Innovation Process |Right kind of innovation | not all changes are innovative

Innovation Process |Right kind of Innovation | not all changes are Innovative

The right kind of innovation is what forward ever companies are doing that stagnant companies are not doing. The fact that things change does not mean they are innovative. In fact some changes are anti-innovative in nature. A lot of small business owners try so hard to be disruptive just for the sake of being disruptive without any strategic map. The idea behind this piece is to state the right innovation processes and to distinguish between mere changes are changes with the true sense of innovation.

5 steps to being innovative

Depending on whom you are talking to, the five steps below encompass the right kind of innovation.

1. Invite all stakeholders for idea generation: this is the first step in any innovation process and the idea behind this step is to brain storm on the existing processes. If done correctly, this will serve as both pressures to compete and excel.
2. Establish dimensions that need to be innovated: the direct implication of brainstorming is that there will be influx of ideas and those ideas will come in different dimensions. The second stage in the innovation process is that these different dimensions will have to be established and evaluated in the light of other available information. You can employ the ideas in this strategic information gathering article.
3. Choose those dimensions that will add real value toward achieving the set objectives of the company: here, proposal appraisal tools will have to be used to evaluate what dimensions to follow so as to achieve the long term goal of the organization. This will be done to include both financial and non financial factors. A company in rural area with poor infrastructure for example would not be thinking of adopting same strategy as a company operating from a high tech hub.
4. Implement: this is the bread and butter of any innovation process. Without action even the best ideas will still remain ideas. Qualified hands should be deployed to ensure that the chosen dimensions are properly executed.
5. Review and monitor: the need to review and monitor in the innovation process cannot be over emphasized. Errors and oversights are easily discovered during review and feedback stage.

Possible scope of innovation

Innovation process can be applied to virtually any facet of business, so feel free to let your imagination fly. Someone once said that ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world’. In as much as the aforementioned quote is very much valid, companies being bound by limited resources have limit to areas they can really innovate in and not simply changing things for the sake of doing so.

• Services
• Products
• Management style
• HR management
• IT management
• Security
• Marketing

Benefits of innovation

The correct kind of innovation comes with its own reward. Below are some of the benefits that come with following the correct innovation processes.

• Streamlining of activities
• Improving bottom line of a company
• Improving brand equity
• Having motivated workforce

Implications of bad innovations

Just like there are benefits coming from following the correct innovation processes, there are also downsides to wrongly doing innovations. These are lists of things that could easily go wrong.

• Low staff moral
• Damage of reputation
• Possible expensive lawsuits
• Could lead to bankruptcy and insolvency
• Loss of customer loyalty
• Cyber attack i.e weak cybersecurity