What Drives Innovation
If you inquire from people what drives the success of innovation, the answers that you are likely to get are the demand for profitability and the need for growth.
While a dilemma exists for the innovators in becoming innovative, there is also a growing innovator’s purpose. It is not widely recognized that innovators’ needs are more influential as they drive them to see beyond the existing convention. The innovational purpose helps in countering the natural risks version which holds that most organizations are innovative. The need to innovate was recently reported to be influencing success by over 60% as compared to profitability which holds less than 10%. Innovation’s purpose is influential as it mobilizes the organization’s employees to accomplish their specified tasks. It is, therefore, clear that need-driven innovation is a suitable way of changing the rules of the operational game and gaining a competitive advantage.
Saving Innovation Ideas from Untimely Death
In becoming competitive through innovations, organizations require driving more innovation in their services as well as products. The need for innovating should be the major driver that can be conducted with cost-efficiency. Even with the higher profit-generating, a corporation cannot be able to achieve innovation success without a draw purpose of becoming innovative. For instance, Kickstarter reinvented the business startup company in an economy where sources of funding had tentatively dried up, however, it sees up to more than $2 million guaranteed every week. Moreover, in another instance, the trendy game-changing mobile app referred to as Bump, made information exchange as simple as a fist bump with 60 million downloads verifying its attractiveness.
Without an adequate focus on the business aims and strategy, an organization may not be successful; even when utilizing the best available technologies in the market. It is, therefore, to hold clear and accurate visions of the strategy of the corporation to be able to establish the needs that it holds. This helps in establishing why the corporation requires innovation. The need to innovate is important as it helps in setting the context for the innovation role based on the definitions that it derives. The context role setting of the innovation purpose helps organizations in increasing their profits by over 62%, hence helping in establishing the kind of innovation that they require in driving operations and the mode in which the innovation should be organized to effect the proposed changes.
Innovation Gaming Success
Innovation need is crucial as it infests itself in distinct ways, whether in the change of technology that is set to indomitable services and products that the corporation should deliver or in a business model transformation that helps in defining the value to be delivered. Therefore, it is crucial for a corporation to determine the kinds of innovation that they require on the grounds of whether radical, breakthrough, or incremental innovation. The identification of needs helps the corporation is becoming more innovative as it offers directions in which success and profit increment can be achieved.
Incremental innovation is effective in a small king transformation to the current technologies that the organization holds, breakthrough innovation makes important changes to the business model or the technology thus producing important growth. Radical innovations take place with the combination of an innovative business model, as well as, the existing technology in the creation of a fresh industry with the capability of growth. The purpose of innovation should be set to establish the appropriate procedures and matrices to be used in driving innovation. Profit fails to drive innovation because although it is essential in enabling the corporation to acquire innovational resources, the aspect of profit does not identify the need of working on innovation. When the innovation purpose drives an organization, it is fully able to identify market and operational trends that require it to become more innovative.
Profitability Failure as an Innovation Drive
For the organization to be innovative, it does not require high-profit margins, but it requires an organizational strategy. The strategy helps organizations in identifying opportunities, weaknesses as well as threats. These are then utilized in developing solutions to gain a competitive advantage opportunity. Innovation needs to complete profits in becoming innovative because it helps in bringing changes in the corporation. Innovation requires control and provides procedures in which corporations can develop products and services by utilizing innovation.
Does Innovation Provide a Strategic Benefit?
The need for innovation helps in identifying innovative resources that the corporation can utilize which profit does not. These resources facilitate the organizational aim of being innovative by setting the context of the incremental or continuous needs of the corporation. The need to be innovative identifies risks, dissatisfaction with the current technologies, and market sensitivity which is thus effective in developing procedures on how innovation is to be achieved. This is because they help in exposing the weaknesses of the existing technologies in comparison with the current market trends and their capabilities in becoming innovative. Profitable innovation has therefore facilitated the need for meeting the innovational needs, external influences, as well as, the capability of achieving innovation through the designed purpose of innovation.
In conclusion, it is clear that profit does not help an organization in becoming innovative since this is achieved by the need of being innovative. Profit provides the organization with the necessary resources for providing innovative products and services, but it fails in identifying opportunities where the organization can utilize innovation. The need to be innovative is influenced by the corporation’s urge to deliver quality services and products that are characterized by innovativeness to overcome market competition.
Key Takeaways
- The purpose of innovation in an organization is to help in countering natural risks.
- Profit offers an organization the required resources of providing innovative products and services, although it fails in recognizing opportunities where the organization can exploit innovation.
- Innovation in a company requires an organizational strategy that can utilize the profits made to make innovations.
- Leaders in an organization need to hold meetings for updates on innovation, besides sharing what they see occurring across the company. Doing this proves to be a good time to celebrate the positive failure as well as to learn from it.
Recommended Reading
- Beechuk, M. & VanderBeek, B. (2014). ‘Firms of endearment’ find enlightenment by engaging stakeholders. GreenBiz.
- Charan, L. (2008). The Game Changer: How Every Leader Can Drive Everyday Innovation. London: Profile Books.
- Mackey, J. & Sisodia, R. (2013). Conscious capitalism. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review Press.
- Peck, A. (2016). Chamber members learn about conscious capitalism. Monroe News.
- Rampton, J., Sentance, R., Mercedes, L., Ratcliff, C., & Lake, C. (2012). Solve for X: Google’s Answer to All World Problems | Search Engine Watch. Searchenginewatch.com.
- Sisodia, R., Wolfe, D., & Sheth, J. (2007). Firms of endearment. Upper Saddle River: Wharton School Pub.
- We Solve For X. (2016). We.solveforx.com.