The Power of Innovation in Business

The global economy is going through accelerated change interlaced with increasing complexity. The explosion of new technologies and new players in virtually every arena of human endeavour ensures that your business must either innovate or die.

There are three core principles for innovation that you as a business owner or team leader (if you are in a larger sized business) should actively embrace if you want your business to thrive. I call these the I.C.E Principles, which stand for:

a) Ideas Generation

b) Culture and Environment

c) Execution Process

Ideas Generation:

You need a regular infusion of new ideas into your business to keep you on the cutting edge of your nicheor industry. Continuing to do the same things in the same way with the same mindset is a recipe for failure.

When I speak to clients, one of the questions I regularly ask is, "how many new ideas have you implemented successfully in your business or department in the last 6 months?" oftentimes, the response is "none," "I don't know" and occasionally, "too many." Each of these responses reflect a particular problem of poor quality ideas-generation.

So, let me ask, "how do you produce innovative ideas that help transform your business?"

It is important to establish a process that helps generate a profusion of new ideas regularly, evaluate them effectively and select the right ones for your business carefully.

Some ways to source new ideas include events such as exhibitions, industry trade shows and magazines, mastermind groups and subscription to internet services (blogs, e-zines, newsletters) from innovative thought leaders in your sector.

I would also encourage spreading your net wide, beyond your own particular niche for ideas shaping other sectors. Whilst those ideas may not directly affect your own business at present, they may contain some little element that may be the solution to the problems you are facing in your business.

For example, when Formula One racing car manufacturers sought ideas for developing more effective braking systems for their high performance cars, they looked outside their own industry to aviation. They studied the braking systems used in aeroplanes and adapted this to their cars.

Culture and Environment:

Innovation involves an element of risk. As a business owner, you have to accept that mistakes are an inevitable part of innovation. Most people recognise Apple as a leader in innovation because of their IPads, IPods, Apple Mac etc. but they do not know of the many failures that Apple technicians, scientists and executives had to endure on their journey to produce their industry-defining appliances.

As a leader in your business, you need to cultivate and maintain a healthy disposition to the mistakes that are inevitable in the pursuit of progress and business success.

You cannot beat yourself over the head always, simply because something you tried did not work. And you should not penalise your team either just because they failed in some attempt to innovate. It is the responsibility of the leader in the team and business to cultivate an environment and a pervasive culture of excitement about innovation where you are not afraid to fail. In such an environment, you and the team learn to fail forward, accepting that occasional setbacks are the non-negotiable price you pay in the pursuit of excellence and growth.

Execution Process:

For some businesses, the problem is not so much that of generating ideas or having an environment that stifles creativity or innovation. Their problem is that of execution. They simply have not developed the processes and capacity to bring their many ideas to successful completion. As a result, they flit from idea to idea, chasing fads and end up with a team of disgruntled staff and stakeholders who are fatigued from the never-ending saga of failed change agendas.

The solution is to develop a strong and objective idea selection process that identify the good ones that are the right fit for where your business is right now and which can produce the fastest positive business impact in the fulfilment of your strategic business objectives.

You also need to develop the capacity for speed of execution. Procrastination is a slow-acting poison that kills the seed of great ideas. This procrastination may be disguised as bureaucracy in larger organisations.

Essentially, once the decision is made, that the idea is right for the business, why delay? If you don't have the capacity in-house to work on the idea, bring in external resources such as project managers or outsourcing partners to help you implement the idea.

Speed of execution of ideas can be the defining factor in your business surging ahead of your competition or you as an individual becoming the acknowledged leader in your niche.

For example, I have a friend who is an exceptional teacher who has produced dramatic results in the children she has taught in several tough inner-city schools in London.

For a long time, she has deferred writing her book, distilling her wisdom and insights for the benefit of the many tens of thousands of parents who need her information. Publishing her book would very likely catapult her into a new realm of success in her chosen profession (or business) of teaching but unfortunately the book still remains buried in the recesses of her mind.

I would highly recommend you cultivate the above ICE principles in your business and allow them to galvanise innovation as part of your tool kit for business growth.

Here's to your accelerated success...

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