INSIGHTS
from this side of the desk
10 Business Strategies to Drive Innovation
05/28/2010http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j79LwZdtdos
Today's business world is all about innovation, and that can throw the best of us into a real flap. How does a business go about generating and managing innovation in today's lightning paced world? How do you go about ensuring your business performs at maximum capacity? Here are ten important tips that can create new intelligence for your business.
1. Adapt to New Market Realities
Many company leaders tend to get stuck in their traditional thinking mode, not willing to recognize and act upon "obvious" market trends. Try to focus on understanding the changes in your industry and take advantage of opportunities.
2. Set Realistic Business Goals
To be competitive and grow, it is important to set achievable targets. Start small, if necessary and set some goals that can be achieved over time, not necessarily by tomorrow at noon!
3. Research "Best Practices"
Task an individual in your organization to uncover hidden best practices in your industry. Look for insights, business intelligence - what works, what doesn't. This can often assist in your first step forward.
4. Bureaucracy Buster
Take a long, hard look at wasteful processes and procedures. This can often uncover ways to streamline work and reduce overhead.
5. Competitive Response
Make an effort to gather intelligence on competitive activity. Be ahead of the pack!
6. Customer Echo and Ideation
Survey your existing customers to gather insight, ideas and experiences they felt worked and those they felt did not. Link that input to your business model and corporate strategy.
7. Improve Customer Service
Identify opportunities to improve customer service and feed that into your day-to-day operation. Collaborate on breakthrough ideas that will place you in the number one position in the minds of your clients.
8. Marketing
Analyze the need to re-think your messaging, slogan and branding. Bring in experts to assist in developing market-savvy tactics on how to best communicate with your potential market.
9. Trends and Insights
Gather consumer trends or market trends and use them as stimuli for employee creativity. Your employees can be a wealth of relevant ideation that can be incorporated into your operation.
10. Sales
Identify new selling opportunities, explore new markets and improve interaction with clients. Do you require new electronic messaging, better sales material or a revitalized marketing plan?
The concept of change and innovation need not throw you into a total flap. Take time to prepare a plan of action you can realistically achieve and set it into action at a pace you can manage.
We'd love to hear from you. If you have any comments on this topic, please forward them to Janice Johnston at jjohnston@adcomcommunications.com.