Innovation has been defined by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary as a progressive development or progress. In other words, innovation is the creative, technological, and artistic application of newly discovered or innovated resources to improve something existing or to produce something new. Innovation is one of the important aspects of business and therefore has become one of the key strategies to increase profit. But innovation can only be successful if it is supported and encouraged by a business or organization. This means that if businesses want to stay competitive, they need to adopt a strategy for innovation that stimulates innovation.
Innovation is the intelligent utilization of emerging technologies or established practices in a new way to improve something (or sometimes many things) before it is tried in the marketplace. ISO 27001 on innovation management defines innovation as “an artistic production or activity that may recur repeatedly, a resource that develops from scratch and is not modified from its original state”. The definition of ‘invention’ is something that takes an already existing thing and makes it better or different. In business terms, a business can adopt innovative business models or apply novel methods and techniques or create entirely new opportunities.
Most businesses are not able to adopt new, innovative business models due to their resistance or inability to change and grow. Innovation helps businesses embrace innovation, by introducing change through new business models and techniques, as and when necessary. Innovation helps a business to develop new solutions and services and reduce operational costs. There are many innovative activities that businesses can engage in that make them more efficient and save them money.
There are a number of innovative activities that help businesses adopt new ideas and implement them successfully. A business needs to plan appropriately to achieve maximum benefit from these new ways of doing business. Innovation should be part of the overall business strategies and practices. Companies need to develop business processes that adopt new ideas and technologies. These business processes need to be continuously improved upon for innovativeness to thrive.
Some companies adopt certain business models that become complacent and outdated. Such a business model usually fails to provide any innovative solution or create any competitive advantage. Companies that embrace innovation need to constantly explore new innovative opportunities. They also need to replace outdated and failed business models with new innovative ones.
Innovations need to be promoted from the top to help people understand them. This is a critical part of innovation and one of the reasons why people need to be encouraged to adopt new ways of doing business. It is easier to promote new ideas than it is to implement them. Promoting innovation helps people adopt new ideas and help save money and effort in the long run.
