Anticipating customer needs can drive innovation
When it comes to innovation, organisations today are a little wary of experimenting with new ideas, considering that the business climate has just started improving after the recession. Besides, they may believe a big idea needs investment of time and resources which they will not be able to do right now.
Companies tend to get into a comfort zone when the products and services are making clients and customers happy and as long as the profits are coming in, they see no necessity to experiment with new ideas. Another reason for companies to shy away from innovation is they believe that it has to be a big, revolutionary idea and while looking out for them, they do not encourage or pay attention to small ideas that could revolutionise the business. Also in the zeal to encourage big ideas, they unknowingly kill the ideas in employees who are reluctant to express them because they are not ’big’.
Companies fail to realise that if employees are liberated from the pressure of bringing out big ideas, they can actually come up with small but effective innovations which may give rise to a new product line or service that can change the business for better. Small ideas can possibly improve the bottom line by bringing positive changes in the cost, quality and efficiency of the business. Another important but often disregarded source for innovative ideas are the customers.
After all they use the product or service and will have inputs on how to improve them. Companies should learn to look from the customer’s perspective when they want to improve their products or create new ones. Customers will want products that will meet their specific requirements and offers something more than a rival product. Anticipation of the customer’s needs is an important aspect of the innovation process. Customer feedback forms and alert customer service representatives can provide valuable inputs on what the customer wants and the changes he requires in the products and services offered.
Coming to employees, soliciting their ideas can be done through surveys, asking questions on improving services or products and suggestions to modify existing systems.
These can generate exciting ideas, which the organisation would have been ignorant of earlier. At the same time there could be a glut of ideas, but the management can collect them, improve on them and then use the best of them for the company’s benefit.
While generation of ideas is necessary, the more important factor is their implementation. The management should be clear about its priorities while choosing the ideas to execute. They will have to devise a strategic plan to make the innovation work. For this, targets have to be set, an implementation plan has to be in place and the results have to be quantified. A systematic approach will make any innovation truly effective.
When it comes to idea implementation organisations should:
• Execute them on the local level initially or test them on small areas to gauge their effectiveness
• Tweak on ideas that do not seem to work immediately
• Refine ideas continuously so that the end result is effective
• Understand true potential of an idea so that valuable ones are not abandoned
To make innovation an intrinsic part of the organisation’s culture, the management must encourage employees who come out with ideas and give them due recognition and publicise their efforts. Managers should support ideas from team members and provide incentives for generating effective ideas.
Encouragement and timely recognition is the key here. When employees realise that they are partners in the innovative process and will be duly rewarded for their efforts, the organisation can reap the benefits of their collective thinking and brainstorming which the need to innovate will bring about.
Likewise, great ideas should be able to get through hierarchical and bureaucratic obstacles.
For this, there should be open communication from the top to bottom so that ideas are generated from all sides and sometimes-unexpected sources. Innovation is not necessarily the next big idea, it can be small innovations, breakthroughs or improvement of an existing idea. These small ideas could be the next big thing the company is looking for.
HEMA SWAMINATHAN