Top Tips
There’s no set formula to becoming a successful, innovative business. But we can point you in the right direction. Here are a few top tips on being innovative.
Top tip 1:
Foster, nurture, grow.
As a business leader, it’s your responsibility to foster innovation. Creativity needs to be nurtured, developed and encouraged at all levels of your business. By creating an innovative environment, and supporting involvement, you can do this. Your employees are a vital asset in generating ideas for your business. After all, they are the ones involved in the day-to-day running of your business. If anyone knows how improvements can be made, it’s them. So, make the most of it.
Top tip 2:
Break the rules
To be extraordinary, you have to challenge the ordinary. Redefine the boundaries. You have to question the assumptions that govern how things work in your environment.
Top tip 3
Think like a venture capitalist
Venture capitalists are comfortable with the knowledge that many of the ideas they back will fail. That’s the way business works. But they use a portfolio approach, spreading the load and balancing the risk of losing with the upside of winning. Don’t be scared to take a calculated risk. Or it may mean you’ll never win.
Top tip 4:
Test, test, test
People’s Bank have a refreshingly original attitude to new ideas. "Don't debate it – test it," is the motto of this innovative American financial services organisation. Try any new idea at low cost in a section of the market and see what your customers’ reactions are. You will learn far more in the real world than you will in the test lab or focus group.
Top tip 5:
Welcome experimentation
The most innovative leaders encourage a culture of experimentation. You should assure people that each failure is a step along the road to success. To be truly agile, you must give people the freedom to innovate, experiment and to succeed. That means you must give them the freedom to fail, too.
Top tip 6:
Be passionate
Passion feeds innovation. And it helps to encourage those around you. Try to focus on the things you want to change, the most important challenges you face and be passionate about overcoming them. Your energy and drive will give people direction and inspire them. If you really want people to innovate, to change the way they do things and achieve extraordinary results, then you have to be passionate about what you believe in and you have to communicate that passion in everything you do.
Top tip 7:
Work with others
Many leaders see collaboration as key to their success with innovation. They know they cannot do it all using internal resources. So they look for other organisations to partner with. A good example is the Mercedes and Swatch collaboration, which produced the Smart car. Each brought different skills and experiences to the team, creating something truly new, unique and innovative.
