Innovation-Part One: Your Company
If you as a Small Business owner are not innovating in your business, then you are dying a death by a thousand cuts and gradually going out backwards.
You will not know how close you are to the business cemetery unless you take stock NOW. So PBDA will give you some ideas where to start.
- Innovation is dependent on new ideas. New ideas always start with the mind of a person.
- That person should be encouraged to share the new idea, by brainstorming , peer review, or simply by putting it down on paper and sticking it in the New Ideas box.
- No such box in your office? Make one now. Where the slot is at the top, ensure you widen it to take A4 envelopes. Some people have a LOT of ideas.
- Encourage staff not just to think about revenue, or cost savings, but also about process efficiency.
- Start an on-line My Business Brainstorming Book, and give online access to all staff. Use Google Gmail document sharing or Microsoft Sharepoint to allow open access to add to the document.
So, if you just said, “No, I have nothing like that in my organisation”, start today by implementing some very simple starters for innovation in your business. The next GREAT idea may just be the one that makes your first or next $million. Here are a few questions which are designed to check your company staus on innovation.
- What could you show in the daily operations of your company that would evidence that innovation is taken seriously by the company?
- On a scale of 1 (no innovation activities) to 10 (a very high level of innovation), where would you rate your own company? ( be very honest)
- Does your company have a process for harvesting new and interesting ideas from employees and customers?
- How are such ideas channelled into a development process?
- When was the last time your executives had a discussion about new ideas or new products?
- What concrete action and results came out of that discussion?
- Is your company adopting the highest quality standards in safety, environmental or technical standards to give itself a longer term advantage in global or own country markets?
- Is your company achieving measurable and documented savings using the latest environmental technology and strategies?
- What was the last new product or process that your company developed?
- What factors made it a successful experience?
- How easy would it be to replicate that experience?
My next idea is a holiday in Hawaii
If you have your own ideas, then send us a comment or visit our Contact Us page and complete the “Enquiry Form”.
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