HOW TO INNOVATE AND STAND OUT (PT. 1)
Innovation is at the centre of the success and
sustainability of every business. The pervading waves of significant changes
throughout the world are creating new market forces. In the face of these fast
and ever-increasing changes, the only way individual businesses and companies
can survive and prosper is to innovate.
This way, innovation gives us abundance of hope for
the future. The way the world is going and at the pace innovation is expanding,
the industrial, economic, and social growth humanity will experience in the
next 20 years may surpass that recorded in the last 500 years before it.
What do we mean by innovation?
Several persons have attempted either a definition or an explanation. Peter
Drucker, the management guru, defined it as “the effort to create purposeful, focused change in an enterprise’s
economic or social potential.”
Nick Skillcorn, the Chief Editor of Ideatovalue.com
and Founder/CEO of Improvides Innovation Consulting, spoke to 15 of the world’s
leading innovation experts. He compares, analyzes, and synthesizes their
definitions of innovation. He comes up with this conclusion, what he calls the
ultimate definition of innovation, “Executing an
idea which addresses a specific challenge and achieves value for both the
company and customer.”
Innovation really has to do with significant positive
change. It has always been about solving a vital problem through creating new
and better value that enhances the quality of life for mankind. In a way,
innovation is about creating a better future.
Even with regards to the idea of change, it is argued
that if doesn’t involve a reasonable scale of change, it shouldn’t be called
innovation. For instance, even the act of creating something that solves a
problem, if it is not adopted by others, it can’t be called innovation. At
best, that can only be called an invention, with the potential to become an
innovation.
The scale dimension is very important if a thing is to
be considered an innovation. This is what Annlie Killian implies when she reasons that “When you’re challenged with a really big
problem, you realise that incremental steps won’t get you there…The
breakthroughs really come when you really have to think at scale.”
We’ve seen that innovation involves creating value but
a higher scale in which many persons benefit. But we’ll still gain a deeper
understanding of the concept of innovation if we take into consideration the
distinction Eric Ries, the author of The
Lean Startup, makes between value
hypotheses and growth hypotheses.
Tendayi Viki quotes him as referring to value hypotheses as “the customer needs
being met by your product” and growth
hypotheses as “how your company intends to grow customer numbers and
revenues”. Eric Ries is of the view that companies should solve the value
hypotheses first before going for scale. In other words, businesses (whether products or services) should make money by making
things or rendering services people really want.
This then is
how to innovate and stand out.
(1) Be guided by
a mission statement. In the face of thousands of ideas racing through our
minds every day, in the face of so much knowledge accumulating in the world, and
in the face of expanding old problems and new complicated ones arising in life,
knowing what specific mission to accomplish can really be tasking.
Crafting an appropriate mission statement
takes some concentration and effort. But if you successful do it, you’ll be
able to take steps with precision. Keeping your mission statement before you is
a great guide when you want to innovate. It will help keep you on track.
(2)
Focus
on the customer. Embarking
upon customer-driven innovation is fantastic. But Sarah Austin writes that listening
to the customers is key, taking note of their complaints is the first step to customer-driven
innovation.
We’ll post the second and
concluding part next week. Stay happy and feel great till then.
GOOD NEWS: My first eBook, The Mind: Your Amazing Power to Take Big Places, has been published. It is a very revealing and very empowering book. It is a must read. Click here to shop the revised version of the book.
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