3 reasons why businesses are afraid of innovation
Has the lack of creativity reduced your once-inspiring employees to robots? Do you, as a founder, feel the need for immediate innovation to keep your company from sinking? If the answer is yes, you need to revamp your corporate culture to make it more innovative and interesting. Of course, talking about change and actually setting the wheels of change into motion are two different things. When you talk about innovation, you are likely to face a lot of resistance from your investors as well as your employees. But this is not unexpected. How many times have you got started on a thought-provoking, unique idea and seen it get reduced to a safe, been-there-done-that shadow of the original concept? I'm sure the answer is quite a few times. If you're aiming at out-of-the-box thinking, you need to be willing to embrace innovation in its truest sense and that's not always easy. Here's why most people don't want innovation.
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Innovation has the knack of surprising you when you least expect it
The uncertainty of innovation is what makes it scary. Innovation is rarely a gradual change. It has the knack of hitting you like a bus when you least expect it. Companies that have been functioning a certain way for a long, long time aren't always ecstatic at the thought of change. They are content with how things have been operating over the years, and they find the very idea of innovation appalling. Employees too, most of the time, balk at the idea of unnecessary reforms and this gives founders one more reason to continue functioning the same way they have for many more years to come.
Innovation can lead to missed opportunities
Established companies don't appreciate being made to look foolish by embracing the idea of innovation when they are managing just fine without it. The phrase 'could have been' doesn't mean much to founders but the list of missed opportunities does. If innovation is on the cards and is bound to happen, founders must allay the fears of their investors and employees before any sort of execution begins. They must bring partners and shareholders on board and make them believe that innovation will improve things and not worsen them.
Innovation can disrupt a company's corporate structure
The one thing founders hold dearer than anything else is the corporate structure they've established in their companies. Managers retain power by ordering subordinates around. Larger companies are known to be more structured than their smaller counterparts and they fear losing their corporate structure to innovation. However, if executed properly, innovation can open up opportunities for everyone irrespective of their positions. It can lead to new products and processes. Innovation is a leap of faith but it gives everyone a chance to contribute.
For innovation and creativity to succeed, everyone in the company must feel a burning need for it. Yes, it is a scary process, but it is a must in today's fast-evolving digital world and therefore more businesses need to start viewing it as a welcome development.
