More Than Creating: Innovation in the Business World.
What is Innovation? We may know that innovation means to renew, improve, or replace something such as a process, product, or service. Michael Vance once said, “Innovation is the creation of the new or the rearranging of the old in a new way”.
In the complex context of business, Innovation is the development and application of ideas that improve the way things are done or what can be achieved. It is a process that involves multiple activities such as applying new processes, introducing new techniques, or establishing successful ideas to discover new ways to do things and create new value. In general, the creation of value is a defining characteristic of innovation.
Modern businesses grow and succeed in today’s corporate climate for a myriad of different reasons. Some are known for their products, others for their services, and others still for less easily-defined factors such as strong brand loyalty or captivating ad campaigns. If you were to look at the organizations that truly stand out from the pack today as clear leaders within their industries, however, it would be clear that they all have one common factor: they embrace innovation.
In the business world, as we are now in a competitive environment where technology is advancing and globalization is increasing, therefore, innovation is very important as it can help to grow the business by improving productivity and efficiency. Any business should be able to adapt and innovate to the changing trends and new generations. It also should be applied for management and organizations on all levels, sizes, and operating in all industries to realize the competitive advantage. However, innovation can be realized with creativity to remain the business, stay competitive and respond to changes.
“Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” –Dr. Albert, Szent- Györgyi
Why is Innovation important?
1. It helps companies to grow
As described above, there are a few ways that can accomplish that goal if the business wants to expand the company in order to become more competitive and profitable. By merging or acquiring other companies is one of the ways to grow the business. The company can also choose to evolve by rethinking the product or business model which can lead to rapid expansion and scale the business.
2. Innovation keeps the organizations relevant
In the need for improvement, technology constantly proves to be a guiding force. According to the facts such as 90 percent of the world’s data has been created in the last couple of years and more than 570 new websites are created every single minute, these developments had shown a new wave of innovation across business models and markets. Much as a start-up frequently innovates to enter into a market, in order to fight off competition and stay competitive in this changing climate, existing companies need to innovate.
3. It helps the organizations to differentiate themselves
It helps a business differentiate itself and its products from the competition, which can be particularly powerful in an oversaturated industry or market.
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
“You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level.” –Albert Einstein
Generating a culture of innovation in the company is a critical initiative and becomes a major factor in terms of organizational growth and success. However, the process of innovation is not always smooth. There are several challenges that slow the innovative process in business today.
- The company’s innovation strategy is missed.
The company’s innovation strategy is the most important element of taking the organization from an emerging newcomer to an established brand. It helps to define the direction of innovation and the implementation of operations. Without an innovation strategy in place, the organization may be missing the mark and misalignment of the innovation efforts.
2. The employees are not motivated and not empowered
The employees are not empowered to innovate as some managers erroneously believe that innovation will become a distraction from their daily duties. Therefore, the employees need the freedom to take risks and provide new ideas with the support of the leaders. The employees also need motivation for the sake of innovation. It includes contests, incentive programs for inventors, or simply a time set aside for unstructured employee innovation.
3. The Customer Connections is missed
Customer feedback is incredibly important when it comes to innovative success. It is a must-have for all businesses in order to truly understand changes in demand while reaching for the goal to meet future trends.
4. Lack of Collaboration
Collaboration is the key to innovation. The customers, industry partners, and competitors must have collaborated with each other to drive a company’s innovation forward in the industry and bring the success together.
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs.
As a leader, it is important to be open-minded and collaborative to realize the innovation. He or she is able to manage any changes and uncertainty. Moreover, innovative leaders are curious, creative, and optimistic since they are willing to take risks. Therefore, a leader must have a right and different mindset to successfully realize the innovation projects.
- Explore the new things and break the rules
Explore new paths and change the status quo consistently instead of using traditional approaches and conventional methods.
2. Collect ideas everywhere and believe in the impossible
It is very important to collect new ideas and believe that able to overcome obstacles, change concepts, and optimize strategies on the way to realization.
3. Combine different perspectives of individuals
The diversity of various competencies and thinking is needed for innovation.
— Dean Kamen
Last but not least, there are several ways to foster innovation to make the business become success such as encouraging the employees to be more creative and provide their own ideas, rewarding innovative thinking, seeking feedback from the customers to learn, building innovation into the strategic and operational planning, investing in the resources that promote innovation and undertaking research and development activities.
“It’s the only way to make sound trade-off decisions and choose the right practices” — Gary P. Pisano
With the innovation applied, the business can solve the problem easily and increase work productivity. It also helps in marketing the business and reduce the competitors in the market. Innovations create bigger opportunities and are critical for the survival, economic growth, and success of a company. In the end, innovation is undoubtedly hard as it comes with a significant risk of failure. However, anyone can learn to innovate.
So, what are you waiting for?
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