What comes to mind when you hear ‘corporate innovation success’? It is defined in the business dictionary as processes aimed at the implementation of innovative ideas. These efforts help organizations advance their existing business models.
It’s all about growth and expansion at the end of the day. With technology becoming essential at every stage, innovation has become inevitable. Businesses must bring their A-game if they are to succeed and maintain a position in the market for years and generations to come!
Startup vs Corporate Innovation
The main difference between the two is the variation in scale. Large organizations are looking to stir up a somewhat bigger innovation that has meaning and goes beyond certain limitations set by startups. In most startups, the scale of innovation may not be as far-reaching owing to many factors, and it is usually carried out on an individual level.
Why Is It Necessary?
Corporate innovation has gained much acclaim in recent years and has been debated time and again. The digital age has made innovation an accelerated phenomenon. Technological advancements have become commonplace, and these changes have led to far greater competition between enterprises.
With innovation, it’s easy for entrepreneurs to penetrate the market, but this has not remained easy for corporations. Their long-held beliefs and traditions have become a hindrance to change. Hence, corporate innovation is an absolute necessity.
Corporations cannot afford to lag behind in a market as technologically driven as this. In order to maintain a competitive edge and survive shoulder to shoulder with these fancy startups, innovation is inevitable. It’s time organizations come to realize what they could be losing if they failed to innovate in time.
Tips to Ensure Corporate Innovation Success
Tip #1. Decide on How to Spend Rather Than How Much
Corporate innovation is a much-needed phenomenon for both large and small enterprises, but there has been no statistical evidence on the relationship between the financial performance of a business and the expenditure dedicated to innovation. Thus, clearly, it’s not about how much you spend but how rationally and wisely this money is spent.
Resources are essential, but it’s not impossible to achieve more with less. The ideal way to decide how to spend your money can be achieved through models, new or existing. These various models comprise design thinking, open innovation, and co-creation with the various stakeholders – customers, suppliers, and partners.
Simple Tips for Fitness Success at Home
Tip #2. Build a Culture of Intrapreneurship
In order to build such a culture, you must allow employees the freedom to experiment and support them. Intrapreneurship is an essential ingredient in all enterprises, and it becomes all the more significant for corporate innovation to be successful.
Without delegation, no organization can hope to achieve the mountain of tasks that lie ahead of them. Innovation is a dynamic process which requires a substantial number of ideas to be executed. These are then screened, and a final, refined idea is worked upon. Hence, let your soldiers experiment their ways into numerous ideas, and you’ll ace the process of innovation.
Tip #3. Consider Small, Manageable Markets
Corporations can learn from startups and borrow some practices and principles from startups. It is, hence, imperative to think small. Corporations were established using smaller ideas with processes that can be executed. They have achieved all of the acclaim and popularity over time. This applies equally to innovations, no matter how small or big!
Thus, initiate corporate innovation by thinking and working small. Your innovation will grow and become more valuable though the process is slow and tedious. Let’s take the example of Apple. It all began with a small space in a garage, and how much is the company worth today? On the other hand, overnight success can be temporary and quick to come and go.
Tip #4. Select the Best Team to Support You
You need to build a team that is well-connected and close-knit. Innovation teams must always work together. You cannot afford to single out any innovator from the network; it’s all about combined effort.
Not only will this team support you, but there will also be a larger pool of ideas, skills, and knowledge. These team members will have networks of their own that you could potentially use to your advantage. Relationships are fundamental as they can get you the support and resources you need.
Tip #5. Choose a Charismatic Leader
Once the team has been decided, it’s time to choose a leader! Teams can be easily misguided and broken up unless there is some known and credible authority they look up to. Leadership is vital for innovation teams and their ultimate success.
Picking a leader is another critical decision. You cannot ask any one team member based on qualification or experience to lead. Leadership is granted to one who is charismatic, has leadership qualities, is liked and accepted by other team members and can shoulder a responsibility as huge and rewarding as this.
Tip #6. Find Storytellers
The quality of an idea is vital but so is how well it is being communicated. Thus, you need a storyteller – people who can think big, create ideas, convey them and make them seem achievable. These people are apt at explaining problems and finding feasible solutions. They are convincing and persuasive.
These storytellers will do great with the aid of social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Innovation can be successful if the storyteller is capable of convincing the audience that dreams are more than just illusions and how exactly they could be attained.
Tip #7. Use Evidence-Based Ideas
It is straightforward, and a tip that needs to be taken seriously. Guesswork is old-school now that business analytics and business models have become prevalent. Thus, base your decision on evidence. This will save you time and effort that you’d otherwise spend trying to make hunches to achieve a certain result.
Evidence-based decisions will direct you to the output that makes most sense. If you follow the evidence properly, you can alter your direction according to your learnings. It will even allow you to stop before you fail terribly, so exercise patience and use evidence to make informed decisions.
Tip #8. Empower Your Employees/Team Members
This is yet another fundamental aspect that leads to successful corporate innovation. Without empowered team members, innovation is more like a one-man show.
Innovation is led by teams, and these team members should have the power to put forth ideas, expertise, and solutions. If you do not value your team members to make critical decisions, you may not be able to cultivate a culture of innovation. Each member has something distinctive to contribute to the overall idea, so allow them this opportunity.
Tip #9. Use Dynamic Budgeting
Dynamic budgeting takes us back to the first innovation success tip. Kick-start your idea with a small amount and invest more as and when required. Unless you have found the right direction while working on the initial idea, investing more than the required amount is too extravagant.
As soon as you lower the initial investment, the cost of innovation will be reduced. Hence, no capital remains tied up in an idea that could turn out to be the opposite of successful, and this resource could be freed up for your use.
Tip #10. Set Goals and Measure Progress
No innovation is successful without a set of goals and measures to govern them. Don’t skip this essential step. There is no point in working if there are no predefined goals to achieve. This is the necessary first step of any innovation. All team members require a common sense of purpose and focus; these goals will help them achieve the two.
Moreover, after each phase, make sure to evaluate your performance using different progress measures. If you don’t monitor performance, your team could end up achieving less than what was expected or achieving something other than the predefined goal. Both of these outcomes are not desirable. Hence, have your goals in place, dictate them to all members and measure progress during each stage.
Conclusion
In the end, it’s worth mentioning that in order to achieve successful corporate innovation, the choice of your team is paramount. The quality, expertise, and ideas that people can bring to the table are unmatched. Individual innovations are undoubtedly successful, but the probability of this happening is far lower than one would otherwise expect.
Organizations have a lot to learn from startup innovation. It’s the digital age after all, and startups have come to realize that technology is the optimal tool that can drive greater sales, profits, and innovations.
