The importance of innovation in business

Competition is getting fiercer, technology is advancing faster, and market preferences are leaning towards newer products and services. For enterprises to have a continuous upward curve in their performance and remain relevant to the changing times, they need to look for ways to constantly innovate themselves and consistently improve their business.

Entrepreneurs see the importance of innovation to keep their businesses going. They’re always on the lookout for ideas that will improve their product offerings, better their services, widen their reach and be ahead of other players in the industry.

Here are a few examples of how entrepreneurs implement novel ideas in their businesses and how such ideas impact their organisations.

Online Marketplace and Customer Education Sessions

“We have recently launched a number of innovations, one of the standouts would be our new online Marketplace. We understand that our partners prefer to engage with us in various methods,” said Nick Clift, Co-founder at Otto and Founder of DWM Solutions. 

“Through feedback from our partners, we identified that there was a great opportunity to create a Marketplace where they could have a customised portal specific to their businesses that would provide standardised solutions which ensure they are always procuring items aligned to their business requirements,” he added.

As a company that is humanising technology, Nick and his team makes sure that they are able to help their clients with all the technical things that help their business grow. “The second (innovation) is our regular Customer Education Sessions where our team run a 45-min session for clients on various subject, e.g., Cyber Security best practices, data management, Office 365 tips and tricks. These sessions add value to our clients and the feedback has been very positive,” he explained.

Creative Leadership Team and Research & Development

Innovation is what drives the business of Nitasha Badhwar, Founder and CEO of Immersify and Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Sunpower Renewables. “Being heavily R&D-driven, innovation is naturally a core business value for us and a continuous reality. Innovation for us is more than just implementing new technology, solution, or process. It is our culture and one of our cornerstones – something that we come back to in good and bad times,” she remarked.

“We have learnt that a creative leadership team tends to be the ultimate driving force of innovation within an organisation, and we are lucky to have one. Our core team realises that with innovation there is no place for complacency. Therefore, we had to set up an innovation-friendly environment with systems and processes that support the initiative, creativity and R&D. One of the best things we did was to appoint a Product Manager to coordinate between different teams and prepare a business case to prioritise and justify adoption and creation of certain innovations over others, all measurable through keys metrics like ROI,” Nitasha expounded.

She added, “This helped us realise that we need to implement new technologies for faster and smoother product development resulting in the recent purchase of a new 3D printer that has helped improve R&D timelines by over 30%.”

Apart from this, Nitasha and her team continue to do hands-on research to know how else they can innovate their products and services. According to her, “Another key practice that we follow regularly is providing an immersive on the ground experience in different countries to our staff where they learn how to implement in real-time prudent and creative strategies to problem solve and overcome stumbling blocks. This is further strengthened by coming back to the R&D facilities, using state of the art equipment and working with other innovative minds to create a long term, paradigm-shifting solution. This two-step immersive training has created many a brainchild in our company, including our Cleo solar generator.”

Furthermore, Nitasha shared, “This model is famously termed as ‘Jugaad’ (Hindi term roughly translates as overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources), a concept taught at Harvard Business School and has been a great learning experience for all of us.”

Micro innovations and experimenting and piloting new ways

John Bevitt, Managing Director at Honeycomb Strategy, admitted that “We’re big fans of ‘micro innovations’ or the little things that can help to make our jobs easier or add more value to the clients.” 

True enough, innovations do not necessarily have to be big as they can also be done in small actions but can result in a huge impact on one’s business. John shared, “In the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, he talks about how a performance coach for the British cycling team used a strategy called the “aggregation of marginal gains” to turn the team around and win the Tour de France, essentially by making a 1% margin for improvement in everything they did that added up to remarkable improvement.”

With this, what John does in his business is that “We encourage something similar, always looking for opportunities for improvement. Every team WIP starts with a short ‘tips and tricks’ session where the team can share shortcuts and hacks that they’ve found to be really useful. We’ve actually built this philosophy into our systems and processes as well – we’ve defined our processes as the ‘current best way we think we can do something.’ This gives the team permission to experiment and pilot new ways of doing things, and if it’s better, we change the process.”

Innovation: a road to the future

Most of what we have and use today are products of innovation, and they can change 5 or more years down the road. This shows that we are constantly developing and always finding opportunities for improvement. It is a path towards a more progressive future, not only for your business but also for the communities and societies you serve. Take a deep look into your business and see the areas where you can innovate, introduce new ideas, and become a changemaker.

Innovate your products and services to grow your business

In a world where competition and survival are inherently embedded in our DNA, the playing field in the entrepreneurial space becomes tougher and tougher every single day. There is no room for complacency, which can only drag a business towards a downward slope. It often calls for a lot of creativity and innovation to bring your venture a notch higher than it used to be.

Merriam-Webster defines innovation as “a new idea, method, or device; the introduction of something new; can refer to something new or to a change made to an existing product, idea, or field.” Innovating your products and services will help you expand your venture and increase your earnings. It will also keep your customers or clients interested in your brand.

How do you innovate your items, amenities or services? When you get to the drawing board, take into consideration the following tips that can help you develop new merchandise goods or skill offerings to your clientele.

Review your current offerings

There’s no need to look too far to find concepts that you can use for innovation. By reviewing your existing offerings, you can generate several ideas that will enable you to introduce something novel in your present line-up. You can improve your product menu by upgrading your current merchandise or upskilling your people for added services. However, remember to remain true to the brand you represent and the industry where you belong. Don’t come up with new products that are too disconnected from what you currently have.

Innovate your systems and processes

Prior to instituting changes in your list of products and service on offer, innovate first your systems and processes. You may need to automate, use new software, shorten certain processes or speed up some procedures in your business. Make certain that you have laid down the necessary foundation that can absorb and support the changes in your enterprise. It is helpful to prepare your internal environment and stakeholders by modifying certain methods and instilling stability and coherence in your organisation.

Brainstorm with your team

Make brainstorming a regular activity in your team. It is good to have a Research & Development department, but if you don’t have one, you can opt to hire a consultant or utilise the skills and creativity of your existing staff. Check with your frontliners regarding the feedback and observations they get from your customers. Huddle with your team on the difficulties they encounter with your present products and services and how they can be improved. Get them to suggest improvements by establishing an atmosphere of openness and creativity.

Provide a venue for reviews, complaints and suggestions

Your customers, clients, and suppliers are also a rich mine of concepts for product innovation. Create a feedback system where you will be able to generate ideas from them. Consider not only their suggestions but also their complaints and turn them as a potential part in your innovation plan. Understand that your market’s needs evolve over time, so you also have to keep pace by upgrading your products and services and providing new solutions and added value to them.

Analyse market and industry trends

Change happens constantly and continuously. To be ahead of the game, you either pivot and introduce something mindblowing or be abreast with the trends in the market or industry. If you fall behind you might lose momentum and may not be able to keep up with the changing tide. Persistently watch out for possible trade movements and business development. Market research is an important aspect of the innovation process. Keep your eyes and ears open for things that may spark inspiration within you. Check the news, industry reports, and even social media posts, as they might be helpful in giving you ideas on how to improve your menu of offerings.

Test your new products or services

Once you have already come up with an idea and plan, set the ball rolling immediately. Test your new products and services to see how effective they are in attracting and retaining customers. Sometimes, you will never really know how good a product is unless you put it out there. If you find any gap in your new offering, correct it straightaway until you perfect it.

Communicate the changes

When you have done your product innovation, be sure to communicate it efficiently. Get the proper trademark for intellectual property. Come up with a marketing plan and launch your new product or service to the market. There’s no use innovating your offerings if people will not know about it. Produce materials and events that will bring these novel ideas closer to your customers.

Innovating requires risks and resources. It is a tedious process but the result, if done right, can be rewarding. How often you do product innovation really depends on you and the pace of change in your industry. Ask around and do some research of businesses that have done it so that you are well-informed when you make a decision of introducing something novel in your venture.