How To Come Up With Something New When All The Ideas Seem To Be Taken

‘Innovation’ – At times it can be seem hard to come by, but for your business to succeed, grow and continue to outsell the competition, it needs to be a word that is embedded into your culture. 

What is innovation?

Before we can start to look at some ways in which you can invite innovation into your business, first we need to be clear about what innovation actually is. Many people believe that innovation means the creation of the brand new – brand new technology, entirely new inventions etc. This is a form of innovation, but for most companies innovation is a little less radical, it means the formation of new ideas, new imaginings of their current products and the creative ability to dream up ways to add value to what already exists.

In the modern market, innovation centres around consumer need which means that most innovations are simply iterative improvements on items that already exist, such as the wide-angle lens recently added to the iPhone. 

Why is innovation important for long term success? 

You may be wondering why you need innovation at all? Well, innovation can bring a number of benefits to any business including: 

• Helping them maintain a competitive advantage. Innovation provides a unique selling point by which you can stand out from your competitors and continue to lead the market. 

• Helping to scale your business. Companies who innovate well are able to increase their profits and scale up their business more quickly than those who don’t.
  
• Helping to meet customer needs. Anticipating the needs of your customers and innovating accordingly will help you to maintain good customer relations.
  
• Enabling you to attract top talent and improve your employee retention. An innovative company is one that many top employees want to work for. Make sure you attract them and retain them by being seen as being an innovator at the forefront of your sector 

How do you promote innovation?

Now comes the part you’ve been waiting for, you know that innovation is necessary but how do you achieve it?

• By listening to your customers. Your customers are your golden ticket to finding your next innovation. Listen to their needs, their pain points and their dreams, what is it that they continue to say they’d love to see your product do? What do they complain about? Customer complaints are a valuable resource for innovation as they are often simple changes that can be made to your existing product.

• By reversing the idea that innovation means adding something.
  There’s a common misconception that innovation must mean addition, when in fact, subtracting something can be just as innovative. Take a look at Apple and the way in which they removed the headphone jacks from their phones, not only making a new innovative phone but also creating a new market for their wireless headphones.
  
• Create a culture of open communication. The people who know your company in and out and work with your product every day are likely to be the ones with the best ideas as to how you can innovate. Don’t stifle their voices, build a culture of open communication where everyone, no matter their status within the company, feels heard.

• Collaborate. Sometimes innovation comes from collaboration. Find a company whose values mirror your own and brainstorm together to see if theirs a way that by joining forces you can bring something innovative to the market.
  
• Be inspired. Sometimes all you need to spark innovation is a little inspiration. Surround yourself with positive reinforcement by attending trade shows and expos and keeping up to date with innovations in your sector. For example, if you were in the health tech industry you may wish to follow the progression of Medtronic Covidien.

And as a final note, remember that innovation can take patience, so put these tips into practice and give it some time.