Innovation in business: how to rock the current market
Most organizations and their employees are guilty of neglecting or ignoring innovation.
Blocked by limited beliefs, they are always trying to play the safe card to avoid every single risk. Unaware they are ruled by fear.
Innovation in business is what you need to be competitive in the current market. However, there is a simple solution because you can start innovating, too.
Let’s talk about it.
A short story
When I was seven years old my dad got me a bike, a metallic blue bike with a high saddle, a high steer and hand brakes. I loved to bike around and as far away from home as possible.
Roaming the roads and dikes through the orchards and grassland while I ‘tested’ the quality of apples, plums, and pears.
Inhaling the fresh air with every cycle of my pedals while my skin got cherished by the sun of the late Dutch summer.
My older brother followed me soon, and so did our buddies from the neighborhood. Every now and then running for our lives to escape the justified wrath of a farmer we ‘visit’ at his property.
This urge to explore the unknown and to push the limits never disappeared. Just like the urge to understand the world.
That is how I learned to push the limits, and one of the revelations I discovered was that there are no limits at all but the limits we believe and feed our minds with.
YOUR OWN LIMITING BELIEfS ARE THE ONLY REAL BORDERS
Innovative input, invest in it
Innovation in business nowadays could come across a bit like a trendy fashion. Even look like a modern hype or a container concept.
But innovation is as ancient as humanity!
Unfortunately, the term becomes abused by people who try to pull up some clever tricks. Using this word masks the fact that they aren’t that innovative at all.
Yet, it is not that important.
What I know for sure is that your business innovation can be ineffective, a bit effective, more effective or very effective.
The more you fail, the better you will become. Failure is the best investment you bet your money on.
No matter your level of innovative output, I appreciate that you invest some innovative input. And you know, failure is good.
It’s far more valuable and effective than the most expensive study at the best academy you can find.
Innovation in business, why investing in it?
Why you should make innovation in business a priority is evident. It’s because change comes along so incredibly fast these days.
What back in the day took 11 years to change now changes in just 11 seconds! Mark my words, it will eventually be quicker.
And it’s not just the speed of change that increased. It’s also the number of changes that simultaneously increased big time.
The rise and fall of big brands. The change of our climate. The economic instability. The political crisis. The energy issues. The growing world population. Pollution, waste and environmental disasters.
The world never stops moving forward. Don’t let your business be left behind. Create!
Freshwater and sanitation. Decreasing availability of resources. Urbanization and connected challenges. The need for healthcare, education, and human rights. The refugee crisis in Europe, and so on.
For 50 years Toyota was a High Performance Organization, until a shocking incident in 2009. The gas pedal of a Lexus got stuck under the car mat while driving, causing the crash and death of the passengers.
Toyota called back millions of cars to solve the issue and took the repercussion costs just like any reputable company would do.
Nokia in 2012 still led the world market in mobile phones. One year later they were crushed by the competition. Yahoo for decades was an institution, now they vanished into oblivion.
At the same time brands like Apple, Google, Tesla, Uber, Airbnb, and Alibaba, entered the world stage out of nowhere. And they managed to be the strongest brands of the planet.
And why so? Because innovation in business is their motto.
Especially Alibaba celebrates record after record. On November 11 in 2015, they made 14,7 billion US Dollars in 24 hours. A nice day at the office.
Innovation in business: examples to get inspired by
While Volkswagen and Audi did the tricks with fraudulent software and Apple got a fine of 12 billion Euro’s for tax evasion, Tesla introduced not just the best, most fast accelerating, most safe and most clean business sedan ever.
They launched humanity into a new era of end-to-end products and services. While every Tesla overnight becomes better for free, through the software updates Tesla spread around constantly.
We can say that the concept of “innovation in business” that Tesla have is worth being taken as an example to follow.
Autonomous driving
And Tesla introduced another phenomenon: autonomous driving. Cars driving around on auto-pilot will soon operate without any human intervention.
When will this be a reality? Driver-less Volvo Uber cabs are already on the streets of Pennsylvania, the USA, which is soon to be followed by a 60 miles-long highway test location in the Netherlands.
Ecologically friendly
In the United Kingdom, lanes of special concrete are tested to re-power your car batteries. While you drive upon the lane, induction generates safe and clean energy.
Think outside the box. Don’t be afraid of taking risks. Find a necessity and cover it! That is innovate!
Humans will always outrun robots and computers
As scientific as it might be, never get intimidated by all this technological power play and rocket science. You and me, the human beings, still make the difference.
We, the people, will always outrun robots and computers in the areas we are unique at.
Why is that? Because robots and computers can only give the output we put in first.
Yet, every human can make a positive impact on innovation.
No matter what you’re good at, innovation needs you, and we need each other. Some people are good at the ideation, some are great at process management, and some are aces at time management and marketing.
So, collaborate, create synergies and keep new ideas alive. Never ever give up, there are always obstacles on the way to innovation.
Lick your wounds, slap the dust from your knees and keep going to push the limits! If you never innovated before, start now.
You may have to pull the plug on a certain project but it’s never the end of the journey.
Make innovation in business a major priority before your competition put you out of business.
What’s your view on innovation? Do you have any idea on how to be one of those innovative companies? Leave your opinion in the comments below!
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