By Clive M. Siachiyako
Why innovate
Innovation is one of the drivers of corporate reputation. Innovation enhances product and service quality. It improves your work environment, your proactiveness to client needs, and efficiency as well as placing your institution above board. When you innovate, you are setting the trend in your specialty. You are bettering your operations to meet the market expectations.
If you do not innovate you will ‘die’ because today’s business is like a wagging war and victory is short-lived. Sustaining a position in the consumers’ mind is an on-going battle and victory can be snatched away within the blink of an eye if you relax and slacken. Players entering your area of specialty are many. Some of them enter the market with well thought and creative products/services which may push you off the market grip you would have been enjoying. You cannot risk treading that path. You need to keep on improving. Do not depend on your past glory.
The continuous battle for the top-spot has forced institutions to constantly innovate. Very few institutions are successful in sustaining their dominant position and those that do; are continuously innovating. They have the courage to attack their own position in the market. They monitor and evaluate their position and adjust where they are performing badly to maintain their grip of the market share and keep on improving where they are doing well.
Innovating improves your service/product quality and your corporate reputation. A good corporate reputation comes with financial and public good-will benefits. For instance, a training institution with a good corporate status has an increasing inflow of students for its programmes. It may have to send some of them away. Yet those whose corporate image has not gained public confidence struggle to recruit even for a single programme. Thus, corporate integrity is very important.
A good corporate brand is earned over time. The confidence you acquire in your daily interaction with clients shapes it. But due to ever changing business environments and increasing competition, it is important to keep on improving. You should continuously ‘perfect’ your services and products. And when you introduce something new to improve your operations, inform the public. Let them know about it. Do not keep it to yourself. It is for their benefit. Communication is thus very essential in innovation. Great ideas have failed to tick because they have not been communicated to the public.
If you do not innovate you will ‘die’ because today’s business is like a wagging war and victory is short-lived. Sustaining a position in the consumers’ mind is an on-going battle and victory can be snatched away within the blink of an eye if you relax and slacken. Players entering your area of specialty are many. Some of them enter the market with well thought and creative products/services which may push you off the market grip you would have been enjoying. You cannot risk treading that path. You need to keep on improving. Do not depend on your past glory.
The continuous battle for the top-spot has forced institutions to constantly innovate. Very few institutions are successful in sustaining their dominant position and those that do; are continuously innovating. They have the courage to attack their own position in the market. They monitor and evaluate their position and adjust where they are performing badly to maintain their grip of the market share and keep on improving where they are doing well.
Innovating improves your service/product quality and your corporate reputation. A good corporate reputation comes with financial and public good-will benefits. For instance, a training institution with a good corporate status has an increasing inflow of students for its programmes. It may have to send some of them away. Yet those whose corporate image has not gained public confidence struggle to recruit even for a single programme. Thus, corporate integrity is very important.
A good corporate brand is earned over time. The confidence you acquire in your daily interaction with clients shapes it. But due to ever changing business environments and increasing competition, it is important to keep on improving. You should continuously ‘perfect’ your services and products. And when you introduce something new to improve your operations, inform the public. Let them know about it. Do not keep it to yourself. It is for their benefit. Communication is thus very essential in innovation. Great ideas have failed to tick because they have not been communicated to the public.
Understanding innovation
Innovation has become management’s new imperative. Everybody wants to be the next trendsetter; nobody wants to be lagging behind others. Starting from street hawkers to women selling nshima in markets, to high-tech industrialists; improving the way one attends to the needs of their customers is very important. Everybody wants their clients to go smiling after getting a service from them or after using their product. They are trying to have a pool of loyal customers –customers who can market their services/products everywhere they go.
Since customers are becoming sophisticated and selective, we should continuously change the way we conduct business. We need to innovate. Innovation is a joint contributory process towards the implementation of new ideas. It is a practice through which organisations abandon old paradigms and make significant advances. It is about involving people from many fields to change the status quo.
Since customers are becoming sophisticated and selective, we should continuously change the way we conduct business. We need to innovate. Innovation is a joint contributory process towards the implementation of new ideas. It is a practice through which organisations abandon old paradigms and make significant advances. It is about involving people from many fields to change the status quo.
Who should innovate?
Innovation starts from anywhere. Anyone can innovate. You should thus accommodate ideas from anyone and evaluate how they can add value to your institution. Sometimes the person who moans and groans and complains a lot may be the source of the next great innovation. Use such people to bring new ideas forward and somehow use them in implementing them.
Sources of innovative ideas include: unreasonable demands, your goals and time pressures. Innovation begins with an idea, which comes from nowhere – such ideas usually die unless a fertile ground exists to develop them. The idea could be meant to meet you goal or address new demands from your clientele. Either situation, they may often spark an innovation.
Do not take those ‘nagging’ voices to destructors of progress; they could be sources of new ways of doing things to improve your efficiency. Listen to them. Assess how they can be blended into your operations. Shutting up innovators is like sending your institution into irrelevance. Team work is very important in bringing bright and workable ideas to your operations. Building a strong institutional corporate brand requires such innovative ideas from your team.
Sources of innovative ideas include: unreasonable demands, your goals and time pressures. Innovation begins with an idea, which comes from nowhere – such ideas usually die unless a fertile ground exists to develop them. The idea could be meant to meet you goal or address new demands from your clientele. Either situation, they may often spark an innovation.
Do not take those ‘nagging’ voices to destructors of progress; they could be sources of new ways of doing things to improve your efficiency. Listen to them. Assess how they can be blended into your operations. Shutting up innovators is like sending your institution into irrelevance. Team work is very important in bringing bright and workable ideas to your operations. Building a strong institutional corporate brand requires such innovative ideas from your team.
What to innovate?
New ways of doing things can be done in service provision, communication and information management as well as disseminate, product/service marketing, idea or product/service packaging, ways of carrying-out your internal and external communication, customer care, quality monitoring and management, etc.
You should always look for new and better ways of providing services to your clients. If you are in training provision; look out for new gadgets you can integrate into you training pathways. E.g. look out for ICTs suitable for your training programmes and assess how you can use them to improve learning. You can find appropriate audio visual aids and software on the market and gauge which ones are usable for you. Do not wait for others to start it, lead the way and make a reputation which you can be identified with.
Communication and information management is an essential aspect in the 21st century. Information puts those who have it on a vantage position than others. How it is kept, processed and communicated is very imperative. Many businesses have lost their clientele due to poor communication with their publics. Thus, you must bring innovations to life through a range of well-planned and well-executed communication activities.
How you market your services/products have a bearing on your corporate brand. Drama and marketing do no go well. When it is time to sell your service, do it in an appropriately and professional manner. Marketing your services/products in a comic and shoddy manner puts you in a category of ‘jokers’ in the face of your clientele. It dents your brand reputation. The public may not take you serious. They may consider you incapable to present your products/services in a professional-sellable manner.
Come-up with an ingenious idea and add a professional and high standard touch to your marketing pitch to make you visible from the clutter. The way you present your goods and services should be beyond basic marketing. Make your marketing punchy, professional, visible and innovative. Innovative marketing is memorable into the minds of customers and may entice to try you. And if your product/service meets their expectations, they (customers) will become loyal to you.
Develop well-done internal and external communication systems. Tell your staff about new ideas in your institution. Whether the innovation comes from the CEO, middle managers or junior staff; sell it to others so that together you put it into practice. A bright idea may fail when kept among top management. Lower ranks may not support it, not because it is a bad idea; but it could be because of the way it is communicated to them. Do not put innovative ideas in a manner that make lower ranks belittled…as if they cannot think. Make others appreciate it. Then they will support it.
After selling the idea to staff, communicate to your clients/stakeholders.
Innovation is not only about coming up with new services and products. It is the whole range of things you should always improve on to put you above board. Things you do to transform your ideas into reality, develop business models, processes, customer relations, etc. Put in mind that innovation involves people. Involve your staff. Make them understand your mission. They will then champion it. Listen to their ideas and chart the way forward together. Therefore, as a corporate body you can map, systematise, manage, measure, and improve your services/products. You will be able to produce a steady stream of innovations. Remember, innovation is not a mystical act; it is a journey that can be plotted, and done over and over again. It takes time and steady leadership, and sometimes can require changing everything from budget and strategy to capital allocation and promotions. It requires you to put the CUSTOMER in front and centre.
i) Hiring
The market scene today is an overcrowded space where players are constantly vying for talent. Hire talented staff, those with the calibre you need to reach your goals. But hiring talented people is only the first step in cultivating an innovative and creative environment. Building a workplace where there is a constant exchange of ideas involves finding the right formula for your entity and culture.
You cannot force innovativeness, but the right setting will
ii) Be easygoing
A relaxed and flexible work environment increases your team’s productivity by letting ideas flow. Encourage an atmosphere where the boss is more likely to ‘make you coffee’ than expect you to make them one. Do not use a leadership style of Adolf Hitler, which is characterised by threats and commands. You will kill the spirit of innovation.
Let go of the traditional work culture where the head of the entity is detached from others. Do not create a vacuum between you and your ‘soldiers’ on the ground because they will sit on their great ideas. Embrace your employees’ natural rhythm, their brilliance, creativity and innovation. They will thus bring new ideas forward and will be ready to go with you in meeting your goals in resonance to you mission and vision.
iii) Encourage diversity
Put together a team with different backgrounds, passions, and capabilities. Having a group with a diverse set of ideas and problem-solving approaches helps push your services/products forward. Embrace and celebrate your team members’ individuality – out of the box ideas and problem-solving approaches helps push your corporate brand above board.
You should always look for new and better ways of providing services to your clients. If you are in training provision; look out for new gadgets you can integrate into you training pathways. E.g. look out for ICTs suitable for your training programmes and assess how you can use them to improve learning. You can find appropriate audio visual aids and software on the market and gauge which ones are usable for you. Do not wait for others to start it, lead the way and make a reputation which you can be identified with.
Communication and information management is an essential aspect in the 21st century. Information puts those who have it on a vantage position than others. How it is kept, processed and communicated is very imperative. Many businesses have lost their clientele due to poor communication with their publics. Thus, you must bring innovations to life through a range of well-planned and well-executed communication activities.
How you market your services/products have a bearing on your corporate brand. Drama and marketing do no go well. When it is time to sell your service, do it in an appropriately and professional manner. Marketing your services/products in a comic and shoddy manner puts you in a category of ‘jokers’ in the face of your clientele. It dents your brand reputation. The public may not take you serious. They may consider you incapable to present your products/services in a professional-sellable manner.
Come-up with an ingenious idea and add a professional and high standard touch to your marketing pitch to make you visible from the clutter. The way you present your goods and services should be beyond basic marketing. Make your marketing punchy, professional, visible and innovative. Innovative marketing is memorable into the minds of customers and may entice to try you. And if your product/service meets their expectations, they (customers) will become loyal to you.
Develop well-done internal and external communication systems. Tell your staff about new ideas in your institution. Whether the innovation comes from the CEO, middle managers or junior staff; sell it to others so that together you put it into practice. A bright idea may fail when kept among top management. Lower ranks may not support it, not because it is a bad idea; but it could be because of the way it is communicated to them. Do not put innovative ideas in a manner that make lower ranks belittled…as if they cannot think. Make others appreciate it. Then they will support it.
After selling the idea to staff, communicate to your clients/stakeholders.
Innovation is not only about coming up with new services and products. It is the whole range of things you should always improve on to put you above board. Things you do to transform your ideas into reality, develop business models, processes, customer relations, etc. Put in mind that innovation involves people. Involve your staff. Make them understand your mission. They will then champion it. Listen to their ideas and chart the way forward together. Therefore, as a corporate body you can map, systematise, manage, measure, and improve your services/products. You will be able to produce a steady stream of innovations. Remember, innovation is not a mystical act; it is a journey that can be plotted, and done over and over again. It takes time and steady leadership, and sometimes can require changing everything from budget and strategy to capital allocation and promotions. It requires you to put the CUSTOMER in front and centre.
Ideas to Promote Innovation at Your Workplace
i) Hiring
The market scene today is an overcrowded space where players are constantly vying for talent. Hire talented staff, those with the calibre you need to reach your goals. But hiring talented people is only the first step in cultivating an innovative and creative environment. Building a workplace where there is a constant exchange of ideas involves finding the right formula for your entity and culture.
You cannot force innovativeness, but the right setting will
ii) Be easygoing
A relaxed and flexible work environment increases your team’s productivity by letting ideas flow. Encourage an atmosphere where the boss is more likely to ‘make you coffee’ than expect you to make them one. Do not use a leadership style of Adolf Hitler, which is characterised by threats and commands. You will kill the spirit of innovation.
Let go of the traditional work culture where the head of the entity is detached from others. Do not create a vacuum between you and your ‘soldiers’ on the ground because they will sit on their great ideas. Embrace your employees’ natural rhythm, their brilliance, creativity and innovation. They will thus bring new ideas forward and will be ready to go with you in meeting your goals in resonance to you mission and vision.
iii) Encourage diversity
Put together a team with different backgrounds, passions, and capabilities. Having a group with a diverse set of ideas and problem-solving approaches helps push your services/products forward. Embrace and celebrate your team members’ individuality – out of the box ideas and problem-solving approaches helps push your corporate brand above board.
No comments:
Post a Comment