Innovation is one of themes important aspects to businesses and the general rule within a great many industries is ‘innovate or die’. This ethos is not just exclusive to small businesses but it may prove to be more important that small businesses continue to innovate, compared with the bigger companies. In the last few years alone we have seen some heavyweight companies go under thanks to their failure to innovate, companies like Blockbusters, Woolworths and more recently, Toys R US. If these occupancies are not immune to the dangers which a lack of innovation brings, neither is your small business. With this in mind then, let’s take a look at some of the ways that your business can push for more innovation.
Innovation Lab
An innovation lab is a great way for you to cut down theme which idea development takes, and encourage your team to be more innovative in their approach. It could be easy for you to get your team together in a room and try to encourage them to be innovative but if you use the same space for this as you use for meetings and collaborative work, you could actually be inhibiting creativity. In light of this then, an innovate lab is the perfect solution, a neutral space where you an your team can meet to find new and exciting ways in which you can do business.
Innovation Management Software
Another great option which you could look at in order to push for more innovation amongst your team, is to use innovation management software. This type of software allows your team to all work individually on their ideas and share it with the entire company in a split second. As a manager or owner, this means that you can have access to see these ideas grow and watch as more people throw in additional and supporting information. The software allows ideas to be taken from a concept right the way through to fruition without the need for endless meetings, emails and conversions. Ideas can be quickly decided upon as to whether they are good enough and you can also attach a great amount of supporting information to the ideas process.
Risk
The thing that most drives innovation within a business is the company’s willingness to take a risk when necessary. In simple terms this means that if your company is prepared to give an idea a go, it means that even if it fails, you will be creating an environment where the staff and the leaders within the business, will be thinking in a more innovative way, safe in the knowledge that the business is prepared to give it a go if the idea is good enough. Creating this kind of environment is perfect in terms of getting your team in the right frame of mind, and ensuring that you are doing all that you can to take the innovation which you have in the business, and using it to find success.
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