Size Doesn’t Matter… In Innovation

March 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We tend to think of some of the biggest companies in the world as being the most innovative. That doesn’t have to be the case. Small businesses are changing industries with big ideas. Don’t ever think that you can’t change the world because your business isn’t big enough. Here are a few ways to inspire innovation in even the smallest companies.

1. Be Different On Purpose

If everyone in your industry seems to be doing things the same way, find a different way to do it. You will find new opportunities that wouldn’t have presented themselves otherwise and new problems to solve before anyone else can.

2. Embrace Change

Consumers love new and exciting ideas but as business owners, they terrify us. We have already found something that works and it could be extremely costly to change it now. Try to think about every change being an opportunity and create a culture that embraces change as often as it can happen.

3. Listen to Your Customers

Don’t ever assume your customers are happy just because they are still buying from you. Find out how happy they really are and then find out what would make them even more happy. Solving their problems is the first step to your next great idea.

4. Offer A Unique Service

You don’t have to invent something new to be innovative, you can offer something no one else is offering. Offer a service that satisfies your customers needs outside of just your main offer. Give your customers a unique experience and you’ll be innovative by any standard.

5. Get Your Idea Moving

Don’t sit on your idea. Get behind it and push! Push it out in front of your customers and the world. Do this before your competitors think of the same think and make their move before you.

Don’t ever let the size of your company prevent you from being innovative, the world could always use more great ideas.  What small companies would you consider innovative? Share in the comment box below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: How to Be More Innovative, Innovation For Small Businesses, Innovation Tips, Problem Solving Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Identifying The Innovation Blockade

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Innovation is all about turning opportunities into ideas and then forming those ideas into a plan can disrupt the industry or market you’re in. Coming up with an idea isn’t the hard part, coming up with an idea that can challenge the boundaries that most people are working under is and there are a few big obstacles that like to get in the way of making those ideas happen.

1. A lack of focus and an abundance of stress – You can’t really think about what you need to think about when you can’t stop thinking about everything else. That may sound redundant, but it makes perfect sense when you think about it. You need to be calm and collected enough to see the light at the end of the idea tunnel so you know exactly what to do to get there. Otherwise you end up thinking yourself into a labyrinth with no exit.

2. Tunnel vision on one product or service can limit your potential – You really need to look at your business, your industry, and the world from a holistic perspective. If you are only focussed on your new widget you won’t be able to think about how your widget can make a bigger dent in the bigger picture.

3. Assuming that your idea isn’t good enough or isn’t needed is a great way to waste your brilliance – If you ever hear a company say, “We don’t need any more ideas,” you are talking to a company with a dimly lit future that’s fading fast. You really do need to take the time to remove the ideas from your head and figure out what potential they really have. If you aren’t going to dedicate the time and energy it takes to do that, you mine as well stop trying.

Learn how to break down those barriers here.

Filed Under: How to Be More Innovative, Innovation Tips, Opportunity Tagged With: , , , , ,

How To Filter Your Search For Ideas

July 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As a leader in your organization you never ever want to miss a good idea.  You also rarely have the time to evaluate and separate everything you hear and see into the valuable and worthless categories they need to be in.  Information is streaming faster than anyone can comprehend, so how do we sort through it all without losing our minds?  You have to create a filter or several filters that let you find the best ideas and information based on your priorities and needs.

The best way to start is to get specific.  Telling your team that you want them to look for ideas to help the company is too broad a mission statement.  Try to target one area that needs to improve the most.  From there you can break it down in to problem areas and areas that have a lot of room for improvement.  Decide on whether you need a solution or an idea before you begin the hunt and make sure everyone is clear on the specific goal.

To create a mental filter based on what is most important you need to identify your top priorities.  Think about what problem needs to be solved to free up your time and/or other resources.  Let your team/employees know that that finding a solution or idea is a priority.  You will then have several different sets of eyes and minds sorting through the information highway to find the best idea or solution. You can also use tools like Google Alerts to help target the information you are looking for based on keywords.

Once you use your resources to narrow down your search you have to start doing some of the thinking.  You may have 20 different solutions for the same problem the difference, like with anything, is in the context.  The next think you have to do if find out which of those situations is most similar to yours.  For example, you might not be able to use an idea or solution form a huge corporation if you only have three people working for you.  You also need to consider your time restrictions.  If you don’t have a the time to make one of the ideas work move on to the next one.

Filtering applies to any information source you come across, even your personal ideas.  Most people don’t have the time to really explore every idea that presents itself so it helps to have a way to narrow down your search.

 

For more business and innovation tips and ideas you can follow me on Twitter and connect with me on Facebook.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Ideas, Innovation Tips, Leadership, Managing Creativity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

10 Top Tips To Innovation

July 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I found a great and simple presentation with some good tips for innovation.  It points out some of the most important ideas and rules to follow when it comes to innovating and running an innovative company.  If you have more tips on how to innovate or how to get the innovation flow going feel free to share them here or through Facebook and Twitter.



10 Lessons of Innovation – Idris Mootee Keynote
View more presentations from Idris Mootee

Filed Under: Innovation Tips Tagged With: , , , ,
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