A guide to cultivating innovation

Lack of innovation will kill your business

Fostering innovation will:

• Ensure your business lasts and thrives
• Create a community of die-hard fans
• Boost sales across all products or services

Here’s a guide to cultivating innovation

The benefits of innovation are clear

• Be the market leader
• First mover advantage
• Set the standard for the category
• All your other products and services get a sales boost

Lack of innovation has killed lots of businesses

• Kodak
• Blockbuster
• Nokia
• BlackBerry

Successful businesses have an offering that makes sense

It’s focused and aligned with their mission

They have one area where they are pushing the boundaries

Examples of brands that utilising the power of innovation

• Mercedes – F1

• Samsung – folding phone

• Apple – iPhone, iPad

• Adidas – Yeezy

But the success of these great products doesn’t come without some failures.

• Samsung Note 7 kept exploding – they were pushing battery tech

• Google+ Their go at social media – disaster

• Apple’s AirPower charger

How can businesses foster innovation?

Try things out – have a culture of failure

Connect with the different demographics in the customer base

The hardcore fans are the people pushing and experimenting – use them

Services based businesses

• Be the insider in the industry
• Focus on the pursuit of knowledge
• Fuse parts of your offering
• Use every opportunity to try out new things you have learnt
• Experiment with process and delivery – Not everything has to be revolutionary

Product based businesses

• Enter competitions – outside briefs can keep you fresh
• Create new models that push the boundaries
• Collaborate with other businesses on product ranges
• Create a community of customers – welcome them into your brand

Take-aways

• Throw yourself in

• Test, Test, Test

• Innovate on any scale big or small