INNOVATION IS THE NAME OF THE GAME

When the power within an organisation is wielded intelligently, innovation flourishes, often leading to ground-breaking ideas and positive change. SARAH KENNARD discovers which techniques to implement for a more innovative approach in your business.

Innovation is the creative process, application and successful exploitation of an idea and is vital to the success of any business. So, while no idea is necessarily an original one, how it is manipulated to suit your business, can be. If Apple Corp. had not innovated, there would be no iPhones and without an innovative approach, Microsoft would never have given the world Windows operating systems. Even going further back in time, if manufacturers had stopped innovating, we would all still be driving Model Ts and calling each other on brick phones that need operator assistance.

Often just one innovative and revolutionary idea can turn an industry on its head; think AirBnB which has disrupted and reinvented the hospitality industry or Uber which is reinventing the road transport. But it is usually the combination of the little things that a business owner or CEO does, or stops doing, that brings about its ability to truly be innovative.

Through research for this article, it became quite obvious that what sets the superstars of innovation apart is not just creativity and brilliant ideas. While Nikola Tesla, the Serbian engineering genius, may have been more brilliant than Thomas Edison, it was Edison who had huge successes that changed the world, while Tesla died penniless. What Edison, along with many current success stories seems to have had in more abundance, is a combination of strengths from powerful connections with other leaders and a healthy network, skills needed to lead and, perhaps most important, an ever-growing record of making big new things happen.

So how can you be more innovative when it comes to your business? Here are some of the techniques adopted by some of the most successful businesses.

It starts at the top

A good CEO or manager knows that to sustain meaningful success and growth, forwardthinking and innovative processes and policies need to be introduced and implemented. In other words, look at the big picture not just what’s needed in the short term: a long-term vision over a short-term gain or quick fix.

Intrapreneurship

A good leader knows that he or she is only as good as the people who surround them. Intrapreneurship inspires every individual employee to think like an entrepreneur, encouraging risk-taking and giving a more powerful platform to their ideas. In this environment, creativity will breed because employees who work with the mindset of an entrepreneur will utilise all resources when problem-solving and will bring out-of-the-box and industry-disruptive ideas to the table.

Brainstorm through rabbit holes

If two heads are better than one, then brainstorming is the obvious step to the creative process which leads to an innovative idea. But while it may be a prevailing technique, the loose format of open brainstorming does not necessarily translate into a game-changing idea, because, ironically, people need a little bit of structure to think outside of the box.

Instead of keeping the session on topic, encourage your team to go off track and down different 'rabbit holes' to address high-level problems or questions.

INNOVATION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOW MANY R&D DOLLARS YOU HAVE. IT'S NOT ABOUT MONEY. IT'S ABOUT THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE, HOW YOU'RE LED, AND HOW MUCH YOU GET IT. — STEVE JOBS

Non-traditional approaches

Innovation calls for creativity and risktaking, in other words a less traditional approach and a new way of thinking. Cue negative (or reverse) brainstorming, where those participating discuss ways to cause a problem rather than looking for ways to solve it, reversing the problem statement and dissecting those ideas as a result of this approach.

Idea 101

Coming up with ideas is already hard, coming up with good ones is even more of a challenge. A tried and tested technique to encourage a freer flow of ideas and thoughts is to challenge a brainstorming session to making a list of over 100 ideas. As the focus moves towards quantity over quality and the pressure to come up trumps eases off, your thinking becomes less inhibited and often yields a germ of a great idea.

Strategise

Develop an innovation strategy detailing how you will improve your products or services, your processes, your marketing strategy, your business model and your supply chain. Then keep it up to date.

Imitation is a form of flattery

Most often the best ideas for innovation come not from your own industry but from other industries around you. Interestingly Henry Ford got the idea of his famous moving assembly line from the meat processing industry, changing the dynamics of automobile industry. Always be open to ideas taking shape around you – while no idea is original any more, how you manipulate or edit it can determine a new source of business or an improved one.

Invest

If people are your capital, then this is where you invest heavily as well as in services and tools which will improve your competitiveness like information and communications technology.

Successful survival in the competitive environment of the 21st century depends on several elements. But suffice to say that developing and offering a new product and services simply isn’t enough to survive. In today’s new world, companies are also having to modify or completely redesign their entire business model to create more competitive advantages and experiences to offer their clients.

Ultimately there is no substitute for hard work and no magic in innovation — it comes through combined sustained efforts and thinking, and happens when cultural mindset is tuned to finding solutions to problems in a creative way. M

Sarah is a public relations consultant and magazine editor who spends too much time looking up recipes. An avid reader and summer worshipper, Sarah survives the winter months by escaping to Gozo as often as she can.