How to Identify and Capitalize on Your Opportunities for Innovation

A business that does not innovate is a business that, ultimately, does not survive. In the interest of keeping your business in operation, let’s talk about how important this kind of innovation is, especially regarding the information technology your business relies on.

We’ll first focus on innovation in a more general business sense, then laser in on how technology can and should play a role.

What is Business Innovation, and Why Does It Need a Strategy?

Innovation—or the process of developing new thoughts and ideas and translating them into value—is essential for businesses almost across the board. With very few exceptions (and these exceptions are definitely outliers), today’s businesses must constantly innovate to remain competitive and survive.

However, innovation is only half the equation. For your business to fully take advantage of this process and its benefits, you need a plan to guide your efforts. This is why it is advisable to incorporate your innovative intentions into your business plans overall… something that McKinsey & Company revealed in a report entitled Innovative growers: A view from the top. Citing some past research they had conducted, all the “innovative growers” the company had measured shared a mastery of McKinsey & Company’s “eight essentials of innovation.” These essentials are as follows:

1. Aspire - A company needs to have lofty goals to innovate effectively. 
2. Choose - A company needs to determine how it will innovate out of all its options.
3. Discover - A company needs to combine a problem with the tools needed to solve it and the business model to leverage it all.
4. Evolve - A company needs to listen to its environment so that it can change in an optimal way.
5. Accelerate - A company needs to advance in its goals without encountering internal obstacles.
6. Scale - A company needs to understand its market and allocate resources appropriately.
7. Extend - A company needs to forge beneficial relationships with reliable, helpful partners.
8. Mobilize - A company needs to be able to act on its innovative plans and bake them into its culture.

By embracing these platitudes and enacting them in your business, you can determine which are most worthwhile to pursue. However, you must adopt them strategically to achieve the greatest possible efficacy.

Hence, the importance of having a strategy.

Your Business Technology is Integral to Your Innovation Opportunities

This means you must embrace useful technologies while also planning for your business’ technological future. What might this look like?

Many technologies are available to businesses of all sizes, thanks primarily to cloud services and all they enable in terms of accessibility, mobility, and scalability. Of course, there are many other tools that businesses can and should utilize, tools that we can assist you in implementing and managing.

Give us a call at 301-740-9955 to learn more about our managed IT services.