What is the difference between Apple and Amazon and other wildly successful companies? Do they have a secret formula of some kind that simply breeds success? Is it their founders and their philosophy? It may be a combination of those things, but above all else it is that innovation is at the core of their operations.
What does this look like? Is it some kind of accident, or just related to great leaders who head the company? It is not. Innovation is at the core of operations because it is intentionally created. The good news is, you can do the same for your business and your team of employees.
Understand and Adopt Patterns of Innovation
There are many ways to innovate, and it does not always mean coming up with a new, astounding product like an iPhone or a Kindle. Sometimes it means augmenting an existing product with additional features that add value.
Gathering Data
With modern technology, you can gather data from both your products and the way your customers use them. This information can be used to improve design, operations, maintenance, and repair of your products. SitSite (SIT) puts it perfectly: “[Innovation] starts with an existing product and its characteristics rather than looking at the customer and their unmet needs.”
Service companies can also use this technology, like Progressive auto insurance and their “Snapshot” device, which gathers data about customer driving patterns, and rewards good drivers who obey speed limits and traffic laws.
Digitizing Assets
From music to the publishing industry, many industries have been disrupted by the innovation of digitizing assets. This is not just for these industries though. Museums are doing virtual exhibits with digital representations of their physical objects, resulting in thousands of more visitors and huge donations.
Digitization of records, from medical records to other industry files is another innovation that is improving accessibility and efficiency. This results in patients and customers having more choices and speeds up care and service.
The business of digitizing assets is another industry in and of itself. Companies need help making this transition, and an entire industry has sprung up to help them do it.
Big Data
All of that data that customers share through their devices, their behaviors, social media, and other means is most useful when it is gathered and used. The innovative and disruptive nature of this should not be discounted in and of itself. Social listening can transform your marketing efforts when combined with the right data.
However, the real innovation comes when this data is combined and shared within and across industries. An airline may have data that will help a restaurant transform their operations. Some companies have even come to agreements where they will trade data with each other.
The use of big data is no longer a new development, but how it is being used will continue to evolve, and your company can use this too.
Selling Processes
Any process that is the best in the industry but not core to a company’s competitive advantage can be systemized, packaged, and sold to other companies. Perhaps a system you are using internally to reduce your own costs would be of interest to other companies, and you can sell it to them.
In effect, this creates a new stream of revenue for you and your company while at the same time allows you to have a large influence on the industry.
Develop a Culture of Innovation
What does a culture of innovation look like? It means that you are giving everyone in your organization honest feedback coupled with suggestions on how to improve on all of your products, services, and internal processes.
Good Ideas
This means you must be open to ideas. Certainly not all ideas will make it through the ideation process to implementation, but to find the best ideas, you must be open to listening to ones that are even in their infancy.
Letting every employee and even customers contribute will give you a plethora of good ideas to work with.
Good Solutions
Taking these good ideas a step further, you get good solutions. These innovative solutions are ones you would never have gotten without a culture of open feedback. These solutions can be about anything, from how to handle payroll and benefits you offer employees to new product ideas and innovations of current ones.
Real Business Impact
These solutions in turn create a real impact on your business, from employee retention to increased profits. These ideas and solutions have risen from your culture of innovation.
This culture begins in leadership. As Steve Jobs, founder of Apple said, “Innovation is what sets apart a leader from a follower.” You must propagate this culture for it to work in your company, and you too must be willing to change and innovate.
Allow for Misunderstandings and Failure
“You have to be willing to be misunderstood to innovate,” said Jeff Bezos of Amazon. This is true of any innovation. Think of how the eBook and the Kindle threatened the publishing industry. The very books that got Bezos his start were being transformed, but the company and Bezos were willing to be misunderstood and disrupt their industry before anyone else did.
Failure is a normal part of innovation. Amazon had the Fire phone, a flop that was seen as too gimmicky, and quickly disappeared. Many other companies have had similar failures, including Samsung, Microsoft, and Apple.
The key is that they learned what did not work from failed innovation, and moved on to the next one.
Innovation as a Habit
Old information says that it takes 21 days to build a habit. New research says it takes closer to 66 days, Gary Keller tells us in his book, The One Thing. It can take even longer if the task is harder to master. This means this transition to a culture of innovation and feedback will take longer than you think.
However, developing this habit in you and your employees will transform your business and have a real impact. Understand the patterns of innovation, welcome feedback and ideas, and welcome failure as a sign of effort, and that innovation will be at the core of your operations.
