Fostering
a culture of innovation and creativity in business can help one stay a
step ahead of competitors, by ensuring that products and services remain
up to date and in line with what customers need. Innovative businesses
often have strong, inspirational leaders and management and well-trained
and motivated employees. These businesses maintain a culture of
innovation, constantly looking at every aspect of the organization and
not just its products and services.
In
today’s business environment, it is difficult for businesses to
outgrow, out market, or out price the competition but driving innovation
while implementing continuous improvement will help businesses stand
out from the competition. Every business wants to innovate, even if it
is not on the same level as Apple or Google. Innovation has to have a
purpose. That’s exactly what Apple has been doing, and its devotion to
designing new customer experiences centered on technology has
contributed to a 1,300 percent rise in its stock price in the past 10
years and a market capitalization that exceeds that of Microsoft. Apple
keeps innovating because it has deliberately fashioned a culture of
innovation. The company’s steadfastness to design and innovate is built
into its DNA and that enables it to promote, conceive and implement
revolutionary ideas and remain in a continuous state of reinvention.
Business
innovation now a day’s does not only mean making the product
development better but it also means that companies should keep
reinventing themselves in ways, that the internal and external customers
goodwill towards the company increases. Research has found that
companies that do the best in a tough economy are those that innovate
and are open to outside ideas. The power of the crowd innovation is
being utilized by many businesses and many companies are doing
efficiently by outsourcing their first line support and service function
to the crowd. Air New Zealand’s Aviation Design Academy for example,
set out to design the best long-haul flying experience. Passengers were
asked to design parts of the flying experience on their new 777-300
aircraft – the cocktail, in-flight food, eye mask and one “freeform”
idea.
The
winners had the opportunity to take a flight from Auckland to London to
sample the implementation of their ideas. The competition attracted
huge number of entries and generated more interest in Air New Zealand’s
marketing initiative.
In many cases, CEOs see collaboration as
key to their success with innovation. They know they cannot do it all
using internal resources. So they look outside for other organizations
to partner with. True innovation requires someone who can visualize the
possibilities of an idea generation and who has the ability and tenacity
to successfully implement it. With successful idea management services,
organizations can blend the strengths with various feedbacks as a means
to encourage a culture of innovation. This way the best idea is most
likely to successfully beat completion in the market.