every other European designer.

In 2000, Smith was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his iconic success over three decades.

Sir Paul Smith continues to remain very active in his company, serving as both chairman and designer. He is also a regular blog contributor at Vogue.com.

Many have studied Smith and the source of his success. Some point to his focus and accomplishment as both a designer and a business man. “The reason I’ve been successful is because I’ve just got on and packed boxes and I know that VAT means Value Added Tax not vodka and tonic,” Paul Smith has written. “I’ve sold on the shop floor, I’ve typed invoices.”

There is a lesson here for every aspiring entrepreneur or corporate manager. Creativity, smart design, and business savvy make for a powerful combination for success.

Happy Birthday Sir Paul!

Today we all should take a moment to remember the tens of thousands of military men and women who died fighting for our country.

Memorial Day comes only once a year, but the freedoms we enjoy as a result of the ultimate sacrifice of others are with us every day.

Our country was founded on the principles of freedom as affirmed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides for five freedoms: religion, speech, press, to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government.

America is also home to the world’s best free enterprise system, which continues to serve as a beacon to those who want to take an idea and a dream and start a business. Our history books are replete with stories of individuals from every walk of life, from every corner of this country and the globe, who started businesses in the U.S. and took them to soaring heights and sometimes back again.

It is our freedom to both succeed and to fail in business that has long been the hallmark of our country’s strength and its economic might. And as long as we are able to preserve these important principles, we will continue to be a great and prosperous nation.

So a tip of the hat to those who made all this possible — our fallen soldiers, and to the families and friends they left behind.

The Ladew Topiary Gardens of Monkton, Maryland boast the title of “the most outstanding topiary garden in America” as named by the Garden Club of America. I now see why. This past Saturday, I toured the Ladew Gardens as part of its second annual garden festival, and came away a very big fan.

Any fine collection of art starts with a passionate collector and a talented artist. Harvey S. Ladew (1887-1976) was both. He loved flowers and topiaries, and he put his love to work in the 22 acres of gardens he created from a 250-acre farm he bought in Maryland in 1929. Ladew discovered the art of topiaries (trimming and training shrubs or trees into unnatural ornamental shapes) during his many travels to Europe with his parents, and later as a young adult and Army officer during World War I.

A self-taught gardener, Ladew created two long cross axes on his Maryland property, which provide for spectacular vistas in each direction. Off of the axes are 15 garden “rooms,” each devoted to a single color, plant, or theme. Ladew is considered “one of the first Americans to create garden rooms on this side of the Atlantic,” according to the garden’s brochure. Many of the garden rooms feature elaborate topiaries of animals in sculpted settings.

One of the most impressive areas of Ladew Gardens is the “Great Bowl.” Several dozen swan topiaries swim atop a sea of large, billowy yew shrubs that border a two-acre circular lawn, which gently slopes toward a round pool in the center.

Harvey Ladew was influenced by the work of landscape and topiary artists from England and Italy. How many botantical artists and gardeners have been influenced by Harvey Ladew over the last 70-80 years? Hundreds I am sure, who in turn have most likely influenced thousands more.

The ingredients for creativity and innovation are fairly simple, yet get surprisingly little attention from corporate executives and managers. Provide your employees with the opportunity to nurture their passion and talents, expose them to other successful creators and innovators, and serve up a culture that welcomes and incents creativity and risk-taking.

Spend time and energy on these fundamental elements for innovation, and you’ll soon find your company will be on its way to some supernatural performance.

Business Week’s annual listing of “The 50 Most Innovative Companies” has just hit the newsstands (April 24, 2010 edition). On quick glance, you might not see a lot of surprises: Apple, Google, Microsoft, and IBM are at the top of the list, respectively.

Look a little closer and you might find an interesting trend — an increasingly strong showing of Asian companies that are now among the globe’s 50 most innovative.

As recently as 2006, only five Asian companies were on the list. This year there are 15. And if you think these companies from South Korea, Japan, China, and India are in the back of the pack, think again. Four Asian companies make up the top 10: Toyota, Sony, Samsung, and BYD – and two more are close behind, Tata and Nintendo.

Does this say more about the erosion of America’s innovation mojo or more about Asia’s laser-like focus in recent years on design and innovation? Unfortunately for Team America, it’s both.

A recent Boston Consulting Group survey of top global executives found that 95 percent of Chinese executives said that “innovation was the key to economic growth,” while only 45 percent of American CEOs point to innovation as key. No wonder the U.S. is slipping.

Innovation doesn’t come easy. You have to make it a priority and bake it into the company’s DNA. It has to be strongly encouraged from the top, and painstakingly nurtured in every part of the company.

Many American companies today seem to care more about meeting quota and getting the safe single, than swinging for the fences. These same corporate cultures tend to penalize unfettered creativity or a different way of thinking, while rewarding the employee who emulates the boss.

Those who know me know that I don’t know much about sports. But, I do know something about good coaching and getting results. If a coach is successful in persuading the team to play as if they are behind – even when they are still ahead — then that team will usually end up with more wins than losses.

Starting today, come up with your own “50 Most Innovative” within your company. Reward and spotlight those employees who take initiative, find ways to innovate, and appreciate design as much as function. Incentivize those employees who seek not to mimic the boss or other perceived successful colleagues, but who bring new talent and dimension to the team.

There’s still time enough left on the clock to turn your company’s innovation game around.