In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, innovation is key to standing out. Although some small business owners may believe that their industries do not need a revolution, a myriad of successful companies emerged due to their leaders turning their stale sectors on their heads. In this guide, we’ve explored how cultivating a culture of out-of-the-box thinking can be the key to staying competitive.
Understanding the Value of Innovative Thinking
Before discussing innovation strategies, it’s important to understand why out-of-the-box thinking is important. Although these ideas may seem counter-intuitive, they can often lead to more efficient processes, unique products, and creative solutions to complex problems. Ultimately, this will lead to greater employee and customer satisfaction and, in the best-case scenario, market dominance.
This approach has led to many exciting innovations in start-up culture, medicine, technology, and entertainment. For example, one successful start-up innovation is Peloton, which combined tried-and-tested exercise bikes with live-streamed workout classes. Another is the new slingo games, which combined online slots with bingo. In both cases, the merging of two concepts has been immensely popular with users, turning something familiar into something fresh and new.
Creating an Environment That Nurtures Creativity
One of the most important things to remember when developing an innovation strategy is that the employee’s ideas are priceless. Their collective observations are gold to identify the company’s unique strengths and areas of improvement, so it’s important to create an environment where employees are encouraged to be creative.
Innovation-minded employers should create channels for open dialogue, whether through regular brainstorming sessions, a suggestion box, or online discussion boards. One popular company to do this was the Scottish brewery Brewdog, which encourages employees at all levels to contribute ideas. This has led to some of their most successful beverage creations and business strategies.
Implementing Innovation-Boosting Practices
Once a creative environment is established, consider implementing specific practices to boost innovation. This could be through workshops or challenges that encourage employees to come up with solutions to specific business problems. Retail giant John Lewis regularly holds internal innovation competitions through its JLAB program, collaborating with internal and external businesses to enhance their offerings.
Often, the biggest innovations have come from newcomers to a field using insights gathered from experience in a completely different field. Therefore, employers could encourage cross-training programs to allow employees to spend time in different departments. Alternatively, guest speakers could be brought in, exposing employees to new perspectives.
Overcoming Barriers to Innovation
Depending on the size of a business, there will always be barriers to innovation. This could be down to limited resources, internal resistance, or short-term planning. These can be managed by allocating resources and budget to innovation initiatives from the outset, communicating these with staff, and balancing short-term goals with long-term vision.
Measuring the Impact of Innovation
To gauge whether the efforts are working, establish metrics to measure the impact of the innovation initiatives. This could include tracking the number of new ideas created or tested, customer satisfaction ratings, revenue generation, and employee engagement. Continue to research competitors and businesses thriving in other sectors to maintain inspiration.
Innovation in Action
By fostering out-of-the-box thinking, a company will prove its commitment to growth and improvement. As long as employees have an environment that harbours creativity, they can be proactively engaged in the process of change. Through innovative practices, a company could find success beyond its wildest dreams.