How and Where to Apply Innovation for Next Level Results
If you strategically infuse innovation into your business DNA,
and apply it correctly, you will reap the rewards long into the future.
Business leaders across industries all agree on one thing: innovation is a must-have core capability, and they are doubling down on their investment. They understand the power of innovation, which can deliver exponential performance gains and competitive advantages.
However, gaining traction with innovation can be hard. And like the majority of business leaders out there, you might not be realizing the results you want, or it just hasn't stuck the way you hoped. HOW you introduce and infuse innovation into your business, and WHERE you apply it, can have tremendous impacts on the results.
To do this right, we implement innovation with a strategic two-step plan: first, gain short-term quick wins that build trust and buy-in; then second, invest in long-term wins that embed innovation deeper into the business. We do this because even just the smallest hint of something off can cause a culture to resist the change and create a lack of trust, even distain, for innovation, which will kill any hope of capturing the performance gains innovation can provide.
Finally, we apply innovation in the right places at the right time. And contrary to some popular belief, innovation is not just for new products and services. With countless applications internally, culturally, and externally, it has the potential to transform your business, and your people, inside and out.
How to Apply Innovation Correctly
If you strategically infuse innovation into the business DNA following
this path, you will reap the rewards long into the future:
1
Repeatable short-term quick wins to
build trust and gain buy-in
Innovation Training and Guest Speaking
Customer Discovery Training
Creative Problem-Solving Workshops
Process Innovation Sprint
Cost Reduction Sprint
2
Sustainable long-term wins to
strengthen competitive advantages
New Product and Offering Development
Business Model Design and Innovation
Multi-generational Planning
Innovation Portfolio Management
Where to apply innovation for faster results
Customer Discovery
Create a deeper understanding of your customers' needs and expectations, so you can position your offerings to outperform your competition.
New Product Development
Create a process and infrastructure that delivers new products and offerings efficiently and effectively to the marketplace.
Process Innovation
Establish new internal processes that dramatically increase productivity and produce better results.
Business Models
Enhance how the business creates and delivers offerings to customers in a way that leads to significant value and competitive advantages.
Creative Problem Solving
Develop a core capability of opportunity identification and idea generation that leads to stronger and more valuable solutions.
Cost Reduction
Identify high-value cost reduction opportunities with a repeatable process that adds significant value to the bottom line.
Other High Value Applications
Internally
- Increase productivity and reduce costs faster
- Deepen leadership and employee development
- Strengthen corporate strategy and planning
- Become more operationally efficient and reduce waste
- Become more agile and flexible to changing conditions
- Deal with employee challenges and labor shortages
- Create more revenue streams and stronger business models
Culturally
- Create a high-performing culture
- Increase employee satisfaction
- Enhance management of remote and hybrid employees
- Increase engagement of remote, hybrid, and in-person employee structures
- Become a top business to work for
- Create a better employee experience
- Increase employee retention and productivity
Externally
- Grow sales and diversify the customer base
- Deliver a better customer experience
- Address competitive threats easily and quickly
- Ship offerings that sell themselves
- Adapt to supply chain issues faster
- Increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns
© Derek Bennington