Innovation plays a crucial role in driving business growth, whether you’re starting up or aiming to sustain profitability in your existing business. It involves:
- embracing new ideas, technology, and unexplored markets
- committing to adapt to industry and market dynamics
- valuing diverse perspectives.
Studies have indicated that business owners who lack innovation skills generally have less proficiency in project and people management compared to their innovative counterparts. However, how can one foster innovation without jeopardising the success of their business? Innovation thrives on trusting your intuition and embracing the lessons that come with the inevitable mistakes inherent in business success.
Attitude to innovation
What is your approach towards innovation within your business? Can you provide a brief overview of your business culture and how it nurtures innovation? Furthermore, if someone were to call your business and ask one of your staff members or associates the same question, would their response align with yours? Is there a shared understanding of these principles across your entire organisation?
In innovative businesses, effective communication channels are open, ensuring clarity regarding the business’s purpose, direction (business culture), and the processes that encourage creativity and innovation.
Open to new ideas
How receptive are you to novel ideas, particularly those with the potential to significantly alter the course of your company? Are you intimidated by new ideas or do you embrace them? Are you more open to new ideas during challenging times? Do you disregard new ideas when the business is thriving?
Do you have a formal process for evaluating new ideas, such as regular team meetings with selected staff members, or do you handle idea acceptance or rejection on an ad hoc basis?
Merely acknowledging a great idea and stating, “We should give it a try!” is not sufficient. Many ideas fade away because good intentions alone cannot substitute for taking action. Consider designating an idea champion and implementing a system to track promising ideas through to completion, complete with action deadlines. Additionally, numerous ideas fail due to insufficient resources. Establishing a more structured idea evaluation process will enable you to assess and allocate the necessary resources to bring ideas to fruition.
Begin by conducting research. Determine if the market is sufficiently large to accommodate the new product or service and identify its unique selling points in comparison to similar offerings.
It is essential to ensure there is a genuine demand for the idea. Therefore, it is helpful to understand your competitors—know who they are, what they offer, and their pricing. This knowledge will assist you in evaluating whether your proposed pricing is appropriate and how much you need to sell in order to achieve profitability.
Seek diverse thought
If everyone thinks the same, it’s unlikely staff will:
- challenge the usual way of doing things
- find the best solutions
- be attentive to customer needs.
Build teams with diverse life experiences and connections. Take diversity into account when recruiting.
Form teams with a range of life experiences and networks. Take diversity into account during the hiring process.
When seeking solutions or soliciting ideas, promote diverse thinking:
Leverage other teams — invite individuals from various departments to contribute to the thought process, particularly those who offer different perspectives.
Pair up — encourage collaboration between employees of different age groups and diverse backgrounds.
Respectful challenges — constructively question each other’s ideas and present alternative opinions. For instance, you could say, “I wonder if [another idea] could also be effective?” or “I’m curious about how [the proposed idea] would work in [specific situation].”
Incorporate a variety of perspectives and you’re more likely to:
- gain a deeper understanding of opportunities and challenges
- access diverse networks
- expand upon ideas or consider angles that may have otherwise been overlooked.
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Tip
A blend of ages, backgrounds, and experiences can generate more innovative solutions.
Additionally, it enhances ideas and facilitates mutual learning from different viewpoints.
Foster and reward creativity
Can one of your staff members approach you directly with an innovative idea, or are they required to go through a supervisor? If so, would the supervisor take credit for the idea?
Previous experience has shown that if supervisors consistently claim credit for cost-saving or productivity-enhancing ideas suggested by others, it can discourage the flow of creativity. After all, why would anyone bother making improvement suggestions if someone else is going to receive the recognition?
Suppose an employee comes to you and says, “I have a brilliant new idea that will save the company a lot, but it will render my own job unnecessary.”
The first question to ask yourself is: Is it likely to occur in my own business? Do my employees have enough confidence to do this?
The second question is: What would be your response? Would it be, “Thank you, that’s a great idea. Here’s your redundancy payment,” or “Thank you, that’s a great idea. I’ll find another role for you within the company because we value your creative abilities.” Your attitude in this regard, as conveyed through your everyday interactions with your staff, will undoubtedly determine whether such ideas are ever put forward.
Expanding on this concept, what processes do you have in place to encourage a flow of improvement suggestions from your staff? Research conducted a decade ago on over 500 innovations revealed that small, incremental improvements significantly contribute to a business’s economic success. The Japanese recognised the power of this approach decades ago, and their concept of kaizen (continuous improvement programs) generates numerous ideas per year from each employee.
Interestingly, American businesses often incentivise cost-saving or innovative ideas with monetary rewards, whereas Japanese businesses compensate their employees relatively less for their ideas, yet they receive a significantly higher number of ideas per employee. It appears that the culture within Japanese businesses motivates individuals to generate innovative ideas.
Now, the question for you is, how many ideas have your staff members submitted to you in the past month or even the past year? And what measures can you take to foster a greater flow of creativity from your staff? Do you maintain records that can serve as benchmarks to assess whether the influx of ideas is increasing or decreasing?
Tip
If your team members are unafraid to experiment and embrace failure, you’re more likely to cultivate a creative environment.
On the other hand, the fear of failure is a definite way to suppress creativity.
Innovation processes
Finally, describe all the measures you currently undertake to foster innovation in your business. For instance:
- Conducting regular brainstorming sessions with staff.
- Encouraging employees to share their ideas.
- Implementing a continuous improvement program for your products, services, and business systems.
- Assigning staff members dedicated hours each week for online research.
- Promoting fact-finding travel or visits to similar businesses.
- Motivating staff to acquire new skills and grow through training programs.
- Engaging in mystery shopping to gather insights and identify areas for improvement.
- Exploring potential joint ventures with complementary businesses.
- Continuously working on new ways to enhance your business systems.
- Exploring the expansion of digital platforms and e-commerce opportunities.
- Developing new marketing promotions
Take a moment to contemplate the culture of innovation within your business. Attempt to outline ideas that can foster a more open and receptive environment for innovative ideas. Specifically, concentrate on novel approaches to harness the creativity of your staff. Your objective is to create an environment that empowers them to unlock their full potential.
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