In today’s volatile business environment, being a market leader does not vouchsafe profitability or exponential growth. There is a need to consistently drive performance through innovation in products, services, processes and business models.
Crucial to sustaining an innovative company are customer insight, talent management, and cultivating the right set of capabilities for successful plan execution. But to get that edge, the organisation must foster a culture of innovation.
Organisations develop products and services that meet customer needs. Sustenance is achieved by creating error-free and scalable processes to execute innovation. Customer centricity enables organisations reap a healthy harvest of their investment and boost profitability.
A business unit’s front-end initiatives encourage an innovative mindset across an organisation. Thousands of people around the world develop every day new products and systematically improve and innovate existing ones. The success is reflected in the jump in the number of successful patent applications.
An organisation must encourage its people to “ideate”. When someone has an idea, he/she should be encouraged to detail it out and submit it to the organisation, which can evaluate the potential.
Ideas can be in any one of these areas: new technology, revenue generation, cost reduction, and improvements in process and productivity.
These ideas should be discussed and evaluated by a review panel and then, based on the result, taken up for implementation with appropriate rewards for the idea generator(s).
Crucial role Creating awareness on what and how to innovate has played a crucial role in setting people on the path of winning patents. It is important to encourage employees to constantly and consistently innovate in their domains of work as a part of their daily activity.
This helps to bring in a mindset of innovation within the organisation — thus, even new entrants are encouraged to question the existing processes and suggest a better solution. Fostering this leaves people constantly thinking of “what can be improved and how?”
There must be no fear of failure. Rewards and recognition also play a vital role in encouraging innovation. Employees will surely be excited if they are recognised for their innovative effort, be it with monetary or non-monetary rewards. Good designs with market potential can be taken up for prototyping using the budget for innovation or research and development.
Enthusiasm levels Employees can get innovative with existing products or solutions, create new business areas, suggest technological innovations targeted at home/new markets, put forward ideas that have a high commercial potential, or innovate next generation versions of a product.
Although a lot of thought goes into creating platforms and processes which aid and complete the circle of innovation, establishing the channels focuses on taking ideas to their logical conclusion. Once employees get an idea of what it is all about, the level of energy in the company goes up. Even employees who are not directly involved get charged up.
It becomes easier for others to expand their idea of what is feasible, practical and realisable. Building this capability often ensures all employees are integrated into the innovation network in the organisation, thereby having access to developing ideas and learning to complement one another. This creates an effective and scalable innovation model.
The stronger the connection between the strategy of the organisation and the culture of innovation, the more leverage the organisation gets to convert innovation spending into marketplace results and superior long-term financial performance. Creating a culture of innovation and mindset change is the equivalent of equipping employees with the power and responsibility to engineer smart solutions.
The writer is Managing Director, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions.