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FEATURE STORY

Using Innovation Strategies to Grow Your Business

More than half of all companies surveyed are dissatisfied with the results of their innovation initiatives, says a study recently released by Archstone Consulting. Innovation is the life blood of small business. Stagnate and you risk losing your customers to another business. Innovate without attention to details and a solid strategy and you may find yourself spending money with no results in sight.

How a business chooses to innovate is as important as devising the innovation itself. Thought leaders across multiple disciplines all have their own perspectives on what makes them innovators, but there are common traits between them that even small business owners can use to add innovation strategies to their own business philosophy.

Think Big

This may seem like stating the obvious; to have big changes think big. Small businesses tend to become so wrapped into daily tasks that thinking outside the box is the last thing on their to-do list. What’s the remedy? Schedule time out of your day or even monthly to work on new ideas. If you have to leave your office in order to find a quiet undisturbed space, do it. Innovation isn’t something that just happens, it requires work and dedication to problem solving and developing new ways to approach an issue, and that can’t be achieved with constant interruptions.

Build a Think Tank

Some of the world’s most innovative companies have built-in think tanks, or groups of employees who are dedicated to problem solving and generating new ideas. While your small business doesn’t have the budget of a McDonald’s or a MacIntosh, you can still borrow their business models and adapt them for your own purposes. Start by gathering your employees and encouraging new ideas. The best teams are multidisciplinary and include executives right down to the mail room clerks. Anyone can have a good idea or a solution to a problem, the secret is in creating an open, creative work environment that rewards its employees for thinking differently.

Work Quickly

To be truly innovative, you must also be several steps ahead of the competition in taking your idea from concept through to implementation. That means that you need to develop ways to build out and test ideas in real time using 3-D applications. McDonald’s Corporation has a warehouse in Romeoville , IL called the McDonald’s Innovation Centre where every aspect of the business can be tested, prototyped and retooled on-demand. Some of the country’s best and brightest engineers, designers and business professionals work at the Centre to meet customer’s demands for healthier food in a more stylish and contemporary environment. McDonald’s has heard their customer’s requests for a more ‘Starbuck’s-like’ environment that encourages gathering and community and will begin rolling out leather booths, glass topped tables and even wide screen plasma televisions to attract the youth market. By looking deeply into their food products and responding to a need to reduce fat and offer healthier dining choices, McDonald’s has become the world’s biggest seller of salads in just a few years. But all of these changes would not be happening without a clearly stated focus from executive leadership down to the local franchisee to focus on innovation.

You don’t have to be a multi-billion dollar corporation to be inventive. Paula King and Susan Lawens started HealthyGoodiesGifts.com almost out of necessity. After Paula’s cancer diagnosis, she was barraged with good will gifts from friends. The problem? She couldn’t eat any of the goodies due to severe food allergies. Her friend Susan suffered from a wheat allergy and sympathized with the situation. Together they developed a gift basket business specializing in customized food items for those with dietary restrictions. Two years after the launch the business was doing so well it received a Stevie Award for Women in Business as Most Innovative Company of 2005. They attribute their success to a passion for their business and a strong sense of customer service and focus.

Innovate Beyond the Product

Sometimes being innovative is a business in itself. Take Dyson, purveyor of inventive household products (i.e. vacuum cleaners). Not only has Dyson created a new way to create a consistent level of suction, he has also included his own style and personality into the product. The Dyson brand represents innovative thinking. So much so in fact, he’s opening the Dyson School of Design and Innovation in 2009, the first school of its kind in the U.K. A tremendous move for Dyson the school establishes Dyson as a thought leader in innovation and allows the company to discover new talent while working collaboratively with other technology leaders like BMW and AirBus, both of whom have donated product and talent to the project. Dyson also encourages other inventors and mentors them about securing patents and protecting their inventors.

Obstacles to Innovation

The road to creativity and new ideas is never easy. Wrought with peril and egos, it’s important to take heed of hazard signs and avoid the pitfalls in order to see success.

• No plan for failure. Dyson failed 5,126 times before he perfected his vacuum cleaning system. What he also did was plan to fail. If you’re not planning, and more importantly budgeting for failure, odds are the program will be stopped at the first sign of failure and will never see any success. By realizing that every idea won’t be successful you can focus on learning from each attempt and make corrective steps in future iterations.

• Lack of dedicated resources. As with any project, if there are limited or no dedicated resources the project starts out with a deficit and will continue to struggle for staffing and financing in order to achieve its goals. This can suffocate the process and any creativity that may come from it. If you’re serious about innovation, make sure you put your budgets where your goals are and allocate a portion of your annual operating expenses to support the initiative.

• Confused goals or project sponsorship. There is often a disconnect between management and executive leadership evidenced by a lack of communication and shared goals. To ensure that your innovation team be successful, meet regularly with your employees. Ask for progress reports, timelines and budgets as well as what you and the team learned from failures. The more involved you are in the process the higher your chances that all aspects of the company will continue to support innovation as a concept and as an end product.

• Failure by many companies to put a formal innovation strategy in place. No map equals no destination. Write down your goals for innovation and how you plan to achieve them. Sure, the journey can change along the way, what’s important is that there is a common goal in sight.

• Don’t ignore ideas from the little gal. Some of the most innovative ideas often come from employees in the least regarded positions. Remember every employee matters. Those working on the front line hear customer comments and complaints first hand and can help you to problem solve.

Be patient and know that innovation, like small business growth happens with planning, funding, energy and a little luck. Embrace the process and you’re already miles ahead of the pack. To learn more about how innovation can take your small business to the next level, talk with a Fiducial Advisor by calling 866-Fiducial or visit the web site at www.Fiducial.com.