By Christina Briggs *

Is your innovation strategy working or being effective?

Innovation is a combination of what we do, how we do it, and how this works for our customers. More important than ever, innovation now determines the survival of businesses and to stay in the game it is key to constantly innovate.

Today, there are tools to develop a culture of high impact innovation; Incorporating measurement elements not only of value for customers, but also within the business, which allow it to become a more profitable organization in financial terms.

Horizones Consulting, the first consulting firm whose focus is maximizing impact by modeling the financial return of initiatives towards clients and at the same time towards shareholders, shares with you the vital steps to follow to create innovation and prevent your company from closing.

Focus

It is vital that innovation is focused on business areas that generate the most important impact in creating value for customers, loyalty and at the same time impacting a higher revenue conversion rate. Innovation without direction is a waste of time in discussions, research and improvements that make a negligible difference.

Beyond the ‘great’ product

When businesses think of innovation, they think of it as an invention – creating the next great product, like Apple or Microsoft. In reality, innovation is more about behavior and people than just creating a new product.

Innovation must be a culture that enhances the capabilities of our companies and should be considered as a greater understanding of customers and adjust our organizations to constant changes and mainly to their needs.

What do customers want

To be truly innovative, we really need to react to the demands of our customers, and to do this we need to know them. Who knows our clients better than the people who deal with them on a day-to-day basis? They are often people in positions with very little experience. This is why we call this position ‘the end of the business.’ Don’t forget to include teams that are on the front line when looking for solutions.

Solutions led by an innovation culture

Imagine an environment where mistakes are allowed to happen and where mistakes are brought in from within the business itself, this is the first step in creating a forward-thinking and prosperous business environment. The ability to do the wrong thing will promote creativity. Like a maze, we have to try the wrong route many times to establish the correct route.

Ask quality questions

The questions that ultimately drive action and creativity, because they promote interaction. Management is not always in the right place to offer insight into how to conduct business. Promoting a grassroots approach that will help our businesses prosper, particularly when combined with outside experts, specialists or consultants.

Measure initiatives and results

‘What is not measured can hardly be improved’, in a culture of results everything has to be verified, in addition to using specialists who make statistical, financial models, Big data and all the technologies that allow us to increase the probability of success of initiatives and reduce the uncertainty of investments in innovation that are becoming more and more relevant since they represent the updating, optimization of our businesses and at the same time the validity for our clients.

* Senior Partner Horizones Consulting