Innovation is a priority in the majority of businesses out there, and with a reason. The importance of being innovative has been increasing with time and nowadays it is a major factor that influences the strategic planning of the businesses. Times are changing and the knowledge that innovation leads to wealth creation is what makes it crucial to boost your innovation strategy.
Innovation along with digital transformation is what is imperative for all businesses regardless of their size. Just think how the world has changed in the past 20 years. Especially in the field of technology as an industry that is considered to have the highest level of innovativeness.
Here, you don’t even have to go 20 years back, you can just consider the last 5. Everything is changing so fast and businesses have to be really able to keep up the pace in which the world is shifting forward.
There are a lot of incredibly disruptive innovations that changed the world as we knew it before they happened, and one good example is Airbnb which made a very huge difference at the hotel industry and at how people are planning their traveling adventures. Another well-known disruptive innovation is Uber. Countless other businesses and brands are doing this all the time.
Your business doesn’t necessarily have to present a disruptive innovation to the world, but in order to be in the race at all, it is good to have a strong innovation strategy in this environment in which differentiation has become a big challenge.
Boost your Innovation Strategy … KNOW YOUR COMPETITORS
Let’s start easy. Knowing your customers well is not enough. Knowing what your competition offers, and how the customers respond to it is also very important. Make sure to do a thorough competition analysis that will pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of the competition.
And although they are your competition and you have to try to go against them, don’t forget that you can also collaborate with them in order to get that quick win. Keep an open mind!
Boost your Innovation Strategy … UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF INNOVATION
Often businesses go out of their way to preach innovation and then they leave it only at that. Explaining what innovation really means and how all the employees can contribute in that context is a very important step in any innovation strategy.
If your employees think that the only kind of innovation that they can be a part of is development of new products, it means that everybody will think only about that type of innovation even the people that don’t have enough knowledge to contribute in that way.
A quick win would mean explaining the innovations that align with the 4 P’s: profit models, processes, products, and policies. This way, the employees can brainstorm in different directions not only product development.
INNOVATION COACHES (CHAMPIONS)
Most of the time innovations from the employees are suffocated in the early stages by middle management that is primarily ensuring the optimal performances in the businesses’ core activities. Middle management has little capacity and desire to pay attention to innovative efforts that are unproven.
To win in this situation, you can create a network of experienced champions that will test and evaluate these new ideas. Select people that have been in the company for a longer time and have excellent networking, communication and analytical skills along with an understanding of creativity and innovations.
Innovation Quotes … 10 Fantastic Lessons from the World’s Best
Boost your Innovation Strategy … REDEFINE INCENTIVES AND METRICS
Make sure to put good award schemes in place. A lot of them are a combination of monetary prizes and public recognition. Take notice that more times recognition is much more valuable to employees than other incentives.
However, you should find the right balance. Another approach that you can take is target schemes. These refer to setting certain targets that employees can reach and their progress can be measured against them.
When it comes to the metrics, new ventures can’t be judged by the same metrics as the businesses that have been around for years for evaluation.
New initiatives, projects, policies should not be put up to complete on the same level as something that is already proven. This applies to performance metrics as well since ideas are being killed off before they had the chance to prove themselves and are being judged by wrong metrics.
KNOW WHEN NOT TO WORK WITH THE SYSTEM
Systems are there for a purpose and we should follow them as much as possible. In any business or type of organization, there will be some expectations that you need to conform to.
Sometimes, that pays off. Other times knowing how to detox yourself from the system is imperative to success. There is a time where you need to fight against the system and go with what you think will produce a first-class product. Sometimes courage pays off!
The bottom line
What’s important to consider is that when a task is automated, it is also democratized and value shifts to another place. So, for example, e-commerce devalues the processing of transactions but increases the value of things like customer service, expertise, and resolving problems with orders, which is why we see all those smiling faces when we walk into an Apple Store.
That’s what we often forget about innovation. It’s essentially a very human endeavor and, to measure true progress, humans always need to be at the center.
Mary Walton is a professional editor, content strategist and a part of NCSM team. Apart from writing, Mary is passionate about hiking and gaming. Feel free to contact her via Facebook.