WHAT IS INNOVATION: Meaning, Examples & Strategies in Business

What is Innovation
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Innovation is a big part of today’s competitive landscape. Business leaders must always be on the lookout for fresh ways to innovate since old ideas don’t always work. Innovation is important in all fields, but it’s important not to use it as a buzzword. Instead, it’s important to take the time to comprehend the process. Further, in this article, we will dive deeper into learning what innovation is, its example, innovation in business, strategy, and innovation diffusion

What Is Innovation

Innovation is the systematic process of making and selling new products and services that customers want to use. New ideas are the foundation of innovation. Thus, it could be a plan for a better product or service, Also, it could be an updated way to run your business or a whole new way of doing business. Moreover, this can be about any part of your business and doesn’t have to be new. It could be something that another company has already done.

As essential as it is, it can be hard to do it right. Over 80% of the executives surveyed said that innovation is one of their top three priorities, but less than 10% said they were happy with their organization’s performance in this area. Many established businesses have better managers than innovators, generating few game changers. Most thrive by enhancing their existing core businesses.

What Is Innovation Example

In today’s market, companies work hard to come up with ideas for new products and services that will help them stand out from the competition and become the best in their field. How well an organization does this task depends on how innovative it is at its core. There are examples of innovation all around us, and they can fit into many various categories.

#1. Innovation and Business 

This example of innovation is very important to productivity gains and the competitiveness of businesses. It also affects the economic growth and social well-being of a company. Statistics show that the number of innovative businesses on the market grew by 12.5 percentage points between 2015 and 2017. The ways that people come up with new ideas also vary a lot. Organizational innovation, which is the use of new ways to run a business, organize a workspace, or work with other companies, is the most popular type of emerging innovation, with 59.5% in 2015–2017, up from 37.9% in 2010–2012. It is closely followed by marketing innovation, which is the use of new media or methods for publicity, new ways of placing and pricing products, or changes to design or packaging. Rates for this have gone up by 21,2% over the same time period.

To provide the appropriate value to your organization’s clients, innovation is required. Strong innovative tactics set you separate from competitors and make you the customer’s first option. Your attempts to differentiate will ultimately result in the creation and maintenance of consumer value and loyalty.

#2. Product Example

Product innovation is the process of making new products or better versions of products that already exist and making their users better and more widespread. When a company focuses on product innovation, it can make its products stand out from others on the market, making them more appealing to customers. Companies that come up with new products are sure to grow, expand, and gain a competitive edge over other companies in the same industry.

Examples include:

  • Apple Inc. Apple, Inc. always makes improvements to the iPhone and releases them in a way that looks cool. This makes people excited and boosts sales with every new model.
  • LG.LG introduced a newspaper-rollable screen. Solving portability makes their brand more appealing to mobile device buyers.

#3. Radical Example of Innovation

This is an example of an innovation that has led to new business solutions that have changed the future of the organizations that used them. Even though these are riskier, they show how important strong innovation can be to a company’s success. Examples of radical innovation include:

  • Amazon. Amazon’s success is mostly due to its huge selection of products, ease of use, and convenience, but the Dash Button was a very successful addition to its services.
  • Salesforce. Salesforce’s CRM system, a platform that provides every department in an organization with a shared view of every client, is a radical example and a very strong example of innovation in marketing. The modern business model is supported by its platform, which is cloud computing. This platform takes advantage of new technology.

#4. Examples of Innovation- Process

Many firms have achieved operational success by embracing innovation in the manufacturing of their goods and services. this example of innovation increases a company’s efficiency by lowering production costs, improving product quality, and increasing overall profitability.

One of the best examples of process innovation is Zara.

#5. Examples of Innovation – Open

This is the opposite of traditional innovation, which tends to focus on information that stays within the boundaries that have already been set. It is a more distributed, collaborative, and decentralized way of thinking about innovation. It is based on the fact that useful knowledge is spread widely today and that no company, no matter how big or smart, could innovate well on its own. One example of open innovation is: 

  • Samsung. Samsung is one of the most innovative companies on the market today. It supports open innovation and works with start-ups to come up with new ideas. Their process for coming up with new ideas can be broken down into four groups: partnerships, ventures, accelerators, and acquisitions.

What Is Innovation in Business

Innovation and creativity are frequently used interchangeably. Although similar, they are not identical. Using creativity in business is essential since it generates original concepts. This uniqueness is important to innovation. An innovative idea must also be practical in order to qualify. Innovations don’t always result from creative ideas because they don’t always offer workable answers to issues.

When it comes to business, innovation is a new and useful product, service, business model, or strategy. Innovations don’t have to be huge technological breakthroughs or new ways of doing business. They can be as simple as improving a company’s customer service or adding new features to an existing product.

Why Is Innovation Important in Business

Some businesses excel at innovation. According to the findings of our study, there was a significant correlation between a business’s level of innovation and its level of economic profit, which was taken from a private database (the total profit minus the cost of capital). We found that businesses that are able to use the basics of innovation to their advantage have a big edge over their competitors in terms of performance. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that mastering innovation can start generating economic gain that is 2.4 times as high compared to other players.

What Is Innovation Strategy

An innovation strategy is a shared mission for innovation and a detailed plan for creating new value that customers will pay for. It consists of a set of rules or actions that are meant to help the organization grow in the future. The most innovative companies recognize that large, breakthrough ideas don’t just happen. Instead, innovations emerge from surroundings and processes that are purposefully designed to foster their development.

Why Is Important

A successful innovative strategy can:

  • Clarify your goals and priorities. A strategy for innovation specifies the objectives of an organization’s innovation operations and focuses efforts on achieving those objectives.
  • Foster alignment. With a plan in place, various groups within an organization will pursue shared objectives rather than their own particular agendas.
  • Prevent an organization from resting on its laurels. Even businesses that begin as innovators must continue innovating in a smart manner, as copycats and innovative rivals are likely to gain market share over time.
  • Assist a firm in attaining long-term prosperity. Without continuous innovations, it is doubtful that a business will establish (or maintain) a competitive advantage or retain customers over the long run.

Steps for Developing an Innovation Strategy

steps for developing an innovative strategy include:

#1. Align Innovation With Business Strategy 

For your efforts to be successful, they need to fit in with your overall business strategy. For new ideas to work well, everyone in the organization needs to know what the company’s goals are. This means that the business needs to know the market it wants to work in. The best innovations meet the needs of customers or potential customers. Your innovation strategy should also be based on what you know about your competitors.

#2. Determine Your Value Proposition

Your innovation strategy should talk about what unique value you will bring to your market and what kinds of innovations will help you take advantage of that value and get ahead of the competition. To answer these questions, a business must first identify its core competencies.

#3. Learn the Unmet Needs of Your Customers

The most effective innovations will satisfy the demands of the clients you wish to serve. To come up with these new ideas, your company needs to know what the customers need, sometimes before the customers even know they do. Our staff members tend to be the ones who talk to customers the most, so they can be a big element in the strategy to find unmet needs. Consider asking employees for their input to find out what they know about what customers need. This can be a useful way to find out where you should focus your efforts.

#4. Assess and Adjust

The best plans for strategy are always open to change. Take the time to figure out how well your strategy is working by asking all of your employees. This step can give you a feedback loop that you can use to check how well your plan works and change it as needed.

As the needs of your customers and the market change, you should be ready to change your innovative strategy to better fit the real world. Keep asking your employees for feedback through crowdsourcing, and change your strategy to meet the needs of the moment.

What Is Innovation Diffusion

The innovative diffusion theory is a theory that explains how new technologies and other kinds of progress spread through societies and cultures, from the time they are first introduced until they are used by most people. This theory tries to explain how and why people adopt new ideas and ways of doing things, which can take a long time. How innovations are shared with different parts of society and how people feel about them are important factors in how quickly they spread. This theory is often used when marketing new products because it is important to understand when building market share.

Read Also: EARLY ADOPTERS: Definition, Examples & What You Should Know

Understanding the Meaning of Innovation Diffusion Theory

In 1962, E.M. Rogers formulated the theory. He is a communication theorist at the University of New Mexico. It integrates earlier sociological theories of behavioral change to describe the progression of an idea through different actors’ adoption phases. Important individuals in the theory of the dissemination of innovations are:

  • Innovators are those who are willing to take chances and are the first to test out new ideas.
  • Early adopters are individuals who are interested in testing out new technologies and determining their social utility.
  • Early majority: Individuals who lead the way for the implementation of innovations in mainstream society and comprise the majority of the people.
  • Late majority: Another segment of the general population, or the group of individuals who accept the innovation after the early majority.
  • Laggards: Those that adopt innovative items and fresh ideas later than the general public This is partly due to the fact that they are risk-averse and fixed in their ways. Eventually, the spread of innovations throughout mainstream culture becomes it hard for people to live (and work) normally without them. As a result, people are compelled to use it.

The rate at which innovations spread depends on things like how many people live in cities and how many live in rural areas, as well as how industrialized and developed society is. Adoption rates, or how quickly people in a society accept a new idea, are likely to be different between societies.

What Are the 4 Types of Innovation?


innovations that are incremental or sustainable.
Breakthrough innovations
Disruptive innovation.
Basic research

What Is Innovation and Examples?

It means making changes to a process to make it work better. For example, assembly lines were a big step forward in making things. Business model innovation is the process of changing how a business works. Platforms that let people share rides, like Uber or Lyft, are an example of this.

What Are the 5 C’s of Innovation?

Based on these interviews, HFMA discovered that any combination of the five “Cs”: competition, collaboration, culture, catalysts, and constraints might lead to innovation.

What Are the 7 Stages of Innovation?

Campbell divides the innovative process into seven steps: preparation, exploration, incubation, insight, prototype and trial, planning and execution, reflection, and evaluation.

What Is Innovation and Its Importance?

It is defined as a key part of adding new features to existing products or processes, which leads to more market share, revenue, and happy customers. Innovation is sometimes used to improve the way a business runs or to bring in new technologies for automation.

What Is the Best Definition of Innovation in Business?

This is a new and valuable product, service, business model, or strategy. Innovations do not need to be technological breakthroughs or new business models; they can be as simple as improvements to a company’s customer service or the addition of new features to an existing product.

References

  1. DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS THEORY: Principles and Practices
  2. HOW TO STAY UPDATED ON MARKETING INNOVATIONS IN 2023:(+Free Tips)
  3. INNOVATION STRATEGY IN BUSINESS WITH DETAILED EXAMPLE
  4. INNOVATIVE IDEAS: Top Ideas for Business, Product, Students & Projects
  5. CONSULTING BUSINESS: Definition, How to Start, Management & Services
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