According to Wikipedia, Innovation in its modern meaning is “a new idea, creative thoughts, new imaginations in the form of device or method”.
Innovation is often also viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs.
Look in the mission statement of most businesses – tucked somewhere in there, either in its actual form or its many synonyms, is the word “innovation”, or its most similar word, “creativity”.
Most entrepreneurs may want nothing more than being perceived as innovative or at the cutting edge of something disruptive. But, just as hanging photos of nutritious meals on the walls of your kitchen does not make you dish out nutritious meals from your kitchen, innovation will not come from just talk. Innovation is an active word and it takes work and practice to become innovative.
Discussions about innovation are often made difficult because people are unclear about the exact meanings of some key terms. In particular, there is confusion about the difference between creativity, innovation, and invention.
Let us start with some definitions:
Creativity is the capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual.
Innovation is the implementation of something new.
While Invention is the creation of something that has never been made before and is recognized as the product of some unique insight.
Like many other businesses out there, you may find innovation to be a valuable trait that should be identified with your business, but your corporate culture may be steeply anti-innovation without your even knowing it. Read up on how to adjust your company culture here
This is not surprising, as creativity and a culture of innovation does not pay in the short term, and most businesses are obsessed about cost, efficiency and short-term metrics that will have an immediate impact on the bottom-line. Hence, the body language of the organization may just shift the focus on pushing short-term metrics up, with expectations of management focused on the need to do more with fewer resources. So, more structures are put in place to improve stability, rather than innovation that could end up being a time waster.
But it is important that business founders keep in mind that the strategies required to grow a business are not the same with what is required to keep the business from going, well, out of business. And, when one pulls to the left to ensure stability and predictability, it is important to have a measure of rightward push to foster an environment that can produce an innovative leap instead of just a gradual incline of improvements.
A business that focuses on the short term will likely get short term results, while a business that focuses on both short-term metrics and long-term innovative practices will embed long-term sustainability and ongoing profitability into the business.
This awareness requires a shift in the mindset of the business owner and the willingness to play at the fringes of uncertainty and risks, albeit at a measured extent. The business climate now in virtually all industries is too competitive and dynamic for any business owner to assume that business can go far just by playing it safe. In this knowledge and sharing economy enabled by the internet, your competition may even be from the other end of the globe, which may spell doom if you are just another local player.
This blog post will explore how you can infuse innovation into the culture of your business to ensure that you stay at the head of the pack no matter how many winds of change blows on your industry. While innovation comes with some risks, not innovating is even riskier. This post will present you with a measured manner of planning and implementing innovation to foster a creative environment for your business.
Contents
You cannot force innovation to happen
This needs to be said.
Most companies that attempt to implement an innovation program at their business fail.
What are the unsuccessful CEOs doing wrong that is sabotaging the innovation efforts at their businesses? Something to keep in mind is that innovation is not something that you turn on like a switch. It takes a gradual effort for you to seed an enabling environment for innovation and creativity to thrive. An innovative culture is one that supports the rapid creation of bold ideas and the seeking of creative ways to make things that are already functional better.
Sadly, when some entrepreneurs start an innovation program in their businesses, they expect immediate results which sometimes end up in their eventually micromanaging the program to death.
However, just because innovation should not be micromanaged does not mean that business owners are supposed to completely hands-off control. An innovation culture is one that fosters both the creation of innovative ideas and the implementation of those ideas. Hence, leaders have a responsibility to ensure that their employees see innovation as a core aspect of how business is done in the organization. You can’t achieve that without some element of oversight, measurements, optimization and strategy.
See innovation as a skill
Consider innovation as a competency that can be studied by anyone who joins your team and applied systemically.
Innovative companies treat innovation as a core skill like they would treat skills like leadership and integrity. Companies that are serious about their innovation culture make this a core part of job interviews to ensure that candidates coming in have a mindset of trying things out, or at least are willing to imbibe that mindset.
Larger companies may see the need to have innovation experts within your teams to guide them on their implementation path and enable their success. The role of these experts would be to conduct periodic or even regular trainings on creativity and innovation practice, and steer the innovation strategy of the organization in the right direction.
Additionally, you should incentivize innovation within your organization, both in terms of results from innovative practices as well as of the effort that employees put to be innovative.
See Innovation as a competitive edge
Businesses are always faced with the challenge of finding some way to engrain competitive advantage over their competitors. Finding that way may often be the difference between the success of the enterprise, and certain failure. One sure way using a competitive advantage in today’s hyper-digital and connected world is by using innovation.
Innovation is the act of being one’s fiercest competitor. That is why it is so difficult to imbibe it as a culture. If one does not innovate to stay ahead, one’s underbelly is opened to the sharks and the results can be devastating. When others out-innovate your business, it could lead to severe job losses if not an outright closure of your business. Remember, candlemakers did not invent the lightbulb, neither did horse breeders invent the motorcar, nor did the postal services invent the email. That is why creativity and innovation is critical in running your business. Horse breeders may have been focused on the horse breeder down the road, not seeing clearly where the disruption would come from.
In hindsight, we all have foresight. The question is; would you have known what to do when you are distracted by the day to day running of a complex organization? Many established businesses struggle to innovate out of fear of ruining a good business. They follow the adage, ‘don’t fix it if it isn’t broken!’, and that leads us to the next topic we are going to address.
Stop Doing What Works
As radical as it sounds, this is where most innovative companies start out. An attitude of dissatisfaction is inevitable if we are to truly implement a culture of innovation in our organizations.
This is what Joseph Schumpeter called creative destruction. The endless cycles of product and process creation which see new products replace older ones. He coined that term in 1942 and described it ‘the essential fact about capitalism’.
Let’s talk a bit about this.
If you were a competitor looking to upstage your industry, what would you do? It is likely that you would consider your existing products, services, and processes with a view to seeing how they can be dramatically improved.
So, are you going to sit around there feeling satisfied with your efforts so far, while some hungry and relentless upstarts are spending sleepless nights strategizing on how to capture your market?
An innovative startup has the mindset of continuous product and service cannibalism. If there is a way this product or service can be improved to become faster, better or smaller, then it better be us who come up with the improvements rather than one of our competitors.
And the kind of thinking that is bound to keep you on your toes is asking yourself, what products or services will make us money in the future? What advantages will cloud-based distributed platforms with their global ecosystem have that could be a threat to our business? What will we do when The Big Four – Google, Facebook, Apple or Amazon – comes after our business? You see, no industry is completely free from these four. How they impact your field when they eventually make a detour your way? What aspect of your business should new investments go to ensure that technology does not rip the carpet from under your feet soon?
Give your people permission to try
Innovation thrives when supported actively by management. It is important that your people know that it is okay to try to do something in a new way to come up with faster or better products. Put structures in place to ensure such tinkering do not stand in the way of short-term profitability since the business must survive in the short-term to be able to achieve long-term sustainability. That said; each employee in our team should be aware that they have a level of creative autonomy to think independently and find new ways of solving both existing and future problems. While great leaders are generally good decision-makers, they know that it is counterproductive to hire people and make all decisions for them – so your organization should prioritize listening, mentoring and trusting of your people to do the right thing.
Understand that it is okay to fail
If you are starting an innovation culture in your business, it is important that you keep in mind that most of the ides that you will get from your people are not going to be great. And even for those you thought were good, there is also a good chance that you will fail in the implementation. You see, if you are not failing often, it likely means that you are not innovating enough. Fostering innovation comes with the assurance that most of what you try may not pan out, but the few that do pan out will often make the difference. As successful as Tesla is, every year they abandon tens of millions in research programs for products that turned out to be duds. But you bet that they will never stop innovating! This also means that when they fail in their efforts to innovate, no finger-pointing or blame games are allowed as long as ethics and safety principles are not compromised.
Measure the right metrics
You may often hear people use the expression “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. While we all know that data is useful for strategic decision making, how do you measure an abstract like an idea, or a culture of ideas for that matter? It may be very difficult to do that, and your success may well depend on how mature your processes have evolved.
Measuring innovation requires a different set of metrics than traditional business metrics that your may have been using. Keep in mind that here you are looking out for indicators of what will be useful to your organization in the long run.
These kinds of metrics will enable you to see if you are recording enough innovative activities, and whether those activities are getting enough results. Some key input metrics to watch out for here include the amount spent on R&D as a percentage of sales, the number of innovation projects started, the number of overall ongoing projects, the number of employees that have been trained in creativity and innovation, and so on.
On the other hand, output metrics that you can monitor in your organization include the number of innovation projects that lead to major product or service outcomes within a given period of time, revenue and earnings attributed to new products, cost savings as an outcome of innovating on processes, and the return on investment of innovation activities.
Eliminate Unnecessary Bureaucracy
The long lag times associated with bureaucracies in especially in large organizations put unneeded speed breakers in the path of innovators, making it frustrating and a major demotivator for innovative practices to thrive. While not relinquishing control completely, it is important that if leaders are serious about embedding a culture of innovation in their businesses, they must consider eliminating bureaucracy as their number one job.
An example that comes to mind immediately is a former colleague of mine who mentioned avoiding potentially rewarding event trips because of the burden of paperwork and frustrating approval process in his current organization. If innovators must thrive, they must remain at the cutting-edge of their industries. Hence, such processes end up as a killer disincentivized innovation in his organization.
Support Cross-Functional Team Collaborations
The final factor I will consider is the need to get units and departments collaborating on projects together. Teams should not be straight-jacketed based on roles; neither should they be put in competition mode where information flow may be hindered across units as a means of maintaining an edge. While the intentions of pithing teams against each other may be seen as a motivator, the prize is paid in innovation.
This even holds true when different organizations collaborate on projects. An example that buttresses this fact is a study that involved 10 mature tech companies who collaborated on a number of projects with each other.[1] The study found a correlation between collaboration levels and innovation levels that was too significant to ignore. The more the collaboration levels recorded, the higher the number of patents that were produced at the end of the project.
The highest collaboration level resulted in 18 new patents and participants rating of 9, while the lowest collaboration levels produced no patents and the participants rating was 2.
Takeaways
· Leaders should encourage failure in their teams as a breeding ground for innovation. If you are not failing often, then you are not trying hard enough.
· Be a cannibal and rip out your best products – then make them better.
· Measure how you are doing, then reinforce what works.
· Collaboration, not competition.
Can you think of any additional ways leaders can create a culture of innovation other than those I’ve mentioned in this article? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Quick Summary
Prefer the short version? Here is a concise recap of the key ideas in this article.
Like many other businesses out there, you may find innovation to be a valuable trait that should be identified with your business, but your corporate culture may be steeply anti-innovation without your even knowing it. A business that focuses on the short term will likely get short term results, while a business that focuses on both short-term metrics and long-term innovative practices will embed long-term sustainability and ongoing profitability into the business. The role of these experts would be to conduct periodic or even regular trainings on creativity and innovation practice, and steer the innovation strategy of the organization in.
I’m not sure where you are getting your info, but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more. Thanks for great information I was looking for this information for my mission.
As I web site possessor I believe the content matter here is rattling great , appreciate it for your hard work. You should keep it up forever! Good Luck.
Very interesting info !Perfect just what I was looking for!
Good write-up, I am normal visitor of one’s web site, maintain up the excellent operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a long time.
Hello my friend! I wish to say that this post is amazing, great written and include approximately all significant infos. I would like to look extra posts like this .
I have been surfing on-line greater than 3 hours lately, yet I never discovered any fascinating article like yours. It is lovely worth enough for me. Personally, if all website owners and bloggers made just right content as you did, the internet will likely be a lot more helpful than ever before.
Great website you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics discussed here? I’d really love to be a part of online community where I can get opinions from other experienced individuals that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thanks!
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply as I’m looking to design my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. many thanks
Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info. Thanks for the post. I will certainly return.
You can certainly see your expertise in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers such as you who are not afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart. “Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was.” by Margaret Mitchell.
I am really impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays..
Fantastic web site. A lot of useful info here. I’m sending it to several friends ans also sharing in delicious. And of course, thanks for your sweat!
Hello there! I know this is kinda off topic however , I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest writing a blog post or vice-versa? My website covers a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you might be interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Great blog by the way!
It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
I was examining some of your blog posts on this site and I conceive this internet site is really informative! Retain putting up.
Hi there, I found your website via Google while looking for a related topic, your site came up, it looks good. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
I really appreciate your work, Great post.
Terrific work! That is the kind of info that are meant to be shared around the net. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this put up upper! Come on over and consult with my website . Thanks =)
SLIMTIDE SUPPLEMENT
Good day very cool website!! Man .. Excellent .. Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also?KI’m glad to seek out so many useful info here in the publish, we’d like work out more techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
Would you be serious about exchanging links?
You are my breathing in, I have few blogs and often run out from to post .
I’m impressed, I need to say. Really hardly ever do I encounter a blog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me let you know, you could have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is outstanding; the problem is something that not enough individuals are speaking intelligently about. I am very blissful that I stumbled across this in my search for one thing regarding this.
It’s really a nice and helpful piece of info. I’m glad that you shared this useful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
JELLYFIL REVIEWS
Some genuinely interesting information, well written and broadly speaking user pleasant.
Hey there! Someone in my Facebook group shared this website with us so I came to look it over. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Terrific blog and outstanding style and design.
F*ckin’ remarkable issues here. I am very happy to see your article. Thank you so much and i’m taking a look ahead to touch you. Will you kindly drop me a e-mail?
Today, I went to the beach front with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!
Very interesting subject, appreciate it for putting up. “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” by Herbert Spencer.
I adore studying and I think this website got some really utilitarian stuff on it! .
Great post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am inspired! Extremely useful info particularly the last section 🙂 I deal with such information much. I was looking for this particular info for a long time. Thanks and best of luck.
jellyfill review
Good post however I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Kudos!
Really nice style and design and wonderful subject matter, absolutely nothing else we want :D.
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I’m hoping the same high-grade site post from you in the upcoming as well. In fact your creative writing skills has encouraged me to get my own site now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings fast. Your write up is a good example of it.
I like this post, enjoyed this one thanks for putting up. “No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.” by Agnes de Mille.
I am not real wonderful with English but I find this rattling easy to translate.
Really clear web site, appreciate it for this post.
This web site is really a walk-through for all of the info you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and you’ll definitely discover it.
Some truly interesting info , well written and broadly speaking user pleasant.
Hi there just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different internet browsers and both show the same outcome.
I really like your writing style, good information, appreciate it for putting up :D.
he blog was how do i say it… relevant, finally something that helped me. Thanks
Hiya, I’m really glad I’ve found this info. Nowadays bloggers publish just about gossips and net and this is really annoying. A good website with exciting content, that is what I need. Thank you for keeping this web-site, I will be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Cant find it.
Cool blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog shine. Please let me know where you got your theme. Cheers
I like this post, enjoyed this one thanks for posting.
I adore forgathering useful information , this post has got me even more info! .
Great blog right here! Additionally your web site lots up very fast! What host are you using? Can I am getting your associate hyperlink for your host? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol
This web site is my inhalation, real great design and style and perfect articles.
Hello! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting tired of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at options for another platform. I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
Keep functioning ,remarkable job!
I wanted to make a small note in order to thank you for all the great solutions you are giving here. My time consuming internet search has now been compensated with high-quality information to exchange with my great friends. I ‘d mention that most of us site visitors actually are unquestionably blessed to live in a remarkable site with so many brilliant professionals with very beneficial tricks. I feel very blessed to have come across the web pages and look forward to tons of more awesome minutes reading here. Thanks a lot once more for a lot of things.
I view something really special in this internet site.
Thanks for every other informative site. Where else could I get that type of information written in such an ideal manner? I’ve a mission that I’m simply now running on, and I’ve been on the look out for such information.
Loving the information on this website , you have done outstanding job on the content.
I do love the manner in which you have presented this specific issue and it does present us some fodder for thought. However, because of what I have observed, I really trust as other opinions pile on that individuals remain on issue and in no way start on a soap box associated with some other news du jour. All the same, thank you for this excellent piece and though I do not go along with this in totality, I regard your point of view.
Thanks for your personal marvelous posting! I seriously enjoyed reading it, you might be a great author.I will remember to bookmark your blog and will come back sometime soon. I want to encourage yourself to continue your great job, have a nice evening!
I’ve been surfing online greater than 3 hours today, but I never discovered any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty price enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content as you probably did, the web can be much more helpful than ever before. “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” by Lao Tzu.
I do agree with all the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They are very convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are very short for newbies. Could you please extend them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.
I feel this is one of the such a lot vital info for me. And i’m satisfied reading your article. But want to observation on few basic things, The site taste is perfect, the articles is really nice :D. Good job, cheers
Thanks on your marvelous posting! I genuinely enjoyed reading it, you could be a great author.I will remember to bookmark your blog and definitely will come back down the road. I want to encourage you to definitely continue your great work, have a nice weekend!
I was suggested this web site by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my difficulty. You are wonderful! Thanks!
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself? Plz reply back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know wheere u got this from. thanks
I like the valuable info you provide in your articles. I’ll bookmark your blog and test once more right here regularly. I’m moderately certain I’ll be informed plenty of new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!
My brother recommended I may like this blog. He used to be entirely right. This publish actually made my day. You cann’t believe just how so much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
A lot of the things you point out is astonishingly accurate and that makes me ponder the reason why I hadn’t looked at this with this light previously. This particular article really did turn the light on for me as far as this specific issue goes. However at this time there is actually one point I am not necessarily too comfortable with so whilst I try to reconcile that with the actual main idea of the position, let me observe exactly what the rest of the visitors have to say.Very well done.
Fantastic beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your site, how could i subscribe for a blog website? The account helped me a acceptable deal. I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear idea
so much fantastic information on here, :D.
I love it when people come together and share opinions, great blog, keep it up.
I saw a lot of website but I conceive this one holds something extra in it in it
I cling on to listening to the news update speak about receiving free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the most excellent site to get one. Could you advise me please, where could i acquire some?