Fostering Innovation: What You Need To Be Doing

The world of business is fast-paced, and if you aren't innovating and pushing for bigger and better things, then you can guarantee someone else will. In the face of changing consumer habits, new and emerging technologies and other factors affecting businesses, being able to move forward and keep your finger on the pulse of what is going on will serve you well and help you to adapt to an ever-changing landscape regardless of the industry you are in.

What Is Innovation In Business?

In this context, innovation means being able to conceive, deliver and develop new ideas. You need to be able to scale new products and services that are of use to others and bring value to the consumer or target market.

You need an idea that is novel and something that isn't currently available or is being developed on an existing product or service that boasts improvements.

Innovation is essential because without it, things would never change or evolve, nothing new would be developed, life would become stagnant, business would become stale, and things would simply exist as they are with no real way forward. The thing is, if you don't innovate, you aren't reaching your full potential as a business.

So, with this in mind, what exactly do you need to foster innovation within your company?

Make It A Core Value

From the off, you need to make innovation one of your core values and something you actively want and encourage. Allow your employees to be honest, give them the freedom and space to do what they do best, and create a culture that allows people to share ideas and thoughts with each other, as well as to collaborate and explore what is possible.

Hire A Range Of Different People

You want a broad range of employees from different backgrounds with various skills that complement each other and can be beneficial to your business. You want to develop creativity, and for this, you need forward thinkers, those who don't always colour within the lines and most definitely think outside of the box. 

What this will do is bring new perspectives to your company and allow you to draw on tiger talent and skill set to be able to innovate and disrupt what you do to help you stay on top of the game,

Create An Innovation Space

Innovation doesn't come when people are doing their regular run-of-the-mill work, and you need to set up space here yourself or your employees can carry out new ideas and theories. They have to be able to innovate in a space that sets them up for success. Sure, not every idea will be viable; but you will never know unless you allow your team free reign to experiment and try things out. So, create a dedicated space they can use to do this and encourage everyone to use it.

Collect Ideas

Your company needs to actively collect ideas and suggestions on what you can do better, how you can change, and what you need to do. While you are already most likely collecting data on consumer habits and are up to date with industry trends, you also need to be collecting other data that is more important. 

Set yourself up to accept employee feedback on what is and isn't working; do you sell products that aren't selling, and if you sell services, what people are asking for or finding redundant in their package? From here, you can set up suggestion boxes; you can create an inbox specifically for ideas people have, for bad feedback, and so on and make time in your schedule to catch up with everyone frequently to run through what has been brought up and discuss plans to try things out or bring ideas to fruition.

Collaboration is key, and you need to keep communication channels open if employees are to be encouraged to innovate and support your business.

Healthy Company Culture

Everyone knows people leave people, not jobs, and if you aren't cultivating a healthy workplace culture, people won't be hanging around too long and never mind wanting to innovate for you. You need to make your team feel appreciated and supported, identify issues, and resolve them swiftly to create a harmonious workplace that benefits the majority, not the minority. What is meant by that is that there will always be some people who are determined not to want to play ball and not make life easier for anyone and always find issues and faults; you cannot get away from this, but you need to ensure that the majority of your workforce is happy in their job role, enjoy what they do and wants to work for you and help you succeed. And a healthy workplace culture does just that.

Experiment and Test

When you get viable ideas thrown into the mix, you want to try them out as soon as possible. It doesn't matter how big or how small it is or how it impacts what you do; if it can bring about change and propel your business in a good way, you need to be on the button to get changes implemented.

Sure, they might not work, and you will then need to revert back to your original setting, but what if they do work and make massive improvements and end up being that game changer you’ve been looking for? You will be sorry you slept on it for so long. The same goes with product development and R&D; you need to be proactive in getting going sooner rather than later. You want to be market leaders, not hangers on following in others footsteps, as this is what will put your company at the forefront of innovation and quality.

Use tools and software to your advantage to be able to help you find what will and won't work within the scope of what you already do and how your new ideas can fit in. You can use digital mining twins, for example, to help process existing information and foster innovation to improve operations. 

So get experimenting and test those ideas out because if you don't, you will never know how it will impact you, your company or even the industry as a whole.

Embrace Risk

Around 94% of senior executives believe people and corporate culture are the two most important factors in driving innovation (source: Kinsey), and 67% said that companies should embrace risk as part of their efforts to innovate.

There is a risk with everything you do, and while you don't want to push it to complete failure; if you feel that something is worth taking a chance on, you should not be afraid of failure and take those risks. Failure is a part of success, and everyone who is working with you should be encouraged to follow through, even if it means failure at some point. If you don't know what doesn't work, how will you know what will work? Failure can often lead to success by simply forcing you to make changes and be better. If you don't encourage risk and, to a certain extent, failure, then you will never know what your team and your company are capable of and how you can disrupt your industry.

Innovation and change don't happen overnight. It is a long process that requires much input from those around you and for you to constantly work towards new goals and ideas, identify gaps in the market, and position yourself as the go-to company for innovation and development.

You need to ensure that you are giving your team a safe, welcoming space to express themselves, share ideas and speak up when they feel they have something to offer. Collaboration and feedback are important aspects of innovation, and by giving ample opportunities to do that in all directions, you can work towards your goals and ensure your company goes from strength to strength by simply allowing your employees to do what they do best and reap the rewards and celebrate their achievements.