Ideas and innovation are the lifelines of every successful business. Without them, a business will be vulnerable to changing consumer taste and preferences as well as competition. There’s a tendency for small businesses to take their foot off the pedal in this area as the business grows. In this post, we will examine how you can continue to drive innovation as you take the business to greater heights.
1. Birds of a feather flock together
While job competence is important in hiring employees, you’ll need to look beyond the business’ immediate needs. To this end, it is critical you have in the company a group of employees flowing with ideas. It might be one or two; the figure doesn’t matter. There are selection criteria you can use to identify such employees.
2. Make innovation visible
When everyone is surrounded at work by innovation, for example, a 3-D printer or AR/VR capabilities, it’s easy to inspire innovation. For example, they can see the benefits of technology applied appropriately at work. This may cascade down to customers. Employees may be motivated to work on innovative products and services to better serve them.
3. Make research a way of life at work
It’s easy to get stuck in the treadmill of everyday work. Lots of doing, little thinking, if any, happens. This isn’t conducive for innovation. To avoid this ‘trap’, encourage employees to research for best practices, new ideas or emerging trends of relevance to the business and customers.
4. Reward innovation effort
Not every idea will be a winner on the runaway of corporate success. It can be disheartening when months or years of work are poorly received. Instead of encouraging innovation, it dampens the spirit. It might eventually kill the culture of innovation. To prevent this from happening, reward the effort. It serves as an acknowledgement of the attempt to make things better or different where it matters.
Change is the only certainty in business. An innovation drive in the company ensures you will not be swept by the tide of change. Speak to us today to learn more about small business innovation.
