“INNOVATION, innovation, innovation” has become the latest mantra for every organisation. But innovation has long been a feature in successful businesses, so why the sudden emphasis?
Technology has enabled innovation to take place much more rapidly, and the global nature of economics means things happen across the world at a much faster pace.
It can be easy to focus on the day-to-day business of selling, making money, managing
staff, but unless a business constantly reassesses how it can improve, it risks losing out to more innovative competitors.
Innovation is defined as: “the process of making improvements by introducing something new”.
The key word is “introducing” – it doesn’t say anything about invention, and though a brand new invention may revolutionise a company’s fortunes, the same result may be achieved simply by adopting a technology or process that someone else came up with or enhancing it in some respect.
Some of the world’s most profitable and iconic companies, such as Apple and Google, built their success on innovative approaches to existing technologies or products.
Every company has the potential to transform its fortunes through innovation. However, it requires a commitment to innovation and a structured, step-by-step approach.
In fact, in today’s fast-changing world, companies have no choice but to innovate in order to remain competitive and successful. To put it bluntly, innovate or die.
The first step is to decide what innovation means to your business. In other words, it’s crucial to decide where the company wants to be, and work backwards to identify the steps that will need to be taken to get there.
An important part of it is to ensure innovation is ingrained in company culture, rather than tacked on as a last resort when something needs to change. This will encourage staff at all levels to think about how they can help to drive the business forward.
If innovation comes to your employees as second nature, it becomes just as much a part of the business as sales or financial management.
As well as innovation being ignited by employees, external sources, such as customers or other sectors can generate extremely valuable ideas. It is important to properly evaluate which ideas are likely to create the most tangible return for your company – generally those that offer good opportunities at little cost.
Once the best ideas have been identified, they require determination to make the innovation succeed and have a real impact on the business. Only then will it be possible to achieve improved profitability, more motivated employees, or any number of positive outcomes.
Often, opportunities to innovate already exist within the business, so it’s worthwhile taking stock of intellectual property and intellectual assets – everything from branding and in-house technology, to the knowledge people have in their heads or business goodwill.
An external specialist can take an objective look at the situation and may even spot assets or weaknesses that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. It will involve identifying indicators and scoring them – for instance, the number of patents applied for or owned, the number of staff with certain qualifications or training, and the amount of money spent on research.
Innovating also involves working with others. Companies cannot afford to be too secretive when it comes to collaboration. You may have a great idea but it might require working with someone else to find the right market for it.
For instance, the tin can was invented in 1810 as a means of preserving food for longer and it was widely used by the navy. Unfortunately, inventor Peter Dunard hadn’t really considered how to open the tin afterwards and so hammers and chisels were used until 1858 when the tin opener was invented by American Ezra Warner. It then underwent numerous changes until it became the familiar style in kitchen drawers everywhere.
That is a great example of how collaboration can produce the best results from innovation. Had Warner and Dunard been able to work together, they could have made a product that would have had greater mass-market appeal a lot sooner.
There are undoubtedly numerous current examples where businesses could benefit from this or other innovations.
In today’s economic climate, companies must compete even harder to win business, and only the most innovative and forward-thinking will succeed.
• George Boag is the chief executive of Targeting Innovation.
www.targetinginnovation.comThe full article contains 746 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
