There has never been so much talk about the importance of business innovation to ensure sustainable and creative processes that can generate solutions and products. As competitiveness increases, innovation has become an essential requirement to create value for customers, generate solutions and reduce costs. The world breathes innovation, and it is clear that if you want to stand out, you have to act.
Unfortunately, in practice, few companies apply innovation. It remains an optional process in many cases. However, a stagnant company is likely to have problems in the future, as competitors will develop and solidify their position in the market.
Does your company have an area that focuses on innovation?
In this article, I’ll go into the topic in more detail and discuss the benefits and how you can be part of this world of no return.
What is innovation?
When people hear the word innovation, they immediately think of technology. Of course, innovation is also the development and use of new technologies, but there is more to it than that. In the business world, innovation is an organization’s ability to step out of its comfort zone and discover new ways to grow.
Generally speaking, innovation is the application of new ideas to improve the way of doing something. In other words, innovation is producing anything new from something that already exists, which may be a technology, process, product, service or business model, with the goal of generating value from creativity, making it better, and opening up new markets and business opportunities, differentiating your company from the competition.
However, innovation alone is not enough; these goals can only be achieved with an effective innovation management process that transforms the innovative potential of ideas into concrete and profitable realities for your organization.
What is innovation management?
Innovation Management is the management of the collection of innovative ideas, from engagement to final results. Ideas are innovative not just because they are new, but because they result in positive changes for the organization, such as profits or customer satisfaction.
Innovation management is responsible for systematizing the innovation process, determining how many steps and procedures will be involved, what human, financial and technical resources will be used, and establishing the hierarchy and decision-making structure that will be implemented to generate results and concretize ideas. Simply put, innovation management is the structuring of a concrete innovation process, with a beginning (gathering ideas and insights), a middle (analysis, approval and prioritization of proposals) and an end (outputs and generation of results in projects).
The innovation management process incorporates strategic thinking as each new proposal is analyzed according to the company’s organizational objectives to assess whether it can generate significant change. Thus, we can define innovation management as the way in which new ideas are developed and refined until they become reality.
Why is innovation management important for your company?
There is no doubt that innovation is essential for organizations, since it makes companies more competitive in the market. When a company innovates, it can find effective solutions to problems and improve efficiency and, consequently, improve performance.
Innovation management in a company contributes significantly to capitalizing on the results and growth of the organization. Investing in innovation offers companies a number of advantages, such as:
Employee engagement
The culture of innovation in a company should listen not only to the external public, but also to the views and ideas of employees. Innovation processes allow you to attract, engage and retain your employees, ensuring they have a space to suggest and test ideas in practice. Thus, they end up becoming more motivated when they realize that they can really help the company grow. Thanks to this, the company as a whole can improve its processes and achieve satisfactory results.
Competitive advantage and company growth
As we have already established, it is important to emphasize that investing in innovation in an organization can provide a greater competitive advantage. This means that companies invest not only in their sustainability, but also in their continuity in the market.
From the moment you gain a competitive advantage, the company’s chances of developing and growing increase considerably, ensuring it achieves the success it desires and expects.
Process optimization
The continuous optimization of processes can be one of the biggest challenges for organizations. The good news is that companies with a culture of innovation are constantly evaluating their performance. Undoubtedly, this is vital for increasing revenues, improving productivity and ensuring business efficiency.
Valuing of products and brands
Innovative products provide greater added value. As a result, profit margins improve. After all, these are products that can really change the consumer’s experience.
It is also worth noting that investing in long-term innovation will improve your company’s image and reputation, making it a reference in the market, since it shows consumers that the company is constantly looking for new technologies, processes, products and services. This also contributes to the sustainability of the business.
Opening up new markets
Innovation helps companies identify deficiencies in products, services, technologies, processes and business models so they can develop innovative solutions. This makes it possible to open up new markets or even discover unexplored market niches.
For example, Uber took advantage of the difficulties of taxi services and the problem of finding a car anywhere and at rush hour. They were able to innovate using app technology to improve this service for consumers. Moreover, it did this without owning a single vehicle, by offering people with cars the opportunity to register for the service, thus reducing unemployment and generating income.
Want to transform your organization with innovation management?
Now that you know more about innovation management, the benefits and why it is important for your organization, why not implement it in your company to ensure your position in the market, improve competitiveness and make your company a market reference? To do this, you need the right tools to develop creative ideas and take advantage of new technologies. That’s where SoftExpert ICM comes in.
SoftExpert ICM is the Innovation and Change Management solution that helps you benefit from all the advantages of innovation management. Companies use our platform to gather ideas from across the organization and manage them end-to-end, determining which ideas are most likely to succeed and implementing them in projects and action plans, providing full visibility of all results.
Contact SoftExpert to ask for a free demo to learn more about our solution and how it can improve your business.
