Nowadays the market is rapidly changing and a business has to adapt or die. Or better be a leading player who determines what change take place in their market. If you haven’t yet developed a culture of innovation, it’s high time you do. Even a new company with a proactive philosophy can over time become a market leader. Do you for instance reap the benefits of ideas generated by someone in your organisation? Read more about how to do so in another of my articles “Communication – the key to harvesting ideas”
To succeed in developing a good suggestions is as crucial as realizing when an idea is too expensive and time consuming to be worth while. Especially if it’s questionable if the company will really benefit significantly from it.
In today’s world you constantly need to develop and evolve. If not, stagnation sets in and you are on a losing track. What the customer want and desire change swiftly, competition increase, efficiency requirements accelerate unbelievably fast, economic fundamentals are altered, re-financing has to be done, new techniques are introduced and your staff turn over. It’s actually easier to list what doesn’t change fast than what does.
Nothing ever stays the same
The moments when you can sit back and just operate the company like a machine are rare nowadays. Something is always happening outside and inside the company. Or as Lewis Carrol put it: “It takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” The same goes for risk, if you prioritize stability and safety leadership in today’s integrated world will be difficult.
Stop the mold from growing
Catalysts for change come from an abundance of stake holders such as; customers, you, your colleagues, the board, science, new and improved technologies, media, new theories, world events, new competitors and your own strategic planning. What was new half a ago is already out of date.
If you haven’t yet started innovating on a continuous basis, even change for the sake of change can actually sometimes be a good thing. It will add a bit of innovation and movement to break stagnation and stop mold from growing.
From here to success
Innovation equals change and signifies a goal to improve. It can happen in a lot of different ways. You can for instance innovate new or existing products, your marketing, services, business processes or even your organization as a whole.
No matter what, the ability to turn ideas into progress is a true mark of successful innovation. To succeed in developing a good suggestions is as crucial as realizing when an idea is too expensive and time consuming to be worth while. Especially if it’s questionable if the company will really benefit significantly from it.
Look at the pros and cons
Unless you have to, don’t start implementing any idea that seems lucrative. Evaluate it carefully by looking at pros and cons. A SWOT analysis is one way of determining the likely-hood of success and will give you a good platform for deciding if you are likely to benefit from going ahead or not.
Determine and evaluate results
Before starting a new project it’s vital to decide what would constitute an excellent outcome and what would be OK. How will you measure if the change is a success or not? Can it be achieved quickly or do you have to look at the project long term? To measure and follow up results will give you a fantastic tool to determine how to succeed with future developments. What made it a success? Why was the result just good and not excellent? What factors contributed to an outcome that was merely OK? Why did the idea fail?
Step by step
Innovation can actually be fun and challenging work. It is easier to do if you can break it down into stages and take one step at a time. Many times organizations start but don’t finish. So do it gradually, take action, make sure you are making progress and finish the project. The worst that can happen is that you fail and from that you will learn valuable lessons.
How do you develop and innovate? Does your business have a culture of innovation? Or maybe a culture of value creation? Do you have a systematic focus on evaluating ideas and suggestions for change? How do you set goals and determine what would constitute positive change? How do you follow up and determine what mistakes you made and learn from them? Change happens through evolution or revolution but make no bones about it development and innovation needs to be done on a continuous basis. It’s how you go about it that determines if you succeed. If you resist change you will stagnate and competitors will gain the upper hand. And then, one way or another, a revolution will take place, for better or for worse.
Photo: o5com – Flickr
How do you develop and innovate? <– by listening carefully to my clients. Every addition I have made to my services is based on paying attention to their needs. Not to say that I respond to all their needs. Like you recommend, Catarina, I take time to analyze an idea. Does it fit within my business model? Is it viable and sustainable? Can I meet that need in another way?
Great recipe for succeeding with innovaton, Eliza.
Agree with you Marlee. That’s part of it. Actually, it’s because of the integrated world we live in that a culture of innovation is more necessary than ever.
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Hi Catarina,
Well done article here. Thank you for getting us thinking about innovation. Indeed innovation is critical to growth. I also believe that to truly innovate, you must also integrate. That is, you must find ways to bridge the gap between common and uncommon, useful and enjoyable, helpful and powerful.
Thanks for getting the good old gears turning.
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