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Writer's pictureRaji Vaidyanathan

5 Ways Innovation can help Businesses Thrive in an Uncertain World


5 Ways Innovation can help your business

It is necessary to be clear about the difference between Invention and Innovation. Invention is a new idea, and Innovation is the commercial application and successful exploitation of the concept.

Fundamentally, Innovation means introducing something new to your business. This could be in the form of

· improving or replacing business processes to increase efficiency and productivity,

· enabling the business to extend the range or quality of existing products and services

· developing entirely new and improved products and services to meet rapidly changing customer

· requirements, increasing value to current products and services or markets to differentiate the business from its competitors and increase the perceived value to the customers and markets

Let us explore 5 ways in which Innovation can help your business

1. Helps you to be more competitive

Innovation is vital to your company thriving in a highly competitive business environment, especially as customers become more demanding and astute.

Small to mid-sized companies usually aren't as capable of benefiting from economies of scale to the same extent that big companies can, the ability to innovate becomes even more critical.

Innovation is an essential factor in several aspects of business competition. Innovation enables businesses to present new or improved products to the market before their competitors and thus increase their market share.

It is a strategy that companies can use to create a competitive advantage, producing things that nobody else can, doing things better than everyone else, or introducing superior, cheaper, and faster services.

Innovation can be either product innovation, process innovation or business model innovation.

For example, businesses can develop products or production processes that are superior in quality to those of competitors on the market and that respond to the needs of customers, which can help the businesses continually maintain good relations with customers and control all processes throughout the value chain from planning to production to distribution, such that maximum efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved and maintained.

2. Improve Employee relations

From an employer perspective, innovative employees tend to be more driven and interested in the growth of the organisation. Empowering employees to innovate and giving them authority & responsibility to improve their work processes provides a sense of autonomy that boosts job satisfaction. From a broader perspective, enabling employees to engage in more widespread organisation-wide Innovation creates a strong sense of teamwork and sense of belonging. It ensures employees buy-in in organisational objectives and strategy. Employers who encourage employees to be more innovative will see value through increased employee motivation, creativity, autonomy, valuable idea generation and collaboration.

3. Improve productivity & save costs

Productivity is a significant factor in the survival or demise of many businesses, both large and small. Low productivity can lead to profit reduction, unnecessary expenses and a general feeling of disinterest among employees.

If you want your business to succeed, you need to make sure it is working very productively

and to do that you need to innovate.

Innovation can start with a few small changes like

Simplify your product. Focus on only the features that matter to your customer, and have the conviction to cut the rest

Rethink waste. Create new utility for it, incorporate it back into your product, or find a way to have it stand out like an offering on its own.

By breaking down your pricing, you can be segregating the most expensive parts of the business or customer experience. By being open about your cost drivers, you give your customers the option to help you cut your own expenses.

4. Establish new partnership and relationship

Leverage external innovation. Work with other firms to lower the costs and the risks around new product development. Using the principle of open innovation you can co-create ideas using both internal & external ideas, tap into knowledge & expertise outside of the company buying doing this you create a more profitable way to innovate, as it can save costs, reduce time to market, create inimitable product differentiation, and create new revenue streams for the company.

Share costs in your supply chain. If you have the excess capacity perhaps on your delivery vehicles or in your warehouses, find ways in which you can share that space and its costs with others.

Your supplier is also your customers and hence deserve the same treatment. Helping your supply chain become more productive helps you serve your customers better, faster, and more efficiently.

5. Improving Customer relationship

Delivering a substantial customer experience is key to building a thriving business. However, creating that experience doesn't have to involve the latest gadgets, technologies, or a multi-million-pound fundraising round. Instead, innovate how you conduct your business.

By truly understanding their customers, brands can use customer data to create amazing products and services that their customers will immediately recognize and buy. This will not only serve to solidify their relationship with their customers, but it will also open the brand up to more customers.

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