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: , , , , ,

What Should Your Product Learn From Nature

October 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Biomimicry, in short, is taking tips from nature to improve your products.  I found this video very interesting, especially if you are interested in sustainability. I think you could even take this a little further and look back at innovators like DaVinci who modeled his flying machine after animals who could fly.  People have always done this, it’s just a matter of doing it more often that will really result in progress.  What inventions or innovations can you think of that have been modeled after a living thing? Share in the comment box below.  You can also share your thoughts with me on Facebook and  Twitter.

 

 

Filed Under: biomimicry, sustainability, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Be Your Company’s Steve Jobs

August 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Steve Jobs has been brave enough to give the people what they wanted, whether they knew they wanted it or not.  He dedicated his time with Apple to finding solutions before there was ever a problem and offering their customers more than they ever thought they could have and it did it all for Apple.   Are you doing this for your company?

Steve Jobs represents an ethos that is core to Apple’s culture. He, as an idea, is a simple one. It’s all about building amazing, intuitive, life-changing products that people love. To embody this principle, Apple doesn’t need Jobs. It can live on through the shared vision of Apple’s talented people who deeply care and are dedicated to creating greatness. As long as that culture continues to thrive in Cupertino, Apple will be fine.

That said, it’s also a culture other companies would be well-served to have. As MarketWatch reporter Brett Arends wrote last night, “What Apple has achieved isn’t impossible. Why don’t more companies do it?”

“Apple will be fine without Steve Jobs. Because Steve Jobs isn’t just a CEO, he’s an idea and an idea that all companies should embrace.” Read More

For more articles, tips and conversation connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

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

7 Ways Innovation Can Go Wrong

July 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The road to innovation is covered with distractions, detours, and dead ends.  Luckily it is usually worth all of the effort it takes to make it to your destination.  Knowing about the obstacles ahead of time is your best chance to avoid them.  Here are ten things that can turn your innovation in to a disaster.

1. If you don’t know where you are going you probably aren’t going to get there anytime soon.  The same goes for innovation.  Knowing the exact goal is essential for successful innovation.  Otherwise you may be coming up with great ideas that are doing you or your customers any good.

2. The same people are working hard to come up with the same ideas.  Your ‘creative’ team is scheduled to come up with ideas at the end of the day after their brains are fried.  They interact in the same way to come up with the same ideas in different packaging.  Mix things up with your team as much as you can to get fresh new ideas.

3.  You are paying too much attention to your industry and not enough attention to your market.  Being competitive is good but sometimes your new ideas come from your need to match your competitor.  Then your product starts to look pretty similar to everyone else’s.  Instead you should pay more attention to your target market and their needs so you can come up with ideas that will help improve your business.

4. Your brainstorming session includes an abundance of bosses and type A personalities.  Your most creative and least heard ideas often come from the more introverted personalities.  If you fill a room with people who all want to take the lead you will probably not hear the ideas that could be most valuable.

5. You get lost in sticky notes.  No one has been keeping track of the different ideas and the ideas that spawned from each of those ideas.  So when you return to look at a wall full of sticky notes you have no idea what track you were on or how to pick up where you left off.

6. The management doesn’t like to be too risky.  Knowing that your ideas are going to get shot down before you even can tell the big boss about them will put a damper and a block on your team.  You can’t be an innovative company if you are too scared to take a risk.

7. Your ideas have to go through too many people before they get to the top. Your product inventors have to pass their idea to the product developers who change it and give it to their boss before it finally gets to the decision maker.  By that point it is a completely different idea and it probably doesn’t have the same value and use as the original.

Filed Under: Innovation Tips Tagged With: , , ,
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