The Importance Of Creativity And Innovation In Business
What is innovation, why is it important, and how can you embrace it and accelerate your product and service innovations?
Innovation has become a bit of a buzz word in recent years, promising itself as the solution to any number of business problems.
How to become more adaptable? Innovate. How to improve productivity while maintaining employee experience? Innovate. How to achieve high growth in an increasingly competitive market? Innovate.
Businesses know that innovation is what they need, but they’re far less sure about how to innovate. So, what actually is innovation, and what does it look like in practice?
In this article, we’ll be talking about the importance of creativity and innovation in business, and how to overcome the key challenges faced by large businesses looking to innovate fast.
In this article:
Defining innovation
Why is innovation important to business?
Embracing the challenge of innovation
Creativity and innovation: how to innovate fast
Defining innovation
Employees and executives have different views of what innovation is and how it should be achieved. This can lead to innovation projects being slowed or even set aside before they’ve even begun.
According to TE Connectivity’s global survey, 57% of executives define innovation as being a total transformation of working processes. In practice, this might look like a complete shift in company strategy, reorganising of internal teams, or the replacing of old products and services with brand new offerings.
However, the majority of employees (55%) define innovation as being just an iteration or improvement of their current ways of working. This could be the introduction of new tools to improve employee experience and productivity, the setting of new targets or the building of new products to enhance the services they already offer.
Why is innovation important to business?
Keeping the competitive edge
In a crowded marketplace, it is essential for companies to have something unique to offer customers, whether that comes through ease of use of a service, or through product uniqueness itself. Innovation can provide this differentiation, making a company more attractive and progressive to the consumer, and helping sustain the long-term future of the business.
Almost half of business executives say innovation is a ‘competitive necessity’ for their organisation, according to PwC.
Innovation and business growth
By developing new products and services, companies can reach new markets and expand their customer base. This can lead to increased revenue and profits.
PwC reports that 93% of executives believe company growth through innovation will drive their future revenue. Meanwhile, 74% of CEOs consider business innovation to be just as important to success as operational effectiveness, if not more. Or as Peter Drucker famously put it, large organisations need to “innovate or die”. In today’s fast-evolving business environment, innovation is becoming essential to survive.
Employee experience and productivity
But business innovation isn’t just about the end-product. Innovation can also be used to help improve internal efficiencies. By streamlining processes and adopting new technologies, companies can become more efficient and productive, resulting in lower costs, increased profits, and an enhanced employee experience.
Did you know, the UX/UI in your internal systems can have huge impacts on employee experience and productivity? Find out more about UX and UI.
Embracing the challenge of innovation
According to McKinsey, 84% of executives say that their future success is dependent on business innovation. However, innovation isn’t easy. It requires investment in research and development, as well as a culture that encourages risk-taking and creativity.
Here are some of the key challenges large companies face when it comes to innovation:
Company silos. When different departments or divisions of a company operate in silos, it can be difficult to share ideas and collaborate on new projects. This is particularly true when there are silos between the teams driving innovation and key decisions makers.
Research by Deloitte suggests that companies with strong cross-functional collaboration are more likely to innovate, reaching higher levels of digital maturity than those with weak collaboration.
Did you know: Ideation Workshops can be a great way to break down company silos. By bringing all your key decision makers into the same room, you can effectively align on your key challenges and reach potential solutions with ease. Find out more about Ideation Workshops.
Fear of failure. Many large companies have a culture of risk aversion, where employees feel afraid to push the boundaries and try new things.
If employees are afraid of failure, they may be more likely to focus on the status quo and avoid making changes. This can prevent businesses from adapting to new challenges and pursuing new opportunities.
Our solution: To overcome the fear of failure, businesses need to create a culture of innovation and risk-taking. This means creating a culture where employees feel empowered to take risks and make mistakes. It also means rewarding people for their successes, even if they fail along the way.
Lack of resources. Business innovation can be expensive. Large companies often need to invest significant resources in research and development in order to innovate. There’s also the issue of time – the time taken both to develop new products and services, and to test them out.
If businesses don't have the time and money to invest in innovation, they're less likely to be able to bring new ideas to market.
But wait! Design Sprints are a great option for companies struggling with resources, condensing the innovation process from what could potentially be years, to as little as five days. Read more about Design Sprints.
Lack of leadership support. One rather sensitive challenge when it comes to innovation is that larger businesses often have a lot of bureaucracy and red tape. This can make it difficult to get new ideas approved and implemented.
Business innovation needs to be a priority from the top down - even if the eventual end-point is not clear or certain. If senior leaders are not supportive of innovation as a process, it will be difficult to achieve.
Our thoughts: the most important role of a leader in business innovation is to be visible and supportive. This inspires employees to be more creative and encourages them to fully invest and engage in the innovation process.
Creativity and innovation: how to innovate fast
Business innovation is not limited to companies of certain sizes or to certain industries. In fact, here at 100 Shapes, we believe the only essential ingredient of innovation is creativity.
A culture of creativity and innovation is one where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas, taking risks, and experimenting. It is a culture where failure is not seen as a negative thing, but rather as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Here’s our simple recipe for business to innovate fast:
Encourage collaboration. According to PwC, the 20% most innovative companies collaborate over three times more often (34%) than the least innovative (10%). At 100 Shapes, we believe collaboration fosters the best ideas. After all, many brains are better than one!
Be Agile. The world is constantly changing, so businesses need to be able to adapt quickly. Agile development is a way of developing software that emphasizes rapid iteration and continuous improvement. This can be a great way to innovate quickly, as it allows you to get feedback from users early and often.
Embrace Risk and early failures. Innovation often involves taking risks and accepting early failures. Businesses who are truly committed to innovation must also be open to experimenting and testing, with the possibility of failures along the way. Test ideas with prototypes, the solution doesn’t have to be perfect to start with and that is ok.
Focus on customer need. The best innovations are those that address the needs of customers. Make sure you are constantly listening to your customers and understanding their pain points. If your innovation journey is internally focussed, think of your employees as the customer.
Use Design Sprints. The Design Sprint is a problem-solving approach that focuses on understanding the needs of users and then coming up with innovative solutions. This can be a great way to generate new ideas and to quickly prototype and test them.
Measure your success. It's important to track your progress and measure the results of your innovations. This will help you to see what's working and what's not.
By creating a culture of creativity and innovation, businesses can position themselves for success in an ever-changing world, where innovative products and services pave the road for new opportunities and sustainable growth.
Fast-track your business innovation goals.
Get in touch with 100 Shapes today.
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