Innovation is the key driver for any business in the new global economy, yet most businesses struggle to find a process that works the way that they need. Most business executives agree that having an process is the best way to develop the next big thing, while at the same time allowing their companies to adapt to any changes in the market before they become problems. Innovations in business help to bring in more business and develop your organization's position in your existing market. Although innovation can literally solve almost any challenge that a business faces, most businesses just can't find the right formula for their innovation process. While there is no specific innovation process that will work perfectly for every business there are some key concepts that can be adapted to your innovation cycle to help give it a boost.
Think Bigger and Broader
Often companies tend to restrict the scope of the innovation too early in the process because they do not have a good testing component to their innovation process. Being as broad as possible with the ideas and then looking to implement them in a variety of ways will help the process to work more efficiently. The important thing to keep in mind is to make sure that the testing process is efficient so that you can test more hypothesises and increase the potential for a blockbuster. Innovating on the implementation once you have a good idea for a product or service will also increase the effectiveness and should be incorporated to maximize every idea that goes through the innovation process.
Focus on Demand and Feed the Winners
Instead of just building new products for people to consume, it is becoming much more beneficial to go to the market or your customers directly, find out what they need, and then create it for them. Spending this extra time collecting data and even involving customers more in the innovation process will increase the efficiency and virtually guarantee success. Once you know what the customers want test the innovation and have the resources available to feed and implement the innovations that start gaining traction.
Make Sure That You Have a Plan for Implementation
Once your organization has gone through all of the effort to develop an innovative idea, make sure that you have a process to implement and follow-up. Where most businesses tend to waste most of their resources because of lack of planning, you can make sure that your innovation doesn't fail just when it's starting to really develop. Including implementation and follow-up components to your innovation process will make sure that the ideas that make it past the testing get fully evaluated and not just forgotten about.
