Innovation is most times seen as the stimulant that inflamed the creation of new businesses. By enabling the discovery of smartphones or providing solutions to the things people need, innovation can turn working ideas into feasible businesses. However, just as companies can come to life as a result of change, so they can fail without innovation. So it's imperative for companies to commit to change so they can be well positioned to develop products and services that will be able to strive with shifting social trends and preferences.
As good as this may sound, small businesses are prone to the risk of lack of innovation; this is because they get overshadowed by the demanding responsibilities of running a company and get left behind. So in order not to make these mistakes usually done by most start-ups, I have highlighted three things that you must do as a business owner to leverage innovation as a tool for business growth.
As good as this may sound, small businesses are prone to the risk of lack of innovation; this is because they get overshadowed by the demanding responsibilities of running a company and get left behind. So in order not to make these mistakes usually done by most start-ups, I have highlighted three things that you must do as a business owner to leverage innovation as a tool for business growth.
1. Know the Difference Between Innovation and Invention.
A lot of people usually mistake innovating with inventing. Although they are a bit similar, with scrutiny, you will see that innovation is way more appealing and you get to create ideas with things that already exist, while with an invention, you get to create something that has never existed.
If more companies know the difference between innovation and invention, things will be so much easier, and small business owners will be less afraid of change and see it as a core value, and embrace it.
2. Ensure to Hire an Innovation Officer
These days, a lot of forward thinking companies are seeking the service of experienced personnel to head top positions in their enterprises like; Innovation Officer, executive officers, head of accounts, head of information, and so on. These type of different titles is usually not attractive, but companies who wants to be ahead with today's trend see this as essential to the growth of their business. And I believe that any business that values growth needs to have someone (an innovation officer) tasked with the job of creating and driving innovative leadership in a company.
3. Engage Your Customers in Your Innovation Drive
If there's one thing I believe in is that, inasmuch as innovation should drive a company's action, customers should also be the core center of a company's innovation drive. Companies should learn ways to be innovative and ensure that they can make sense of their corporate missions and vision. Also, they should be able to define and draw a line between Innovation that will help boost the company and those that will not. For example, what Facebook did with WhatsApp, they knew it would be more beneficial if they purchase WhatsApp rather than creating a new app similar to it. They did, introduced video call on WhatsApp and gain a lot of subscribers as a result. Now imagine if they have decided to launch a new app, it might leave a lot of people confused about what Facebook or WhatsApp means to them.
So without a doubt, innovation opportunities come with lots of risk-taking and reward models. Enterprise companies always need to find ways to meet their customer's need, a lot of good things can happen.