Innovation from the organization’s perspective

We’re pretty sure you’re constantly hearing about innovation at every step these days. It’s what keeps our mind busy finding out the right framework to innovation, to bring out the most original and unique ways of solving different concepts from our day to day routine. The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay, or, more simply put, innovation means coming up with new ways of doing things. It can mean a single major breakthrough (e.g. a totally new product or service) but it can also be a series of small, incremental changes and it’s never a single event. It’s a process of discovery, engineering and transformation.

Fundamentally, innovation means introducing something new into your business. This could be:

• improving or replacing business processes to increase efficiency and productivity, or to enable the business to extend the range or quality of existing products and/or services
• developing entirely new and improved products and services
• adding value to existing products, services or markets to differentiate the business from its competitors and increase the perceived value to the customers and markets

At this stage we know that every organization needs to innovate because conditions change over time. It really doesn’t matter whether you’re a profit-seeker type of business, an NGO or a government type of entity. The simple truth is that everything is changing extremely fast nowadays and eventually, every business model fails. This is why it has to be ready to embrace change and manage not for stability, but for disruption.

Successful innovation should be an in-built part of your business strategy, where you create a culture of innovation and lead the way in innovative thinking and creative problem solving.

Remember, innovation is the key to competitive advantage for your business.