Growing through innovation - mandatory

Oct. 24, 2013 - PRLog -- What is Innovation? The definition you will find in textbooks is something like ‚an idea and an invention in combination with an economic transformation that is penetrating the market.’

In particular the latter is the all-important condition. An idea or invention that is not accepted by the market can’t be named an innovation and is ‘worth’-less.

At the other hand ideas and inventions are the base for innovation, without them there would be nothing to conquer the markets with.

How to find then the right ideas? It doesn’t have to be the next internet, Facebook or iPhone, a sweeping improvement of an existing product can be more than able to empower the very own position. Off course there’s no sure formula to find it, but definitely ways to alter the chances to continue to growth in the future.

Examples of missed chances are everywhere around, just think of Kodak or more recently BlackBerry and the risk for a small to mid-sized company to follow this path is huge. Without a strong pipeline even the best and most innovative products will not save the day. Today’s development speed is just breathtaking and the already gigantic 70% failure rate for product introductions is not helping either.

At least the majority of company leaders have realized this: following a study (Breakthrough innovation and growth, 2013) conducted by PWC, 93% of CEOs regard organic growth through innovation as the prime success factor and just 2% are betting on M&A activity (5% on a mix of both). Not really surprising, considering the 16% higher growth for innovative companies against their not so innovative peers.

However, before reaching a sustainable growth through innovation an efficient innovation management has to be in place which, as a primary duty, has to optimize the inner structures in order to create an innovation culture throughout the entire company, thus dismantling old incrustation and establishing a new open mentality.

Only those who go ahead with open eyes will recognize what the market is demanding, which is crucial as smaller companies do not have the resources to create new needs in the market.

This is precisely where an open innovation / co creation strategy represents the ideal tool. With the help and engagement of all who are related to a company, being it customers, employees or supplier, looking for the best solution to modify the existing products to improve their functionality and to better adapt them to the market needs.

Another recently published study (‚Global Innovation 1000‘) by the consulting firm Booz & Co showed, that companies who employ digital enablers, like crowdsourcing, consumer co creation and others, were ‘77 percent more likely to report that they financially outperform competitors than those making only low or moderate use of them.’

The outcome of the before mentioned studies, but much more so the destiny of companies which either spend not enough on innovation or missed to realize great Ideas or trends due to a misinterpretation of the market, show very clearly the importance of setting out the right emphases.

The author, Alexander von Rebenstock is the CEO of BrainSourcer an open innovation / co creation platform enabaling organisations to adress a smart community to solve challenges and find great ideas. Besides this BrainSourcer operates an integrated technology transfer-, Innovation Job- and community knowledge platform.

http://www.brain-sourcer.com          http://blog.brain-sourcer.com/