Innovation – a necessity for companies today
An entrepreneur’s success lies in innovation, as entrepreneurship empowers one to create something worthwhile out of nothingness. Innovation and creativity are an indispensible part of any startup or sustenance of a prevailing establishment. Repeated attempts coupled with monotonous research leads to innovation.
Innovation is always a constant and it's this dynamics that propels our civilization forward.
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Like Sun Tzu says in The Art of War –
“There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.
There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.
There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of them yield more flavours than can ever be tasted.”
Innovation is all about producing something novel out of the ordinary. Free and fresh thinking are fuels to innovation. It lends value to ideas.
According to Peter Drucker–
“Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship… the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.”
Let us go through a few steps that can fuel innovation:
Be perceptive to new ideas:
It is crucial to be perceptive to new ideas, both from employees and fellow shareholders, will help keep the company strive forward. In this world of cut-throat competition, it is important to realise the significance of creativity and innovation. Make sure your company has a fertile notion towards creativity.
For instance, Amazon used creativity and innovated existing business models to a different mode of monetising and delivery procedures. This led to it being the frontrunner in the e-commerce sphere.
Think out of the box
There are standard business procedures followed by every company. At the initial stage, upcoming start-ups are expected to create a loyal base of customers, but this shouldn't come at the cost of stunting their research and creativity team, in order to push for marketing and customer relations.
Even if your business is successful by operating in a certain way for decades, it does not mean it will render its position in the near future. A fluid way of thinking helps bring in innovation which appeals to more customers. It also attracts old customers due to the refreshing addition or change in the old manner of operations.
Break from the nuanced
People have a habit of getting used to a mundane existence, considered by many as consciously being stuck in a rut. Sticking to schedules and procedures and limiting experimentations leads to redundancy in products and services. If a product has attracted customers steadily for a few years, think how you can expand its appeal and reach.
For instance, Magnum Luxury ice-cream bars gave a new boost to Kwality Walls. In a market where you had new entrants like Baskin and Robbins and Italian gelato outlets coming in, the Magnum bar became Kwality's standout luxury product. Also the Kwality brand name and reach definitely helped the product line make better headway.
Discipline and innovation
Random bouts of creativity must not be encouraged because it may lead to chaos and disorganisation in a company. Innovation is about giving proper structure to ideas. It needs research on an extensive scale. If not focused upon appropriately, innovation is useless and leads to disorder.
Clarity of objective is necessary for an innovative idea to be successful.
Never be afraid of failure
Most established companies become obsolete with time because they are afraid of taking innovative risks. They are afraid of failure and losing their customers. For instance, Ariel detergent powder has lost some of its loyal customer base over the years because of its monotonous nature of advertising. Some endeavours are bound to fail. But one will never be successful without associated failures.
Hence it is of utmost importance for companies to indulge in innovation, given the level of competitive edge in the market today.
