7 Ways to Unlock Innovation
Most organizations fail to sustain growth over the long
term because they are not able to innovate on a systematic basis. Even when we
talk about large, presumably successful companies, there is a clear pattern
where they create radical innovations once or twice, and after that they rely
on “incrementalism”. Companies focus on doing better or more (of the same)
things, when they should rather focus on doing different things. Below you will
find 7 ways to unlock innovation. Bear in mind that most of those measures can
be applied by a single individual, so make sure you shake things up on your
company.
1. Explicit the assumptions: if you want to unlock
innovation you should start by exposing the rules and behaviors inside your
organization that might be hindering innovation in the first place. Often times
more important than getting answers is asking the right questions. Keep in mind
that outlining the “declared norms”, the ones you will find in the mission
statement and other official documents aiming to guide employee’s behavior, is
not enough. You will need to dig deeper and highlight the “hidden norms”
governing how people think and act around there.
2. Challenge the assumptions: the second step is to
challenge the outlined assumptions. Ask yourself “what if we decided to do the
complete opposite?”. If your company has traditionally focused on customer A
ask “what if we start focusing on customer B instead?”. If the new product
development process is mainly inside the R&D department ask “what if we put
production and sales people in charge of it?”.
3. Welcome failures: you need to pursue failure if you
want to innovate and consequently to succeed. Now let me clarify this point. I
do not mean you should pursue failure for the sake of failing. But rather because
you can learn from failures and because it will spark new ideas. When a company
fails it is necessarily trying new things, new concepts. It is stretching
itself beyond the comfort zone. Companies should create a culture where
mistakes are allowed (and even promoted) as long as they contribute to growth.
4. Use multiple sources of innovation: if you ask
managers what strategy their company is adopting to foster innovation you will
probably hear: “we invest millions of dollars into R&D, we hire the best engineers
and we also have a great Chief Innovation Officer”. Now, while those can be
good sources of innovation, they are not the only ones (and not necessarily the
most important ones). Innovation can emerge from employees, partners,
suppliers, customers and so on. So make sure you are not neglecting any of
them.
5. Go beyond product innovation: over the last decade
companies and managers have paid too much attention to product innovation. No
wonder most people associate the word innovation with the introduction of a
new, revolutionary, uber-technological device. Instead of focusing exclusively
on product innovation companies should think how they can innovate their
processes, their structure, their business model and even their market.
6. Spot changes both as threats and opportunities: some
companies spot market or technological changes exclusively as threats. They end
up taking defensive actions to protect their segment, not figuring out that
maybe that segment will not exist at all in the near future. When desktop
computers started to emerge the producers of mainframes and supercomputers
hurried to defend their segment, creating barriers and technical difficulties
so that a desktop manufacturers would not be able to sell mainframes. Some 5
years later, however, desktops represented the largest segment of the computer
industry, and by the time mainframe producers had already lost the opportunity
to jump in.
7. Execute: good ideas come from acting and not from
thinking. Many people sit in front of the drawing table and try to come up with
the so called “killer application” or the “next big thing”. This is a plain
waste of time. Now don’t get me wrong. Strategic planning is essential, but
most people are able to carry it out. They fail, instead, when they need to
execute and implement the strategy. A good rule of thumb is “Ready. Fire! Aim”.
Call ADVANCE GRAPHICS at 8950076650 to speak to one of our Marketing Specialists.Or email us at mintusudan@gmail.com
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