Innovation!

The term means different things to different people.

I've noticed that folks often feel that innovation is ambiguous; subsequently, individuals and organizations may be confused about specific actions they can take to drive growth or improvement through innovation.

In truth,  innovation follows clear patterns of success and can be managed much like any other business discipline.  Equally, our economic climate provides the perfect soil for finding success through innovation, you, your customers, employees and bottom line will all benefit.

In a nutshell innovation includes the evaluation (and/or discovery)of what fundamental problem your internal or external customer want to solve, i.e., what is the underlying reason they want or need what you provide?   What will your customers use to evaluate solutions such as  product, service or value you provide.  What barriers are limiting your customers’ ability to use your  product service or value successfully, and, what other products, services or values might your customers consider.

This past Christmas while shopping for my mother, I purchased some clothes at a store I had never frequented before.  As the sales assistant wrapped the gift, she handed me a gift card enclosed in an envelope and shared that if I needed a last minute gift I could simply follow the instructions inside the envelope; call an 800 number, load the gift card with an amount of my choosing and in an instant have handled a potential struggle to find a last minute gift.