Innovation and its many spin-offs illustrate the state of business today. Every company, regardless of size, service or product, want to be perceived as innovative. In fact, the word is so banal that it's quickly joining the ranks of the now feckless buzzword brigade, huddled between 'cutting edge' and 'game-changing.'
Most companies, particularly startups, are challenged to innovate or die simply by the pressures of local and global economies. This in itself is enough to drive fledgeling entrepreneurs nuts. How can the next industry-shaping ideas be consistently churned-out?
Seems that everyone has to be seen as innovative to have a chance of standing out. But innovation for the sake of it is meaningless, right? And if so, why do we engage in this hazy activity?
For me, innovation is about being customer-centric - because customers equal cash!
So yes, be innovative, but innovate towards the customer, not away from them. Push the status quo, test areas of your business that you wouldn't ordinarily consider innovation hotbeds, for example; pricing models and customer support. Be willfully and strenuously customer-centric in every choice you make.
However, as we've come to embrace innovation as an essential pre-requisite to success, we've admittedly stretched its meaning to the point of losing sight? This hue cycle of innovation should be culled, it needlessly complicates an otherwise simple mandate and increases pressure in the workplace.
When did a customer last call to complain about your lack of innovation? Innovation is an overrated vague, subjective term that distracts from what you're really trying to do: make a profit.
Most markets are in desperate need of affordable, high-quality goods. Forget creating a breakthrough: it's hard enough to make something people will like let alone love.
Ok, I accept that key businesses of our time; Apple, Google, claim to have succeeded through innovation. I'm convinced that this is not the most valuable part of their stories. These guys figured out how to make high-quality things better than the competition. They were not the first: Apple did not invent the cell-phone, or touchscreen and Google did not invent the search engine. Making good things people love is the spine of these companies, and it's a stronger framework than just innovation.
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