If you want your business to flourish, then continuous improvement is the name of the game. How do you go about innovating? Three simple but powerful ways are:
- Cultural Change: Your team needs to share your passion for creative solutions to solving customer problems. This happens through giving them special time (during working hours) devoted purely to creative thinking. You could even go to an off-site location (e.g. beach or a park) purely for innovative brainstorming. A small room could also be dedicated for this within your office building. The idea behind all these steps is to inculcate the culture of innovation in your team.
- Allow Experimentation and Mistakes: The fear of making mistakes often kills the spirit of innovation. Set an example and encourage learning for the sake of learning because this will eventually lead to new business ideas.
- Let the user drive: Your consumer is your best guide when it comes to product innovation. By listening to your clients carefully you can get an in-depth picture of her preferences. Go a step further and invite her to get involved in your business. For example, if you manufacture T-shirts then a workshop where your clients come and paint their own words or slogans on the shirts would be great. This would be user driven innovation and the future of your company lies here.
