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INNOVATION
HOW TO BUILD A
VALUABLE BUSINESS
WITH
Contributors
Bradley Pallister
Mackenzie Johnson
Contents
Contributors  2
Introduction  4
Part 1: The Problems That Innovation Can Solve  6
Responding to Changes
Part 2: How Innovation Will Set You Free  8
Core Competency
Market Position
Part 3: Suffering From Innovation Incapability  13
Part 4: Define Value With Innovation  15
What is Value?
The Innovation Value Pyramid
Part 5: Turbocharge Innovation With Organisational Solutions  21
Build Organisational Capacity for Innovation
Part 6: Practical Exercises For Innovation  28
Exercise 1: Think like your Customers
Exercise 2: Discover New Trends
Conclusion  33
Lessons On Innovation  34
Appendix A: Additional Resources  35
Appendix B: 8 Ways To Innovate  36
Who we are
Innovolo Ltd is a UK-based product development and design service company. We help
clients big and small to turbocharge innovation in their organisations.
At Innovolo, we:
	 Work with B2B clients to unlock their full potential;
	 Help convert napkin-sketch ideas into working, fully-funded and valuable products;
	 Help people verify their ideas and set them up in business.
Everything we do runs through a proven product development and goal alignment process
called the Innovolation Framework™.
Introduction Bradley Pallister
Operations Director
Innovolo Ltd
4© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Why we wrote this book
Over the years we’ve noticed that even amazingly creative and unique companies can
struggle with getting ideas off the ground.
Whether it’s a simple fix to an organisational chart, or a bit of nudging in the right direction
to help a company to launch a product idea with an impactful return on investment (ROI).
Making improvements can turn a new product dream into a reality, and we know the value
in having an extra set of eyes (and hands) to help with a company’s innovation efforts.
That’s why we put together this informational guide - to share some of our experiences
and help even more teams and companies to leverage their inner talents and unlock their
innovation potential.
In this guide, we’ll share some of our best tips and tricks, including how to:
	 Recognise trends and how customer preferences change;
	 Focus on your company strengths in order to get the most out of innovation;
	 Identify and remove common obstacles to innovation;
	 Build levels of innovation that come naturally and are sustained - through the
innovation value pyramid; and,
	 Use practical exercises to future-proof your innovation efforts.
Who this book is for
Every business needs innovation. It’s commonly associated with it’s long-term success.1
It
helps a business to solve problems, save precious time and money, and set it apart from the
competition so it can grow faster.
Every employee within a company can contribute to innovation, too. Whether you’re the
boss of an energetic startup company, an aspiring leader or an employee at an organisation,
you’ll be able to use this guide to help build innovation in your professional scenario.
We’ll use examples of all sorts of different types of businesses: from software companies,
construction firms, tech businesses to self-employed consultants. Even if your unique
business model is not specifically discussed, you’ll be able to apply the methods without
issue.
Innovolo is an active supporter of the idea that innovation is important (dare we say -
essential) for any business to thrive.
If you’re interested in knowing why (and how to do it yourself), then read on!
Bradley Pallister
1	 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/05/08/why-innovation-is-crucial-to-your-organiza-
tions-long-term-success/#4505d3e83098
5© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
If you stop to take a look at the world around you, you’ll notice that it’s constantly changing.
Those changes can affect your business in many ways.
The top-performing businesses predict those changes and adapt to them in order to be
trend setters and stay on top of their industries.
What kind of trends should you look out for?
1.	Recessions and economic downturns
A business needs to be resilient to survive all sorts of recessions and market crashes.
For instance, it’ll come as no surprise that the year 2020 will forever be known as the
year of COVID-19. In the first half of the year, the global health pandemic ravaged the
business landscape.
In the UK, the economy shrank at historical levels not seen for decades. The Bank of
England suggested that the recession may be on par with a severity not experienced
since 1709.1
In April 2020, the economy shrank by more than 20 percent, a drop
three times as large compared to any experienced during the 2008-2009 economic
downturn.2
In that time frame, an estimated quarter of all UK businesses temporarily or permanently
shut down.3
Much of the same effects have been felt around the globe, which has disrupted entire
international industries. Global relations have taken a hit, too as the trust of consumers
and businesses to trade with China has suffered.
The true economic effects won’t be properly felt or analysed for a year or more as the
downstream effects of the pandemic take hold of the business and consumer world.
2.	Companies are changing the way they do business
Millions of businesses around the world were forced to shift their business models to the
virtual sphere as a result of COVID-19.
1	 https://www.barrons.com/articles/u-k-is-headed-for-worst-recession-since-great-frost-of-1709-51588884310
2	 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53231851
3	 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronavirus-
theukeconomyandsocietyfasterindicators/16april2020
The Problems That
Innovation Can Solve0101
6© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Two-thirds of the businesses surveyed by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) said they
increased usage of virtual networking technologies in 2020.4
As economies revert to normal, many of those businesses will keep their operations
virtual. Some companies, like Fujitsu5
in Japan, are taking a proactive headstart on
promoting a workplace of digital transformation. That includes a reimagining of what the
ideal office is, a change to corporate culture and raising awareness of differing optimal
work styles including flexible hours and working from home.
These measures have been seen as innovations by some, since they allow businesses
to cut costs and reduce operational resources. The shift to the virtual space poses some
challenges, though. A company’s communication abilities and organisational culture
can take a hit once employees are only able to connect through teleconference or
web interfacing. A shift or redesign to the modern office or workplace might take some
getting used to, which can disturb a company’s culture and performance, at least during
and immediately following the transition.6
3.	Customer preferences change
The way that customers shop and purchase goods and services is continually changing.
In the near future, there will be a whole generation of folks whose habits drastically
changed as a result of COVID-19. New preferences are being formed almost daily in the
rapidly-evolving consumer world.
As a result of COVID-19, for instance, even as international economies plummeted, the
percentage of sales made online grew to its highest ever in the UK.7 That means that
more and more people (whether out of necessity or preference) are taking their spending
habits online instead of in-store.
New technologies and online platforms facilitate this preference shift and allow retailers
to connect with customers in completely new ways.
Responding to changes
Do any of these changes and trends sound familiar?
If so, that’s perfectly fine. It leads us to our first important lesson:
Lesson #1: your business has to stay alert to trends and
how customer preferences shift.
In the rest of this guide, we’ll show you how to keep your doors open despite facing
increasing pressure, reduced sales or recovering from a recession.
4	 https://businessnewswales.com/uk-business-performance-during-covid-19/
5	 https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2020/0706-01.html
6	 https://theconversation.com/the-death-of-the-open-plan-office-not-quite-but-a-revolution-is-in-the-air-140724
7	 https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/latest
7© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
With all the changes that are happening you might think that it’s a good time to tuck your
head into your shell like a turtle and wait for it all to blow over.
However, you should know that doubling down and innovating your business, even during
tough times, is one of the best ways to come out alive from a recession or a changing
business climate.
In a business study conducted following the 2008-2009 global recession, the most
successful companies who stayed in business (and even thrived) are those who utilised
innovation to their advantage.8
Here’s our little secret that we want to share with you: as tough as 2020 has been, it’s still
an amazing opportunity to grow and improve your business.
Sure, you could view it as a divine sign to close up shop and try something different.
Or, you could view the challenges as a once-in a lifetime opportunity to revolutionize your
business. Which one will it be?
What makes innovation so important for businesses?
Many business owners misunderstand the term innovation. Moreover, they misplace its
importance in the workplace.
You might have the same feelings. Are you intimidated by the concept of innovation? Do you
have it listed in your strategic priorities or your annual budget but aren’t quite sure how to
actually do it?
For many, innovation sounds difficult, excessive and expensive!
After all, shouldn’t you focus on the day to day operations of your business instead of
having your head in the clouds?
Wrong. A healthy, sustainable business needs to look ahead to the future to better
understand how it can evolve and respond to changing market conditions. It needs to think
about the big picture in addition to its daily operations.
8	 https://www.strategy-business.com/media/file/sb61_10408.pdf
How Innovation
Will Set You Free0202
8© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Want to hear the simplest definition of what innovation really is? Just try thinking
about innovation as the different improvements that you can make to your business.
Improvements can come from anywhere, whether it’s the little things you do to have more
fun in the workplace and boost comradery, or going the extra mile for your customers.
In our experience, we place eight different categories for the ways that you can innovate
in your business. You can read all about them in the appendix.
If you think about innovation as simple improvement activities, the whole thing seems less
scary. You don’t need a massive research and development budget or a sophisticated pitch
for angel investors to be able to improve and innovate your business.
Just think about it this way: what small and medium initiatives can you run today to be able
to improve your business?
Lesson #2: innovating your business = making
improvements (no matter how small)!
How do you make improvements?
Improvements can be made to your business in so many different ways.
However, there is a good way and a bad way to actually embark on an improvement
initiative.
On one hand, you could ask a few employees about some things that could be improved at
the workplace. You want to treat your employees like royalty, so why not ask them?
Unfortunately, without putting in some leg work, you might not get the best feedback from
employees if you go straight to them. Instead, you might hear about how the coffee machine
is broken or how more employee parking spaces would be highly appreciated.
We know that we said earlier that any improvement to your business is an innovation. But if
we’re talking about coffee machines, then maybe we need to narrow down the definition a
little further.
Innovations, then, are any improvements you can make to your company that add business
value.
There’s two very easy concepts that we want to introduce to help illustrate how you add
value.
9© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Core Competency
1.	 Your core competency is what sets you apart from other businesses like yours. It’s
the thing that makes your business better and gives you an advantage.
Your core competency is what you need to focus on and protect. You need to
identify your strengths and then nurture them and grow them into your ultimate
advantage. Once your strengths are safe and secure, then you can truly grow by
looking at expanding your business into neighbouring markets, industries or services.
	 For example, imagine a software company, let’s call it Penguin Software Co.
It gets its name from the Linux operating system logo - a penguin mascot.9
The little company specializes in creating low-cost Linux-powered enterprise
programs for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Its core competency
is it’s vision for smart design and unique problem solving that meets their
customer needs. Because they’re so good, they’ve gained a bit of reputation
for themselves in regional circles of the country.
Market Position
2.	 Now let’s move on to the second important feature of improvement activities. You
need to know your market position. It’s the reason that customers buy from you. To
discover it for yourself, ask: “why do customers know about my company in the first
place?”
How have you entered (or sustained your presence) in the market? Your market
position normally stems from the trust or relationships you’ve built with customers. It
can happen through marketing efforts or however it is that you make your business
accessible to customers. It’s also a comparative term - your market position depends
on the others in your industry and your similarity to competitors.
	 Penguin Software Co. knows all about its market position. It understands
how it got its reputation as being a regional leader in custom low-cost Linux
software. It grew in popularity by building strong relationships with industry
partners - local computer repair and sales shops - who were able to refer
them to small business clients in need of custom applications. The company
knows it’s not a market-leader and won’t dominate the UK market any time
soon, but it continually focuses on what it’s good at to improve and grow
along the way.
To make a discovery about your business, you need to take a look inward to figure out your
core strengths and market position. Afterward, the best way to make an improvement is to
double down on what you’re good at. Which leads us to lesson number three:
Lesson #3: innovations should add business value by
strengthening your core competencies and/or enhancing
your market position.
9	 https://web.archive.org/web/20040401161253/http://www.linux.org/info/logos.html
10© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Do you see how innovations need to be more involved than getting a new coffee machine?
If Penguin Software Co. were to improve its services, one of the things it would focus on
is to bolster its customer referral program. Why? Because it knows that it has the best
low-cost design services around and it knows that it’s current successes have relied on
relationships and trust. A referral program is a perfect blend of it’s strengths that will help
it to grow and attract new clients. An improvement to its customer loyalty program is the
perfect place for the company to innovate.
By now, you’ll probably notice that our fictitious Penguin company followed our first three
lessons - it (1) watched for trends in how their market position evolved, (2) made small
improvements to their customer relationships and (3) focused their efforts on improving
what they’re already good at in order to get ahead.
Innovation will set you free from being restricted to the way that everyone else does
business. Instead, look inward and improve on the way that you do business.
11© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
To really bring the point home, let’s look at a real-life example:
Product innovations with core competencies (a case study):
Have you ever stood in line at a Starbucks cafe, gazed upward at the gigantic menu,
without the faintest idea of what to order?
What ever happened to the simple drinks like breakfast teas?
Instead, you saw espresso, cortado, macchiato and just about any flavour of
frappuccino that you could imagine. Not to mention blended fruit drinks and iced
coffees. While you waited in line you could even browse a tasteful selection of branded
mugs, whole-bean coffees, apparel and even housewares.
You weren’t familiar with all the varieties, or even how to pronounce them, but the
reality is that lots of people order those drinks.
In fact, all over the world, millions of beverages pass hands between baristas and
customers every week10
.
How did this come to be?
Look no further than Starbucks’ core competencies to help illustrate.
They have a top-quality product differentiation strategy that mixes an assortment
of high-quality beverages and snacks on their menu.11
They also strive to provide
every customer a “Starbucks Experience” which includes clean and modern stores
and loyalty programs. Each of these aspects help build amazing brand loyalty for the
company.
Starbucks revolutionized the cafe industry by expanding product lines and focusing
on customer experience. They know what they’re good at and build on their core
competencies for all their innovative matters. Every new year or season they release
new products that are firsts on the market. It’s only after a season or two, once
Starbucks paved the way, that competitors release their own offerings of similar
products.
10	 https://www.starbucks.co.uk/about-us
11	 https://scholar.harvard.edu/nithingeereddy/publications/strategic-analysis-financial-analysis
12© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Think you got this whole innovation thing figured out? Just be careful - it might be harder
to put into practice than you might think. After all, if innovation is so amazing and easy,
why doesn’t every business do it well (or at all)?
That’s because while understanding a simple definition for innovation - making small
business improvements - is one thing, actually knowing how to steer your company toward
it is another story.
A 2015 study by Deloitte found that while 96 per cent of companies value innovation in their
top five strategic priorities, less than half of them have a well-defined plan to take action and
execute on their innovation.12
In the middle of your daily operations, there are lots of obstacles that get in the way of
making improvements. We like to call the four biggest obstacles innovation incapabilities:
1.	 Time: it’s harder than you might think to divert valuable company resources away
from important daily operations to focus on pie-in-the-sky innovation activities.
Simply put, it’s so easy and so common for businesses to turn a blind eye to
innovation.
Part of the problem is that without a system or innovation culture in place, it’s hard to
see the value that innovation can make for your business.
2.	 Focus: as diligent as you and your employees might be, there’s always some fire
that needs to be put out. It might be a disgruntled customer that posts an online
smear campaign online, or a valuable shipment destined to a high-profile client that
somehow gets lost in transit. How is it possible to lose an entire delivery van?
But, all too often, things like that happen and divert your focus away from innovation.
Distractions limit your innovation potential by either:
	 Restricting your launch ability. This happens when you can’t even get the
resources together to start an innovation.
	 Or, if you’re actually able to get an idea off the ground, it can quickly lose
momentum and get buried to the bottom of the priority list once again.
3.	 Resourcing: despite your best efforts to be thrifty and keep costs down, any
business activity ultimately needs resourcing. There are obvious resources like time
and money that you can throw at improvement activities.
12	 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/lu/Documents/about-deloitte/lu-en-innovations-survey-25032015.pdf
Suffering from
Innovation Incapability0303
13© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
But there are also less obvious resources that need to be used for innovations: skills
and talent.
The biggest and most valuable innovations may involve a combination of talents that
simply aren’t at your disposal, like legal, technical, design, financial, or accounting
skills. It’s reasonable to expect that your business can’t just go out and hire
dedicated resources to cover those abilities in-house.
4.	 Poor systems: a system is made up of the methods, procedures and routines
involved in carrying out business activities.13
Many businesses are surprised to find
out that they can apply systems to innovation, too.
At its simplest, a system is a way of doing things. So ask yourself. How does your
company “do” innovation? At Innovolo, we call it systematised creativity.
Most businesses lack a thorough system to promote, encourage and develop
innovative ideas on their own. Without a system for innovation, it’s impossible to be
proactive when it comes to improving your business.
Do these obstacles sound familiar? Then you probably suffer from innovation incapability.
Lesson #4: Your ability to focus, your resources and your
business systems all play a role in how innovative you can be.
But don’t worry, we’ll revisit these problems a little later and offer some practical exercises to
help you fix them.
13	 http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/system.html
14© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
It’s nearly impossible to innovate and stay ahead of the curve if you lack a business
direction.
Try asking yourself, right now, what the purpose of your organisation is.
For many businesses, their purpose is to make a few sales and pay the bills. For others, the
company exists to contribute to society by offering valuable services.
The long-term ability of your company to stay operational will depend on your ability to
innovate and continually add value, even while customer preferences change and the world
evolves around you.
In other words, your sustainability as an organisation impacts how long your company
remains valuable after you’re gone.
We’ve used this word, “value” a few times. But what does it really mean? It’s time to take a
closer look.
What is value?
Value can be simply defined as the net level of reward that a project yields.14
It can be
measured in financial terms or in non-monetary terms, like in how much happiness you
bring to your employees or customers.
It’s helpful to think of “value” as having two characteristics.
1.	 Customer value is added when you make your clients happy. This can happen if
you save them money, provide them alternatives or solve their problems.
2.	 Organisational value is added to the business when improvements are made.
When things run smoother and more efficiently, the intellectual capital of a business is
said to increase.
So how do you go about building a valuable business? It’s a lot harder than simply adding
stock to your inventory or buying some new equipment. Those things are more like the outer
shell of your company. If you were to try to sell your business to a new owner, they would
put forward a book value of your physical assets - all the things in your outer shell.
14	 https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/delivering-business-value-9378
Define Value with
Innovation0404
15© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
But the other things like your intellectual capital are much harder to quantify. In reality, these
things, the inside, are what really counts. That leads us to an important point:
Lesson #5: The goodwill value of your business is the
hypothetical value of what you could sell your business for,
including the intangibles such as organisational value.
Once it’s time for the owner of your business (whether that’s you or someone else) to sell the
business, an analysis of the business maturity will be taken. The greater the certainty that
a business will remain valuable after it changes owner hands, the more valuable it is as a
whole.
Luckily, there’s a great system that we want to show you that can help you build innovation
in your company and therefore increase its value. It’s called the Innovation Value Pyramid.
The Innovation Value Pyramid
The value pyramid is a system to help visualize how a company creates its maximum
goodwill value or intellectual capital.
It’s a system that Innovolo uses all the time to help businesses grow their innovation
potential. It owes its inception to Mark Wardell’s value pyramid15
which aims to help
companies with value creation. Luckily for you, it’s also completely transferable to the
innovation side of things so you can use it to turbocharge your own innovation.
It features four levels of organisational achievements to strive for. At each higher level of the
pyramid, innovation (or the likelihood of finding improvements to your business) increases.
At each new level, your business grows and matures. The ultimate goal is to reach the top
to have sustained innovation and value creation in your business.
15	 https://www.wardell.biz/blog/main/succession-dilemma-without-the-right-plan-your-business-is-doomed-to-flounder
16© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Level 1: Owner-driven innovation
Most small enterprises start at an owner-driven level of innovation. It’s where a singular
person (or group of individuals) puts their brilliant minds together to form a business.
Naturally, at the beginning, the growth, sales volume and innovation capacity is directly
correlated to the efforts of that singular owner.
Characteristics of owner-driven innovation:
	 Low value creation since there are minimal innovative efforts.
	 Innovation is dependent on the owner to be sustained.
	 Innovation is not very scalable. The owner can only get a 1:1 ratio of effort versus
impact.
	 There’s not much intellectual capacity in the organisation. The entire goodwill value is
attached to the owner.
Example of owner-driven innovation:
Let’s think up a simple example to help illustrate the innovation value pyramid.
Tim has an office furniture company. Blah! Office furniture? Really?
Sometimes it’s the simplest examples that can illustrate the most impactful lessons.
Tim started his company out of his garage. He invested in a small trailer and a moving
van. He subscribed to an office furniture catalogue which features budget-friendly
furniture that he uses to pitch ideas to his clients about their office spaces.
Between cold-calling for new customers, knocking on doors, consulting with clients,
and doing his own accounting, how much time do you think Tim has for adding,
growing or expanding innovation for his business?
The answer is zero. His daily operations are enough to keep him busy and distracted
from any value-adding innovation efforts.
In other words, despite being the main reason his company exists in the first place,
he’s actually the biggest limiting factor to its growth. And that’s precisely how a level-
one innovation template looks.
17© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Level 2: People-driven innovation
Once a business finds initial success, it’s common that a few very important employees
begin to make their mark. The major roles are filled by all-star employees who go the extra
mile and add value to the business.
Those key players begin to fill the gaps of innovation at the company - they are able to
contribute value without relying on the owner to be the inception point of those new ideas.
Characteristics of people-driven innovation:
	 Medium levels of value creation since innovation becomes more frequent (but still
limited).
	 Innovation is made possible in part by the efforts of its employees, or a few key
people in particular.
	 Innovation has a slight scaling effect. For every new idea put forward by a senior
member of the team, a larger leap is made.
	 The organisational maturity of the company has grown. But there’s a risk, just like in
Level 1. The business potential is tied up in a few key people. If one person leaves,
it’s possible that there could be irreparable damage.
Example of people-driven innovation:
After a year of being in business, Tim built on his successes and hired a few
employees. An office assistant helps him with his paperwork and taking calls. A
salesperson is able to generate more leads for the company.
Tim has freed up more time in his day to focus on making improvements to the
business. He invests in better point-of-sale technology to help accept payments
from clients faster and safer. He also relies on his staff to contribute to the company.
His salesperson had the great idea to research a database software to keep track
of customer relationships. That way, the company can keep track of their leads,
expenses and communicate better with one another.
Tim is thrilled with the innovative idea, because he never would have thought of it
himself.
18© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Level 3: System-driven innovation
The third level of the innovation value pyramid is about adding systems to a company’s
capacity for innovation. This happens when a company takes innovation seriously and starts
to actively encourage and track improvement initiatives.
Business tasks are automated, the company hires great staff and new product or service
ideas are offered up regularly from a motivated team.
Characteristics of system-driven innovation:
	 High levels of value creation since innovation becomes regularised.
	 Innovation happens nearly everywhere at the company and efforts are tracked and
monitored.
	 Innovation has a large scaling effect. Creativity and problem-solving is rewarded and
so the company goes through growth spurts while reaping the benefits of innovation.
	 The business can run on it’s own. There’s enough systems in place to let value
creation and innovation run on its own. If the owner is away on vacation, he or she
can expect to return to a well-functioning organisation with few (or no) fires to put
out.
Example of system-driven innovation
Tim’s Office Furniture Supplies has really taken off. He’s done an amazing job of
systematising creativity at his workplace. With his dozen or so staff, he runs a quarterly
innovation contest which encourages employees to put forward ideas that can help
the company.
Apparently, a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. His accountant, having
come to Tim’s company from a swanky accounting firm (with luxurious furniture, no
doubt), suggested that Tim upgrade his catalogue to include boutique brands that can
cater to upscale head offices and top-floor clients.
That kind of thinking never occured to Tim before and it won the accountant an extra
vacation day to use that year.
He might not know it, but Tim’s effort to encourage and reward innovation (in all
departments of his company) is an example of system-driven innovation. And, he’s on
his way to becoming an office furniture mogul because of it.
19© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Level 4: Culture-driven innovation
The top of the innovation value pyramid is where things get really interesting. Every day at
the office can be creative and exciting because you never know what big idea might surface
next.
Culture-driven innovation happens over time once the right people, with the right systems
finally *click* and are able to engage in sustained innovation. You’ll know when this happens
when your innovation efforts aren’t even “efforts” at all, they’re just part of the culture and
the daily routines of the business.
Characteristics of culture-driven innovation:
	 High levels of value creation since innovation becomes self-sustained.
	 Every member of the team encourages each other to be creative and innovative.
	 Innovation is massively scalable. For every ounce of innovation, the returns can be
substantial in terms of efficiency and value-creation. At the end of each day, the
business is better off than it was the previous day.
	 From the owner’s perspective, the organisation is on auto-pilot. He or she doesn’t
have to do much rubber-stamping of ideas because there is trust in the teams and
the executives to operate and even grow the company in its leader’s absence.
Example of a culture-driven innovation:
Lately, Tim’s company feels more like an empire. His numerous employees and teams
work very well together and are a vibrant and creative bunch.
Tim no longer needs to hire whoever he can find. He can hand-pick his new
employees that demonstrate a proven record of the values that are important to his
business: innovation, integrity and professionalism. Innovation is even part of his job
descriptions, hiring package and listed on his website’s About Us page as a core
value.
Tim assigned a leadership role to his creative-thinking accountant, who is now his
Innovation Leader for the company. The accountant coordinates and promotes
innovation at all levels of the company. Customer feedback and opinions are also part
of the regular feedback loops that are discussed at regular team meetings.
In short, Tim’s company is addicted to innovation. And it’s been the driving force
behind his success of turning a modest garage-based business into a regional
success story. He is comforted by the fact that if he ever wants to step away or move
on from the organisation, the immense value and intellectual capital of the business will
be valued in the range of seven figures.
20© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
This is where we move from the theoretical aspects and into the practical spotlight. We
saw in Part 4 that embedding innovation into a business can be seen as a pyramid
of possibilities. And, earlier in Part 3 we covered some common obstacles that prevent
businesses from reaching their innovation potential.
Innovation is an organisational challenge. So it needs organisational solutions. In this
section, we’re looking at what sorts of solutions you can offer at your enterprise. We’ll go
back to each obstacle: time, focus, poor systems and resourcing. We’ll offer solutions to
each one so you can turbocharge innovation, zoom past the obstacles and grow your
business alongside the innovation value pyramid.
1. Time
If you’re a business owner or a business leader, you’ve probably muttered the phrase
“whose got the time?” when posed with a solution to a nagging problem.
In reality, it’s all too easy to take a pessimistic viewpoint to your own perception of time.
While feeling rushed or behind schedule, it’s common to push innovation or problem-solving
down the priority list and instead focus on checking off the quick-wins in your daily agenda.
There’s a common, yet unfortunate scenario that happens to companies, big and small. It
happens when a junior staff member, let’s call her Erica, is assigned the task of organising
the company’s dust-covered filing cabinet or storage room. In it, she finds a report
from three to five years ago that outlines some really innovative steps to improving the
organisation. It was commissioned by the same director who hired her, but it looks like the
report went straight into the recycle bin (or, in this case, to the back of the filing cabinet).
When Erica asks her hiring manager about the document, what does she hear? You
guessed it: “who’s got the time?”
It’s possible that the Director loved that report from a few years ago and would love to see
some of the initiatives come to life. But, as is all too common, the priorities of the day got in
the way and so nothing came of it. Erica is forced to apologise and go back to her regular
work. She is left wondering how much she really needs to learn about the bizarre business
world she finds herself in.
How can this company look past it’s short-sightedness and make innovation a priority?
Turbocharge Innovation
with Organisational
Solutions0505
21© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
What the company needs is an innovation champion - a singular person who can take
initiative and be accountable for the improvements. He or she would see the project
through from start to finish and prevent it from falling through the cracks.
The benefits of assigning an innovation champion:
	 The innovation leader is responsible for maintaining the momentum of an innovative
project. It helps reduce the likelihood of the improvement totally falling off everyone’s
radar.
	 The innovation specialist can work on new innovative ideas on a part-time or full-time
basis.
	 It supports the creation of an innovation system (the very designation of a leader is
in fact a system).
	 It promotes an innovation culture since that innovation leader can get different
people involved and call on different departments or team members to help and
assist with innovation efforts.
	 It helps generate new ideas,too, since the innovation leader is also a role model.
Their whole world becomes innovation - they can hold weekly or monthly innovation
meetings to encourage new ideas. Or, they can focus on any other system or
method to help promote ideation at the workplace.
2. Focus
It’s incredibly easy to get distracted with the day-to-day operations of your business. We get
it - with every new day it seems like there’s more and more fires to put out. How can you
possibly focus on innovation?
Or, once an initiative is led, how do you maintain that momentum so that a project actually
gets off the ground and is successful?
The answer is that you have to get outside your business. For regularised innovation, it’s
nearly impossible to devote the attention necessary while sticking around the workplace
or boardroom. There will always be an excuse to step outside, take a phone call, send an
email, or call someone back.
The solution? Have an off-site meeting, specifically devoted to strategy and innovation.
The best way to do it is to prepare for a focused conversation in advance and to limit the
distractions. Yes - that means no cellphones, no laptops - no distractions!
The conversation should be based on a targeted question or topic that matters to your
business. In fact, the success of a strategic innovation session hinges on the preparation
and leg work that goes into the meeting in advance. Don’t be passive and assume that
simply getting people together will be enough to develop some thought-provoking ideas or
an amazing new plan.
An off-site strategic meeting (a case study):
22© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
One company that takes strategic innovation seriously is Allstate Insurance.16
They’re one of the
largest property and casualty insurers in America. When they identified that their customer loyalty
was below industry average, they took to a facilitated, off-site ideation meeting to help develop
a path forward. The workshop was entirely devoted to customer retention and developing new
initiatives to improve it.
They tick off nearly every box when they get together for off-site ideation.
In one example of how Allstate takes things seriously:
	 Leg work had been done before they met;
	 Goals and objectives were agreed to upfront;
	 They hired a professional facilitator to help organise and structure the conversation;
	 The ideation was centered around a pre-researched idea; and,
	 They were so committed to the advanced preparation that they didn’t even hand-hold
participants and walk through material at the meeting that was circulated beforehand.
Talk about commitment!
Looking to replicate the success of top-performing companies who use off-site innovation
meetings?
Here’s some tips to help administer your very own off-site:
16	 https://hbr.org/2006/06/off-sites-that-work
1.	 For your first event, start small. A
group of 6-8 key players at your
company is a great place to start.
2.	 Prepare some data or supporting
material in advance of the meeting.
3.	 Use a designated moderator or
facilitator. It can be a contracted
professional or someone from your
organisation whose role is to wear the
facilitation hat. The facilitator should
encourage participation and keep the
conversation focused on the strategic
priority.
4.	 Don’t ever take ideas off the board!
5.	 It’s okay to disagree with one
another. The goal is to foster genuine
engagement.
6.	 Innovation can happen from
the unlikeliest of sources - your
accountant, your cleaning staff,
who knows? Fostering ideation
from all team members is one of the
fundamental ways to build a culture of
innovation.
7.	 If you really hit a roadblock, you can
try looking at what other businesses
are doing as a way to jumpstart the
discussion and ideation process.
8.	 Develop follow-up mechanisms so
you can continue the conversation at
a future meeting.
9.	 Make sure everyone is on the same
page. If decisions were made at the
event about how to go forward with
your innovation strategy, then be sure
to get agreement (from everyone
involved) about the next steps.
An off-site innovation meeting doesn’t have to be difficult. With a little preparation and lots of
participation, you’ll be well on your way to troubleshooting your company problems and finding
innovative solutions - without all the distractions that are inevitable from the day-to-day setting
of your workplace.
23© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
3. Resourcing
The barrier to your company’s innovation often lies in simple resourcing. You might have an
amazing idea but no way to achieve it since you lack the experience to get the idea off the
ground.
It happens when you’re not really sure if you need to jump through legal hurdles to patent
your new product idea. Or, you’re unsure how to market your new idea or whether you need
an engineer to develop a working prototype.
That’s a lot of “I’m not sures!” Besides, even if you knew how to do all those things, or had
the employee experience in-house to do it, wouldn’t any one of those activities cost you
thousands?
Well, while you’re not wrong that innovation can be expensive, it doesn’t necessarily have to
be. There’s a few things you can try to overcome the organisational challenge resourcing.
For starters, if you assigned an innovation specialist at your organisation, as was the case
mentioned earlier, that person can be a great facilitator of the necessary expertise needed to
get a project off the ground.
They can cover all the coordination efforts to get the right people in the room - the
designers, marketing, legal or financial experts required to pull the project toward
completion.
Or, try one of these tactics to overcome resourcing issues:
A.	 Do things cheaply
	 There are lots of online resources available to help you design and prototype your
ideas on a budget.
	 Your innovation dream doesn’t have to start with a multi-million dollar analysis,
prototype or customer survey.
	 Instead, substitute a fulsome (and costly) end-to-end project with a virtual
prototype.
	 A virtual prototype can be as simple as a well-documented description and
outline of an improvement idea. It doesn’t cost very much to write your ideas
down on paper!
	 You can make it visual, fun and engaging through images and designs.
	 Share it with employees, outside help or investors to get some iterative feedback
to help improve the design - all before you ever get close to a full and costly
launch stage.
	 A virtual prototype is a cheaper alternative for your ideation and validation process
that won’t cripple your company through huge investments in time or finances.
24© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
B.	 Hire outside help.
	 These days, with the assistance of virtual technology and an ever-expanding
knowledge for business best practices, it’s possible to hire outside help to target
your innovation efforts.
	 To cover gaps in your employee knowledge, you can contract out your specific
needs to external consultants - whether it be legal, technical or marketing advice
that you need.
	 Or, you can hire an end-to-end innovation specialist17
to help you out.
	 It can be a cost-effective solution, with low overhead, to hire a contractor in order
to supplement your in-house expertise.
17	 https://innovolo.co.uk/
25© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
4. Poor Systems
There’s no way around it - if your company doesn’t have a good system to promote
innovation, it’ll be really hard to make any noticeable improvements.
“Systems-thinking” and systems-based innovation are featured on the third phase of
the innovation value pyramid for a good reason - they’re some of the best ways to
encourage, track and monitor the progress of innovation.
How can you build the organisational capacity to make innovation second nature?
A.	 Awareness
Systems are purposeful and diligent. That means that you have to take action and
actively talk about improvement activities in your organisation.
To promote new ideas, try running ideation campaigns at your workplace. It’s like a
competition to see who can come up with ideas to either cut costs, enhance value,
or do things faster or safer. You can promote it within your company’s social or
internal network.
An awareness campaign for innovation puts it at the front and centre of your
values and strategies. It lets your employees know that it’s important and gets the
conversations flowing.
B.	 Scheduled mini-events
A mini-event is any kind of regularised activity that can help promote innovation. A
scheduled activity or routine is, in fact, a type of system.
Try doing a weekly scrum with your teams. Keep it short! Cover three quick
questions:
	 What have you done;
	 What are you going to do; and,
	 What obstacles are in your way.
These quick sessions help promote communication. If everyone is involved, you’ll be
surprised about who has some quirky and innovative ideas to remove barriers and
make your business run smoother.
C.	 Invest in an Innovation Management Tool
In the innovation world, an Innovation Management Tool (IMT) is a highly productive
tool that can improve your company’s innovation efforts.
If your current innovation capacity is like your company’s engine that powers your
efforts to get you from point A to point B, then an IMT is like a turbocharger.
26© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
They commonly come in the form of software-based systems to help you reach new
heights in your innovation efforts. It’s a software that every employee can access
to contribute ideas but also review and comment on the ideas of others. It’s a way
to systematize the creative energy of your teams by providing a way to ideate,
collaborate and then provide a workflow to monitor and engage in innovation.
IMT technology can come in many different packages. One study, published in the
International Journal of Innovation Management, researched the usage of innovation
management practices in Spanish companies and found that there are over 250
types of innovation management tools!18 They went on to suggest a broad definition
of innovation tools as a “range of tools, techniques, and methodologies” that
companies use to improve “their competitive position through managing innovation
to adapt to circumstances and meet market challenges in a systematic way.”
The result of the study? A company’s innovation success was higher if they had a
system for innovation in place.
Build organisational capacity for innovation
One of the biggest obstacles to innovation is simply a company’s own creativity. There are
so many amazing and smart solutions that can help a business grow and thrive through
innovation, but sometimes all they need is to be pointed in the right direction. As you can
see from the great examples in this past section, if you have a problem with innovation,
there’s an organisational solution that you can try.
So don’t be held back by that overwhelming feeling that taking the first step toward
innovation can bring. Be proactive and bring some of these examples and ideas to the table
the next time that your business seeks some creative solutions.
Let’s finish off this section with a summarised lesson:
Lesson 6: Don’t let innovation fall to the bottom of your
to-do list. There are organisational opportunities to
overcome any barrier to innovation that you face. So don’t
be discouraged!
18	 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323018119_Innovation_management_techniques_and_tools_Its_impact_on_firm_in-
novation_performance
27© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
In the last section, we covered some great strategies for how to instill innovation excellence
in an organisation. The solutions presented there, however, are not the types of activities
that you can do overnight.
Planning an ideation workshop, the right way, can take some time. Researching, picking
out and implementing the best ideation or innovation management software can also be a
significant undertaking.
In this section, we want to provide you with some quick-win activities that you can do
yourself. You can even work through them as you learn about them, so grab a paper and
pen!
In doing so, these activities are excellent practice for the kind of creative thinking, trend-
watching and obstacle-jumping behaviour that’s needed to be truly innovative.
Exercise 1: Think like your customers
When times are tough because your sales are slow, your industry faces tax or trade
challenges, or a global recession is happening, it’s definitely a cause for alarm.
However, even during the tough times, you can take comfort in the fact that you got to
where you are today through some force of will or sheer effort. Likely, you impressed some
customers along the way and you have an established brand at some sort of local or
regional level.
If so, even if times feel disappointing to you, be comforted by the fact that your customers
still exist. You have an established brand and you have built trust with some customers.
Part of the problem, either during recession or some other reason, why sales might be slow,
is that the needs or preferences of your customers may have changed. How are you going
to rise to meet that challenge?
There’s an easy way that you can adapt to a changing business environment. It all starts
with thinking like your customers.
Sure, the chips are down for your business, but what about your clients? Try to imagine the
daily life of your average customer. How have things changed for them? In 2020, the world
is faced with a unique case study to test this out. What’s changed because of COVID-19?
Practical Exercises For
Innovation0606
28© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
What are in people’s delivery vans, their supply closets, their toolboxes? Generally, there’s
been unprecedented purchases of sanitisation and cleaning products. Businesses and
consumers alike have taken a whole new interest in cleanliness and sanitation as a result of
the global pandemic.
So, make a list of the products or services that your customers are using BUT are currently
not sourcing from you. Think of these as your opportunity offerings.
Make a grid of three to four columns. In the rows, you’ll list the products or services that
your customers are buying. In the columns, list some ways that you can do those things
either better, faster, cheaper, or (especially for the COVID-19 scenario) safer! Like so:
BETTER FASTER CHEAPER SAFER
Product A
Product B
Service X
Service Y
Protect and Pivot
Similar to how we saw, in an earlier section, how your core competency is one of the keys
to help you get ahead of your competition, this exercise is a way for you to build on your
strengths.
As our friend and trusted business coach Roy Newey19
puts forward in his book Ready,
Set, Grow, you can out-innovate your competitors by protecting your core competency
(that’s what you’re good at, remember?) and then, once you’ve reached a certain business
maturity, pivot to neighbouring markets or services that are similar enough to your core
competency that the transition won’t bog you down.20
This exercise - thinking like your customer - is an excellent way to utilise your strengths and
then pivot to similar marketplaces to meet the needs of your customers and provide them
value.
19	 https://www.roynewey.com/whoarewe/
20	 https://innovolo.co.uk/webinar-recording-ready-set-grow-with-innovation-with-roy-newey
29© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Let’s look at an example of a business that, in 2020, is doing just that:
Think like your customers (a case study):
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020, entire industries were disrupted.
None more so than the wedding industry. With national regulatory restrictions on the
amount of people allowed at events, it forced thousands of couples-to-be to cancel
their ceremonies altogether.
That’s bad news for event planners, interior designers, entertainment venues and
virtually all businesses who make their living in the wedding industry.
For one Seattle-based wedding dress designer, Luly Yang Design, the unique challenge
of by COVID-19 was viewed as an opportunity.
The designer focused on its strength - making high-quality and hand-made
boutique wedding dresses - and pivoted their product line to meet the needs of their
customers. Their lovely Couture Face Masks provide thousands of customers a new
way to stay safe in public and also feel confident and get the unique look they crave.21
They’ve even released an effective engagement campaign online to drive traffic and
provide value even for web users who are not necessarily paying customers. You can
learn to assemble your very own Luly Yang-style face mask through their instructional
blog and video.22
This exercise might not seem like much. You might be thinking that “anybody can do an
activity like that! That’s too simple for my sophisticated business needs.” Well, you’d be
surprised by how many companies don’t put in the time to do exercises like this.
Do you remember the first obstacle to innovation that we covered? That’s right - time.
This exercise, as simple as it is, is an example of how you can start to systematize
innovation at your company and move up the Innovation Value Pyramid. It’s all about making
deliberate efforts to improve the way you do business and adapt to meet the needs of
customers.
Talk about innovation at its finest!
21	 https://lulyyang.com/products/zoom-i-face-mask
22	 https://lulyyang.com/pages/test-face-mask
30© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Exercise 2: Discover new trends
New trends emerge all around you. They can happen as break-neck speeds but have a
huge impact on your business sustainability. After all, how can you continue to provide value
to customers if what’s fashionable or desirable changes so rapidly?
This business predicament may be as old as time, but the dilemma has taken on some new
twists in the last few decades. Especially with internet and social media, trends can originate
from virtually anywhere - from a bored employee’s office workstation to an angsty teenager’s
antics in public.
Innovation, as defined as a way to improve your business, has a very important aspect
of adaptation to it. In order to survive in a rapidly-changing world, you need to be able to
adapt.
Here’s some simple ways you can discover new trends:
1.	 Be a reader. You have to have a deep knowledge about your industry and the
market. Things like industry journals, influencer blogs and the social media accounts
of business leaders are great places to watch the trends.
2.	 Look internally. Even some of your own metrics that you track for your core
business functions can tell a story about what’s happening to the market or industry
around you. What are you selling? What costs are rising or falling? Recognising these
trends early can help you adapt.
3.	 Get involved. Socialise and network with others in (and outside) your industry.
4.	 Study statistics (from reputable sources). It’s important not to get scared into
making a decision based on something you saw
in the media. Instead, find a good source
for metrics that are as unbiased as
possible. These often come from
think tanks and public agencies
and can help you stay on top of
the large-scale trends.
5.	 Use digital tools. It’s amazing
how much content gets
published online (for free!) every
day. There are simple ways to
facilitate your data searching.
Social media aggregators help
condense and organise the
important posts that matter to you.
There are also trend-spotting tools
that use predictive data and search
queries to provide a wealth of information
about emerging trends.
31© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
We’ve compiled a list of some great online resources, in the Appendix, that you can use to
discover new trends.
Trend discovery (a case study):
Because of recent COVID-19 related events, the sales of stay-at-home products have
increased dramatically.
Who would have been able to predict that there would be a 400 percent year-over-
year increase in the sales of bread makers?23
It’s left even some large retailers, like Bed
Bath  Beyond, scrambling to meet the demand.
In the UK, the demand for baking flour rose to historic levels.24
It’s all evidence of
changing consumption patterns as supermarket shelves struggle to keep stock of
in-demand goods. It also reflects a shift in preferences. The average consumer has
discovered new pastimes at home, a trend which is set to perpetuate into the future
even as the world recovers from COVID-19.
If you were to use a digital tool, like Exploding Topics, you could see the rise and
sustained pace of the stay-at-home product market. Exploding Topics is a web tool
that analyses millions of searches and conversations on the internet to suggest the
fastest-growing topics before they take off into the general public’s watchful eye. By
that time, the opportunity may be lost to gain an edge. With this digital tool, you can
always stay on top of trends, before everyone else.
Some estimates say that the global bread maker market will grow by over $4 billion
(US) between 2020-2024, evidence that it’s a trend that’s here to stay.25
At least until the next big trend takes over.
23	 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bed-bath-beyond-bread-maker-sales-rise-400-and-vacuum-sales-double-amid-covid-19-
stay-at-home-orders-2020-04-16
24	 https://theconversation.com/why-flour-is-still-missing-from-supermarket-shelves-137263
25	 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200720005546/en/COVID-19-Impact-Recovery-Analysis--Bread-Maker-Market
Lesson 7: if you ever feel stuck or unmotivated to practice
innovation, then try an innovation quick-win. It can even be on
the back of a sticky note or a napkin. They’re a great way to get
your creative juices flowing and think up new ways to add value
for your business.
32© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Conclusion
We’ve covered a lot of ground in this informational guide. By now, you
probably realise why innovation has become one of the top priorities for
businesses all over the world.
Estimates predict that the global market for innovation management is set
to grow by 12.5 percent from 2020 to 2024.26
It’s a market worth hundreds
of millions of pounds and it’s not expected to stop growing any time soon.
Some of the biggest drivers of its growth are to be the development of
brand new innovation methodologies and the importance of work culture in
enterprises.
Innovation will remain especially important as the world recovers from a
global recession, customer preferences change and industries are forced to
evolve as a result.
You don’t want to be left behind, do you?
We’ve seen it time and time again - the best businesses utilise innovation as
a fundamental growth factor and embed it as a strategic priority.
On your path to discovering innovation at your workplace, if you focus on
learning the fundamentals, covered in this guide, you’ll be far ahead of your
competition. Even simple exercises and a little awareness for improvements
can go a long way.
On the next page, you’ll find a full list of all the lessons we learned. Feel free
to print them off, post them at your office, in the lunchroom or at your desk -
anywhere that you can get a conversation about innovation happening!
26	 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/innovation-management-market-238981272.html
33© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Lesson #1: Your business has to stay alert to trends and how customer preferences shift.
Lesson #2: Innovating your business = making improvements (no matter how small)!
Lesson #3: Innovations should add business value by strengthening your core competencies
	 and/or enhancing your market position.
Lesson #4: Your ability to focus, your resources and your business systems all play a role in
	 how innovative you can be.
Lesson #5: The goodwill value of your business is the hypothetical value of what you could
	 sell your business for, including the intangibles such as organisational value.
Lesson #6: Don’t let innovation fall to the bottom of your to-do list. There are
	 organisational opportunities that can overcome any barrier to innovation.
	 So don’t get discouraged!
Lesson #7: If you ever feel stuck or unmotivated to practice innovation, then try an innovation
	 quick-win. You can even jot something down on a sticky note or the back of a
	 napkin. They’re a great way to get your creative juices flowing and think up new
	 ways to add value for your business.
Innovation Lessons
34© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Exploding Topics
Exploding topics is a website that scours the
millions of search and online conversations that
happen all over the world. Then, it aggregates
and summarizes the data so that you can
discover trends and topics that are on their
way to becoming super popular. It’s a great
way to monitor trends and stay ahead of the
competition so you can innovate in ways that
interest consumers. If you browse nothing else,
at least check out their great newsletter which
delivers amazing new trends to your inbox every
week.
Check it out here:
https://explodingtopics.com/
1010data
1010data is for your company if you love
spreadsheets. It’s a data discovery platform
that lets you access some amazing business
intelligence. You’ll find consumer data, industry
insights and more - all of which can help you
stay on top of big trends and better understand
how to add value to your customers.
Check it out here:
https://1010data.com/
Statista
Statista is an online statistics platform. It
provides facts and figures in a wide variety of
fields and markets that can help your business
with its decision-making and innovation efforts. It
excels at offering you business-friendly graphics,
compelling statistics and condensed research
reports that are based on your preferences. That
way, you can utilise Big Data without having to
employ a PhD statistician on your teams.
Check it out here:
https://www.statista.com/
Visual Capitalist
As its name suggests, Visual Capitalist is a very
visual information platform. It can help you stay
on top of important business trends. It provides
itself on offering data-driven stories that feature
powerful visuals. The user-friendly graphics help
make complicated topics easy to understand
so that you can focus your time and energy on
innovation.
Check it out here:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/
Appendix A: Additional Resources
35© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Here’s a quick list of 8 common ways that businesses can employ innovation at their
workplaces.
1. Strategy Innovation
Try to create options about the possible
future direction of your team, department
or organisation as a whole. That includes
important business decisions such
as your direction, growth activities,
collaboration initiatives and how you
position yourself in the market.
2. Business Model Innovation
How do you make money? The answer
is normally your business model. Try
investigating new revenue streams like
fee for service, subscriptions, direct sales
or offering different pricing points for
different premium services.
3. Product or Service Innovation
These are the kind of improvements that
most people think about when they think
of innovation. New design ideas for your
products or services can help attract
new clients, increase customer loyalty or
break into new markets. Just be sure to
focus on what you’re good at (your core
competencies)!
4. Process Innovation
Anything that falls under the systems-
based innovations that we cover in this
guide are normally process innovations.
They’re improvements that enhance the
way that you do business internally.
5. Marketing Innovation
Even the way that you promote your
products or services can be innovative.
This includes the way that you
differentiate your business from others,
position yourself in the market, advertise
and use social media or other marketing
channels to increase the public interest in
your brand.
6. Technology Innovation
Technology can have a disruptive effect
on innovation and entire markets. In the
consumer world, it’s been a powerful
driving force for innovation over the
last few decades. Just look at Silicon
Valley. It’s a flexible (though sometimes
expensive) option to automate your
processes or go through transformational
change in your business model.
7. Supply Chain Innovation
Your supply chain involves everything
from your supplier inputs, manufacturers
and logistics companies, all the way to
your end consumer. At every stage of
your supply chain, you can encourage
innovation either directly through your
suppliers or by how you manage it
yourself.
8. Organisational Innovation
This is where you innovate the ways that
your company and its people behave,
think and feel. It’s all about encouraging
innovation and ideation through a change
to the workplace culture.
Appendix B: 8 Ways to Innovate
36© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
Innovolo Ltd
www.innovolo.co.uk
0333 011 1771
© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020

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How to build a valuable business with innovation

  • 1. INNOVATION HOW TO BUILD A VALUABLE BUSINESS WITH
  • 3. Contents Contributors 2 Introduction 4 Part 1: The Problems That Innovation Can Solve 6 Responding to Changes Part 2: How Innovation Will Set You Free 8 Core Competency Market Position Part 3: Suffering From Innovation Incapability 13 Part 4: Define Value With Innovation 15 What is Value? The Innovation Value Pyramid Part 5: Turbocharge Innovation With Organisational Solutions 21 Build Organisational Capacity for Innovation Part 6: Practical Exercises For Innovation 28 Exercise 1: Think like your Customers Exercise 2: Discover New Trends Conclusion 33 Lessons On Innovation 34 Appendix A: Additional Resources 35 Appendix B: 8 Ways To Innovate 36
  • 4. Who we are Innovolo Ltd is a UK-based product development and design service company. We help clients big and small to turbocharge innovation in their organisations. At Innovolo, we: Work with B2B clients to unlock their full potential; Help convert napkin-sketch ideas into working, fully-funded and valuable products; Help people verify their ideas and set them up in business. Everything we do runs through a proven product development and goal alignment process called the Innovolation Framework™. Introduction Bradley Pallister Operations Director Innovolo Ltd 4© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 5. Why we wrote this book Over the years we’ve noticed that even amazingly creative and unique companies can struggle with getting ideas off the ground. Whether it’s a simple fix to an organisational chart, or a bit of nudging in the right direction to help a company to launch a product idea with an impactful return on investment (ROI). Making improvements can turn a new product dream into a reality, and we know the value in having an extra set of eyes (and hands) to help with a company’s innovation efforts. That’s why we put together this informational guide - to share some of our experiences and help even more teams and companies to leverage their inner talents and unlock their innovation potential. In this guide, we’ll share some of our best tips and tricks, including how to: Recognise trends and how customer preferences change; Focus on your company strengths in order to get the most out of innovation; Identify and remove common obstacles to innovation; Build levels of innovation that come naturally and are sustained - through the innovation value pyramid; and, Use practical exercises to future-proof your innovation efforts. Who this book is for Every business needs innovation. It’s commonly associated with it’s long-term success.1 It helps a business to solve problems, save precious time and money, and set it apart from the competition so it can grow faster. Every employee within a company can contribute to innovation, too. Whether you’re the boss of an energetic startup company, an aspiring leader or an employee at an organisation, you’ll be able to use this guide to help build innovation in your professional scenario. We’ll use examples of all sorts of different types of businesses: from software companies, construction firms, tech businesses to self-employed consultants. Even if your unique business model is not specifically discussed, you’ll be able to apply the methods without issue. Innovolo is an active supporter of the idea that innovation is important (dare we say - essential) for any business to thrive. If you’re interested in knowing why (and how to do it yourself), then read on! Bradley Pallister 1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/05/08/why-innovation-is-crucial-to-your-organiza- tions-long-term-success/#4505d3e83098 5© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 6. If you stop to take a look at the world around you, you’ll notice that it’s constantly changing. Those changes can affect your business in many ways. The top-performing businesses predict those changes and adapt to them in order to be trend setters and stay on top of their industries. What kind of trends should you look out for? 1. Recessions and economic downturns A business needs to be resilient to survive all sorts of recessions and market crashes. For instance, it’ll come as no surprise that the year 2020 will forever be known as the year of COVID-19. In the first half of the year, the global health pandemic ravaged the business landscape. In the UK, the economy shrank at historical levels not seen for decades. The Bank of England suggested that the recession may be on par with a severity not experienced since 1709.1 In April 2020, the economy shrank by more than 20 percent, a drop three times as large compared to any experienced during the 2008-2009 economic downturn.2 In that time frame, an estimated quarter of all UK businesses temporarily or permanently shut down.3 Much of the same effects have been felt around the globe, which has disrupted entire international industries. Global relations have taken a hit, too as the trust of consumers and businesses to trade with China has suffered. The true economic effects won’t be properly felt or analysed for a year or more as the downstream effects of the pandemic take hold of the business and consumer world. 2. Companies are changing the way they do business Millions of businesses around the world were forced to shift their business models to the virtual sphere as a result of COVID-19. 1 https://www.barrons.com/articles/u-k-is-headed-for-worst-recession-since-great-frost-of-1709-51588884310 2 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53231851 3 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronavirus- theukeconomyandsocietyfasterindicators/16april2020 The Problems That Innovation Can Solve0101 6© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 7. Two-thirds of the businesses surveyed by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) said they increased usage of virtual networking technologies in 2020.4 As economies revert to normal, many of those businesses will keep their operations virtual. Some companies, like Fujitsu5 in Japan, are taking a proactive headstart on promoting a workplace of digital transformation. That includes a reimagining of what the ideal office is, a change to corporate culture and raising awareness of differing optimal work styles including flexible hours and working from home. These measures have been seen as innovations by some, since they allow businesses to cut costs and reduce operational resources. The shift to the virtual space poses some challenges, though. A company’s communication abilities and organisational culture can take a hit once employees are only able to connect through teleconference or web interfacing. A shift or redesign to the modern office or workplace might take some getting used to, which can disturb a company’s culture and performance, at least during and immediately following the transition.6 3. Customer preferences change The way that customers shop and purchase goods and services is continually changing. In the near future, there will be a whole generation of folks whose habits drastically changed as a result of COVID-19. New preferences are being formed almost daily in the rapidly-evolving consumer world. As a result of COVID-19, for instance, even as international economies plummeted, the percentage of sales made online grew to its highest ever in the UK.7 That means that more and more people (whether out of necessity or preference) are taking their spending habits online instead of in-store. New technologies and online platforms facilitate this preference shift and allow retailers to connect with customers in completely new ways. Responding to changes Do any of these changes and trends sound familiar? If so, that’s perfectly fine. It leads us to our first important lesson: Lesson #1: your business has to stay alert to trends and how customer preferences shift. In the rest of this guide, we’ll show you how to keep your doors open despite facing increasing pressure, reduced sales or recovering from a recession. 4 https://businessnewswales.com/uk-business-performance-during-covid-19/ 5 https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2020/0706-01.html 6 https://theconversation.com/the-death-of-the-open-plan-office-not-quite-but-a-revolution-is-in-the-air-140724 7 https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/latest 7© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 8. With all the changes that are happening you might think that it’s a good time to tuck your head into your shell like a turtle and wait for it all to blow over. However, you should know that doubling down and innovating your business, even during tough times, is one of the best ways to come out alive from a recession or a changing business climate. In a business study conducted following the 2008-2009 global recession, the most successful companies who stayed in business (and even thrived) are those who utilised innovation to their advantage.8 Here’s our little secret that we want to share with you: as tough as 2020 has been, it’s still an amazing opportunity to grow and improve your business. Sure, you could view it as a divine sign to close up shop and try something different. Or, you could view the challenges as a once-in a lifetime opportunity to revolutionize your business. Which one will it be? What makes innovation so important for businesses? Many business owners misunderstand the term innovation. Moreover, they misplace its importance in the workplace. You might have the same feelings. Are you intimidated by the concept of innovation? Do you have it listed in your strategic priorities or your annual budget but aren’t quite sure how to actually do it? For many, innovation sounds difficult, excessive and expensive! After all, shouldn’t you focus on the day to day operations of your business instead of having your head in the clouds? Wrong. A healthy, sustainable business needs to look ahead to the future to better understand how it can evolve and respond to changing market conditions. It needs to think about the big picture in addition to its daily operations. 8 https://www.strategy-business.com/media/file/sb61_10408.pdf How Innovation Will Set You Free0202 8© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 9. Want to hear the simplest definition of what innovation really is? Just try thinking about innovation as the different improvements that you can make to your business. Improvements can come from anywhere, whether it’s the little things you do to have more fun in the workplace and boost comradery, or going the extra mile for your customers. In our experience, we place eight different categories for the ways that you can innovate in your business. You can read all about them in the appendix. If you think about innovation as simple improvement activities, the whole thing seems less scary. You don’t need a massive research and development budget or a sophisticated pitch for angel investors to be able to improve and innovate your business. Just think about it this way: what small and medium initiatives can you run today to be able to improve your business? Lesson #2: innovating your business = making improvements (no matter how small)! How do you make improvements? Improvements can be made to your business in so many different ways. However, there is a good way and a bad way to actually embark on an improvement initiative. On one hand, you could ask a few employees about some things that could be improved at the workplace. You want to treat your employees like royalty, so why not ask them? Unfortunately, without putting in some leg work, you might not get the best feedback from employees if you go straight to them. Instead, you might hear about how the coffee machine is broken or how more employee parking spaces would be highly appreciated. We know that we said earlier that any improvement to your business is an innovation. But if we’re talking about coffee machines, then maybe we need to narrow down the definition a little further. Innovations, then, are any improvements you can make to your company that add business value. There’s two very easy concepts that we want to introduce to help illustrate how you add value. 9© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 10. Core Competency 1. Your core competency is what sets you apart from other businesses like yours. It’s the thing that makes your business better and gives you an advantage. Your core competency is what you need to focus on and protect. You need to identify your strengths and then nurture them and grow them into your ultimate advantage. Once your strengths are safe and secure, then you can truly grow by looking at expanding your business into neighbouring markets, industries or services. For example, imagine a software company, let’s call it Penguin Software Co. It gets its name from the Linux operating system logo - a penguin mascot.9 The little company specializes in creating low-cost Linux-powered enterprise programs for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Its core competency is it’s vision for smart design and unique problem solving that meets their customer needs. Because they’re so good, they’ve gained a bit of reputation for themselves in regional circles of the country. Market Position 2. Now let’s move on to the second important feature of improvement activities. You need to know your market position. It’s the reason that customers buy from you. To discover it for yourself, ask: “why do customers know about my company in the first place?” How have you entered (or sustained your presence) in the market? Your market position normally stems from the trust or relationships you’ve built with customers. It can happen through marketing efforts or however it is that you make your business accessible to customers. It’s also a comparative term - your market position depends on the others in your industry and your similarity to competitors. Penguin Software Co. knows all about its market position. It understands how it got its reputation as being a regional leader in custom low-cost Linux software. It grew in popularity by building strong relationships with industry partners - local computer repair and sales shops - who were able to refer them to small business clients in need of custom applications. The company knows it’s not a market-leader and won’t dominate the UK market any time soon, but it continually focuses on what it’s good at to improve and grow along the way. To make a discovery about your business, you need to take a look inward to figure out your core strengths and market position. Afterward, the best way to make an improvement is to double down on what you’re good at. Which leads us to lesson number three: Lesson #3: innovations should add business value by strengthening your core competencies and/or enhancing your market position. 9 https://web.archive.org/web/20040401161253/http://www.linux.org/info/logos.html 10© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 11. Do you see how innovations need to be more involved than getting a new coffee machine? If Penguin Software Co. were to improve its services, one of the things it would focus on is to bolster its customer referral program. Why? Because it knows that it has the best low-cost design services around and it knows that it’s current successes have relied on relationships and trust. A referral program is a perfect blend of it’s strengths that will help it to grow and attract new clients. An improvement to its customer loyalty program is the perfect place for the company to innovate. By now, you’ll probably notice that our fictitious Penguin company followed our first three lessons - it (1) watched for trends in how their market position evolved, (2) made small improvements to their customer relationships and (3) focused their efforts on improving what they’re already good at in order to get ahead. Innovation will set you free from being restricted to the way that everyone else does business. Instead, look inward and improve on the way that you do business. 11© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 12. To really bring the point home, let’s look at a real-life example: Product innovations with core competencies (a case study): Have you ever stood in line at a Starbucks cafe, gazed upward at the gigantic menu, without the faintest idea of what to order? What ever happened to the simple drinks like breakfast teas? Instead, you saw espresso, cortado, macchiato and just about any flavour of frappuccino that you could imagine. Not to mention blended fruit drinks and iced coffees. While you waited in line you could even browse a tasteful selection of branded mugs, whole-bean coffees, apparel and even housewares. You weren’t familiar with all the varieties, or even how to pronounce them, but the reality is that lots of people order those drinks. In fact, all over the world, millions of beverages pass hands between baristas and customers every week10 . How did this come to be? Look no further than Starbucks’ core competencies to help illustrate. They have a top-quality product differentiation strategy that mixes an assortment of high-quality beverages and snacks on their menu.11 They also strive to provide every customer a “Starbucks Experience” which includes clean and modern stores and loyalty programs. Each of these aspects help build amazing brand loyalty for the company. Starbucks revolutionized the cafe industry by expanding product lines and focusing on customer experience. They know what they’re good at and build on their core competencies for all their innovative matters. Every new year or season they release new products that are firsts on the market. It’s only after a season or two, once Starbucks paved the way, that competitors release their own offerings of similar products. 10 https://www.starbucks.co.uk/about-us 11 https://scholar.harvard.edu/nithingeereddy/publications/strategic-analysis-financial-analysis 12© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 13. Think you got this whole innovation thing figured out? Just be careful - it might be harder to put into practice than you might think. After all, if innovation is so amazing and easy, why doesn’t every business do it well (or at all)? That’s because while understanding a simple definition for innovation - making small business improvements - is one thing, actually knowing how to steer your company toward it is another story. A 2015 study by Deloitte found that while 96 per cent of companies value innovation in their top five strategic priorities, less than half of them have a well-defined plan to take action and execute on their innovation.12 In the middle of your daily operations, there are lots of obstacles that get in the way of making improvements. We like to call the four biggest obstacles innovation incapabilities: 1. Time: it’s harder than you might think to divert valuable company resources away from important daily operations to focus on pie-in-the-sky innovation activities. Simply put, it’s so easy and so common for businesses to turn a blind eye to innovation. Part of the problem is that without a system or innovation culture in place, it’s hard to see the value that innovation can make for your business. 2. Focus: as diligent as you and your employees might be, there’s always some fire that needs to be put out. It might be a disgruntled customer that posts an online smear campaign online, or a valuable shipment destined to a high-profile client that somehow gets lost in transit. How is it possible to lose an entire delivery van? But, all too often, things like that happen and divert your focus away from innovation. Distractions limit your innovation potential by either: Restricting your launch ability. This happens when you can’t even get the resources together to start an innovation. Or, if you’re actually able to get an idea off the ground, it can quickly lose momentum and get buried to the bottom of the priority list once again. 3. Resourcing: despite your best efforts to be thrifty and keep costs down, any business activity ultimately needs resourcing. There are obvious resources like time and money that you can throw at improvement activities. 12 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/lu/Documents/about-deloitte/lu-en-innovations-survey-25032015.pdf Suffering from Innovation Incapability0303 13© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 14. But there are also less obvious resources that need to be used for innovations: skills and talent. The biggest and most valuable innovations may involve a combination of talents that simply aren’t at your disposal, like legal, technical, design, financial, or accounting skills. It’s reasonable to expect that your business can’t just go out and hire dedicated resources to cover those abilities in-house. 4. Poor systems: a system is made up of the methods, procedures and routines involved in carrying out business activities.13 Many businesses are surprised to find out that they can apply systems to innovation, too. At its simplest, a system is a way of doing things. So ask yourself. How does your company “do” innovation? At Innovolo, we call it systematised creativity. Most businesses lack a thorough system to promote, encourage and develop innovative ideas on their own. Without a system for innovation, it’s impossible to be proactive when it comes to improving your business. Do these obstacles sound familiar? Then you probably suffer from innovation incapability. Lesson #4: Your ability to focus, your resources and your business systems all play a role in how innovative you can be. But don’t worry, we’ll revisit these problems a little later and offer some practical exercises to help you fix them. 13 http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/system.html 14© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 15. It’s nearly impossible to innovate and stay ahead of the curve if you lack a business direction. Try asking yourself, right now, what the purpose of your organisation is. For many businesses, their purpose is to make a few sales and pay the bills. For others, the company exists to contribute to society by offering valuable services. The long-term ability of your company to stay operational will depend on your ability to innovate and continually add value, even while customer preferences change and the world evolves around you. In other words, your sustainability as an organisation impacts how long your company remains valuable after you’re gone. We’ve used this word, “value” a few times. But what does it really mean? It’s time to take a closer look. What is value? Value can be simply defined as the net level of reward that a project yields.14 It can be measured in financial terms or in non-monetary terms, like in how much happiness you bring to your employees or customers. It’s helpful to think of “value” as having two characteristics. 1. Customer value is added when you make your clients happy. This can happen if you save them money, provide them alternatives or solve their problems. 2. Organisational value is added to the business when improvements are made. When things run smoother and more efficiently, the intellectual capital of a business is said to increase. So how do you go about building a valuable business? It’s a lot harder than simply adding stock to your inventory or buying some new equipment. Those things are more like the outer shell of your company. If you were to try to sell your business to a new owner, they would put forward a book value of your physical assets - all the things in your outer shell. 14 https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/delivering-business-value-9378 Define Value with Innovation0404 15© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 16. But the other things like your intellectual capital are much harder to quantify. In reality, these things, the inside, are what really counts. That leads us to an important point: Lesson #5: The goodwill value of your business is the hypothetical value of what you could sell your business for, including the intangibles such as organisational value. Once it’s time for the owner of your business (whether that’s you or someone else) to sell the business, an analysis of the business maturity will be taken. The greater the certainty that a business will remain valuable after it changes owner hands, the more valuable it is as a whole. Luckily, there’s a great system that we want to show you that can help you build innovation in your company and therefore increase its value. It’s called the Innovation Value Pyramid. The Innovation Value Pyramid The value pyramid is a system to help visualize how a company creates its maximum goodwill value or intellectual capital. It’s a system that Innovolo uses all the time to help businesses grow their innovation potential. It owes its inception to Mark Wardell’s value pyramid15 which aims to help companies with value creation. Luckily for you, it’s also completely transferable to the innovation side of things so you can use it to turbocharge your own innovation. It features four levels of organisational achievements to strive for. At each higher level of the pyramid, innovation (or the likelihood of finding improvements to your business) increases. At each new level, your business grows and matures. The ultimate goal is to reach the top to have sustained innovation and value creation in your business. 15 https://www.wardell.biz/blog/main/succession-dilemma-without-the-right-plan-your-business-is-doomed-to-flounder 16© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 17. Level 1: Owner-driven innovation Most small enterprises start at an owner-driven level of innovation. It’s where a singular person (or group of individuals) puts their brilliant minds together to form a business. Naturally, at the beginning, the growth, sales volume and innovation capacity is directly correlated to the efforts of that singular owner. Characteristics of owner-driven innovation: Low value creation since there are minimal innovative efforts. Innovation is dependent on the owner to be sustained. Innovation is not very scalable. The owner can only get a 1:1 ratio of effort versus impact. There’s not much intellectual capacity in the organisation. The entire goodwill value is attached to the owner. Example of owner-driven innovation: Let’s think up a simple example to help illustrate the innovation value pyramid. Tim has an office furniture company. Blah! Office furniture? Really? Sometimes it’s the simplest examples that can illustrate the most impactful lessons. Tim started his company out of his garage. He invested in a small trailer and a moving van. He subscribed to an office furniture catalogue which features budget-friendly furniture that he uses to pitch ideas to his clients about their office spaces. Between cold-calling for new customers, knocking on doors, consulting with clients, and doing his own accounting, how much time do you think Tim has for adding, growing or expanding innovation for his business? The answer is zero. His daily operations are enough to keep him busy and distracted from any value-adding innovation efforts. In other words, despite being the main reason his company exists in the first place, he’s actually the biggest limiting factor to its growth. And that’s precisely how a level- one innovation template looks. 17© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 18. Level 2: People-driven innovation Once a business finds initial success, it’s common that a few very important employees begin to make their mark. The major roles are filled by all-star employees who go the extra mile and add value to the business. Those key players begin to fill the gaps of innovation at the company - they are able to contribute value without relying on the owner to be the inception point of those new ideas. Characteristics of people-driven innovation: Medium levels of value creation since innovation becomes more frequent (but still limited). Innovation is made possible in part by the efforts of its employees, or a few key people in particular. Innovation has a slight scaling effect. For every new idea put forward by a senior member of the team, a larger leap is made. The organisational maturity of the company has grown. But there’s a risk, just like in Level 1. The business potential is tied up in a few key people. If one person leaves, it’s possible that there could be irreparable damage. Example of people-driven innovation: After a year of being in business, Tim built on his successes and hired a few employees. An office assistant helps him with his paperwork and taking calls. A salesperson is able to generate more leads for the company. Tim has freed up more time in his day to focus on making improvements to the business. He invests in better point-of-sale technology to help accept payments from clients faster and safer. He also relies on his staff to contribute to the company. His salesperson had the great idea to research a database software to keep track of customer relationships. That way, the company can keep track of their leads, expenses and communicate better with one another. Tim is thrilled with the innovative idea, because he never would have thought of it himself. 18© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 19. Level 3: System-driven innovation The third level of the innovation value pyramid is about adding systems to a company’s capacity for innovation. This happens when a company takes innovation seriously and starts to actively encourage and track improvement initiatives. Business tasks are automated, the company hires great staff and new product or service ideas are offered up regularly from a motivated team. Characteristics of system-driven innovation: High levels of value creation since innovation becomes regularised. Innovation happens nearly everywhere at the company and efforts are tracked and monitored. Innovation has a large scaling effect. Creativity and problem-solving is rewarded and so the company goes through growth spurts while reaping the benefits of innovation. The business can run on it’s own. There’s enough systems in place to let value creation and innovation run on its own. If the owner is away on vacation, he or she can expect to return to a well-functioning organisation with few (or no) fires to put out. Example of system-driven innovation Tim’s Office Furniture Supplies has really taken off. He’s done an amazing job of systematising creativity at his workplace. With his dozen or so staff, he runs a quarterly innovation contest which encourages employees to put forward ideas that can help the company. Apparently, a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. His accountant, having come to Tim’s company from a swanky accounting firm (with luxurious furniture, no doubt), suggested that Tim upgrade his catalogue to include boutique brands that can cater to upscale head offices and top-floor clients. That kind of thinking never occured to Tim before and it won the accountant an extra vacation day to use that year. He might not know it, but Tim’s effort to encourage and reward innovation (in all departments of his company) is an example of system-driven innovation. And, he’s on his way to becoming an office furniture mogul because of it. 19© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 20. Level 4: Culture-driven innovation The top of the innovation value pyramid is where things get really interesting. Every day at the office can be creative and exciting because you never know what big idea might surface next. Culture-driven innovation happens over time once the right people, with the right systems finally *click* and are able to engage in sustained innovation. You’ll know when this happens when your innovation efforts aren’t even “efforts” at all, they’re just part of the culture and the daily routines of the business. Characteristics of culture-driven innovation: High levels of value creation since innovation becomes self-sustained. Every member of the team encourages each other to be creative and innovative. Innovation is massively scalable. For every ounce of innovation, the returns can be substantial in terms of efficiency and value-creation. At the end of each day, the business is better off than it was the previous day. From the owner’s perspective, the organisation is on auto-pilot. He or she doesn’t have to do much rubber-stamping of ideas because there is trust in the teams and the executives to operate and even grow the company in its leader’s absence. Example of a culture-driven innovation: Lately, Tim’s company feels more like an empire. His numerous employees and teams work very well together and are a vibrant and creative bunch. Tim no longer needs to hire whoever he can find. He can hand-pick his new employees that demonstrate a proven record of the values that are important to his business: innovation, integrity and professionalism. Innovation is even part of his job descriptions, hiring package and listed on his website’s About Us page as a core value. Tim assigned a leadership role to his creative-thinking accountant, who is now his Innovation Leader for the company. The accountant coordinates and promotes innovation at all levels of the company. Customer feedback and opinions are also part of the regular feedback loops that are discussed at regular team meetings. In short, Tim’s company is addicted to innovation. And it’s been the driving force behind his success of turning a modest garage-based business into a regional success story. He is comforted by the fact that if he ever wants to step away or move on from the organisation, the immense value and intellectual capital of the business will be valued in the range of seven figures. 20© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 21. This is where we move from the theoretical aspects and into the practical spotlight. We saw in Part 4 that embedding innovation into a business can be seen as a pyramid of possibilities. And, earlier in Part 3 we covered some common obstacles that prevent businesses from reaching their innovation potential. Innovation is an organisational challenge. So it needs organisational solutions. In this section, we’re looking at what sorts of solutions you can offer at your enterprise. We’ll go back to each obstacle: time, focus, poor systems and resourcing. We’ll offer solutions to each one so you can turbocharge innovation, zoom past the obstacles and grow your business alongside the innovation value pyramid. 1. Time If you’re a business owner or a business leader, you’ve probably muttered the phrase “whose got the time?” when posed with a solution to a nagging problem. In reality, it’s all too easy to take a pessimistic viewpoint to your own perception of time. While feeling rushed or behind schedule, it’s common to push innovation or problem-solving down the priority list and instead focus on checking off the quick-wins in your daily agenda. There’s a common, yet unfortunate scenario that happens to companies, big and small. It happens when a junior staff member, let’s call her Erica, is assigned the task of organising the company’s dust-covered filing cabinet or storage room. In it, she finds a report from three to five years ago that outlines some really innovative steps to improving the organisation. It was commissioned by the same director who hired her, but it looks like the report went straight into the recycle bin (or, in this case, to the back of the filing cabinet). When Erica asks her hiring manager about the document, what does she hear? You guessed it: “who’s got the time?” It’s possible that the Director loved that report from a few years ago and would love to see some of the initiatives come to life. But, as is all too common, the priorities of the day got in the way and so nothing came of it. Erica is forced to apologise and go back to her regular work. She is left wondering how much she really needs to learn about the bizarre business world she finds herself in. How can this company look past it’s short-sightedness and make innovation a priority? Turbocharge Innovation with Organisational Solutions0505 21© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 22. What the company needs is an innovation champion - a singular person who can take initiative and be accountable for the improvements. He or she would see the project through from start to finish and prevent it from falling through the cracks. The benefits of assigning an innovation champion: The innovation leader is responsible for maintaining the momentum of an innovative project. It helps reduce the likelihood of the improvement totally falling off everyone’s radar. The innovation specialist can work on new innovative ideas on a part-time or full-time basis. It supports the creation of an innovation system (the very designation of a leader is in fact a system). It promotes an innovation culture since that innovation leader can get different people involved and call on different departments or team members to help and assist with innovation efforts. It helps generate new ideas,too, since the innovation leader is also a role model. Their whole world becomes innovation - they can hold weekly or monthly innovation meetings to encourage new ideas. Or, they can focus on any other system or method to help promote ideation at the workplace. 2. Focus It’s incredibly easy to get distracted with the day-to-day operations of your business. We get it - with every new day it seems like there’s more and more fires to put out. How can you possibly focus on innovation? Or, once an initiative is led, how do you maintain that momentum so that a project actually gets off the ground and is successful? The answer is that you have to get outside your business. For regularised innovation, it’s nearly impossible to devote the attention necessary while sticking around the workplace or boardroom. There will always be an excuse to step outside, take a phone call, send an email, or call someone back. The solution? Have an off-site meeting, specifically devoted to strategy and innovation. The best way to do it is to prepare for a focused conversation in advance and to limit the distractions. Yes - that means no cellphones, no laptops - no distractions! The conversation should be based on a targeted question or topic that matters to your business. In fact, the success of a strategic innovation session hinges on the preparation and leg work that goes into the meeting in advance. Don’t be passive and assume that simply getting people together will be enough to develop some thought-provoking ideas or an amazing new plan. An off-site strategic meeting (a case study): 22© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 23. One company that takes strategic innovation seriously is Allstate Insurance.16 They’re one of the largest property and casualty insurers in America. When they identified that their customer loyalty was below industry average, they took to a facilitated, off-site ideation meeting to help develop a path forward. The workshop was entirely devoted to customer retention and developing new initiatives to improve it. They tick off nearly every box when they get together for off-site ideation. In one example of how Allstate takes things seriously: Leg work had been done before they met; Goals and objectives were agreed to upfront; They hired a professional facilitator to help organise and structure the conversation; The ideation was centered around a pre-researched idea; and, They were so committed to the advanced preparation that they didn’t even hand-hold participants and walk through material at the meeting that was circulated beforehand. Talk about commitment! Looking to replicate the success of top-performing companies who use off-site innovation meetings? Here’s some tips to help administer your very own off-site: 16 https://hbr.org/2006/06/off-sites-that-work 1. For your first event, start small. A group of 6-8 key players at your company is a great place to start. 2. Prepare some data or supporting material in advance of the meeting. 3. Use a designated moderator or facilitator. It can be a contracted professional or someone from your organisation whose role is to wear the facilitation hat. The facilitator should encourage participation and keep the conversation focused on the strategic priority. 4. Don’t ever take ideas off the board! 5. It’s okay to disagree with one another. The goal is to foster genuine engagement. 6. Innovation can happen from the unlikeliest of sources - your accountant, your cleaning staff, who knows? Fostering ideation from all team members is one of the fundamental ways to build a culture of innovation. 7. If you really hit a roadblock, you can try looking at what other businesses are doing as a way to jumpstart the discussion and ideation process. 8. Develop follow-up mechanisms so you can continue the conversation at a future meeting. 9. Make sure everyone is on the same page. If decisions were made at the event about how to go forward with your innovation strategy, then be sure to get agreement (from everyone involved) about the next steps. An off-site innovation meeting doesn’t have to be difficult. With a little preparation and lots of participation, you’ll be well on your way to troubleshooting your company problems and finding innovative solutions - without all the distractions that are inevitable from the day-to-day setting of your workplace. 23© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 24. 3. Resourcing The barrier to your company’s innovation often lies in simple resourcing. You might have an amazing idea but no way to achieve it since you lack the experience to get the idea off the ground. It happens when you’re not really sure if you need to jump through legal hurdles to patent your new product idea. Or, you’re unsure how to market your new idea or whether you need an engineer to develop a working prototype. That’s a lot of “I’m not sures!” Besides, even if you knew how to do all those things, or had the employee experience in-house to do it, wouldn’t any one of those activities cost you thousands? Well, while you’re not wrong that innovation can be expensive, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. There’s a few things you can try to overcome the organisational challenge resourcing. For starters, if you assigned an innovation specialist at your organisation, as was the case mentioned earlier, that person can be a great facilitator of the necessary expertise needed to get a project off the ground. They can cover all the coordination efforts to get the right people in the room - the designers, marketing, legal or financial experts required to pull the project toward completion. Or, try one of these tactics to overcome resourcing issues: A. Do things cheaply There are lots of online resources available to help you design and prototype your ideas on a budget. Your innovation dream doesn’t have to start with a multi-million dollar analysis, prototype or customer survey. Instead, substitute a fulsome (and costly) end-to-end project with a virtual prototype. A virtual prototype can be as simple as a well-documented description and outline of an improvement idea. It doesn’t cost very much to write your ideas down on paper! You can make it visual, fun and engaging through images and designs. Share it with employees, outside help or investors to get some iterative feedback to help improve the design - all before you ever get close to a full and costly launch stage. A virtual prototype is a cheaper alternative for your ideation and validation process that won’t cripple your company through huge investments in time or finances. 24© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 25. B. Hire outside help. These days, with the assistance of virtual technology and an ever-expanding knowledge for business best practices, it’s possible to hire outside help to target your innovation efforts. To cover gaps in your employee knowledge, you can contract out your specific needs to external consultants - whether it be legal, technical or marketing advice that you need. Or, you can hire an end-to-end innovation specialist17 to help you out. It can be a cost-effective solution, with low overhead, to hire a contractor in order to supplement your in-house expertise. 17 https://innovolo.co.uk/ 25© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 26. 4. Poor Systems There’s no way around it - if your company doesn’t have a good system to promote innovation, it’ll be really hard to make any noticeable improvements. “Systems-thinking” and systems-based innovation are featured on the third phase of the innovation value pyramid for a good reason - they’re some of the best ways to encourage, track and monitor the progress of innovation. How can you build the organisational capacity to make innovation second nature? A. Awareness Systems are purposeful and diligent. That means that you have to take action and actively talk about improvement activities in your organisation. To promote new ideas, try running ideation campaigns at your workplace. It’s like a competition to see who can come up with ideas to either cut costs, enhance value, or do things faster or safer. You can promote it within your company’s social or internal network. An awareness campaign for innovation puts it at the front and centre of your values and strategies. It lets your employees know that it’s important and gets the conversations flowing. B. Scheduled mini-events A mini-event is any kind of regularised activity that can help promote innovation. A scheduled activity or routine is, in fact, a type of system. Try doing a weekly scrum with your teams. Keep it short! Cover three quick questions: What have you done; What are you going to do; and, What obstacles are in your way. These quick sessions help promote communication. If everyone is involved, you’ll be surprised about who has some quirky and innovative ideas to remove barriers and make your business run smoother. C. Invest in an Innovation Management Tool In the innovation world, an Innovation Management Tool (IMT) is a highly productive tool that can improve your company’s innovation efforts. If your current innovation capacity is like your company’s engine that powers your efforts to get you from point A to point B, then an IMT is like a turbocharger. 26© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 27. They commonly come in the form of software-based systems to help you reach new heights in your innovation efforts. It’s a software that every employee can access to contribute ideas but also review and comment on the ideas of others. It’s a way to systematize the creative energy of your teams by providing a way to ideate, collaborate and then provide a workflow to monitor and engage in innovation. IMT technology can come in many different packages. One study, published in the International Journal of Innovation Management, researched the usage of innovation management practices in Spanish companies and found that there are over 250 types of innovation management tools!18 They went on to suggest a broad definition of innovation tools as a “range of tools, techniques, and methodologies” that companies use to improve “their competitive position through managing innovation to adapt to circumstances and meet market challenges in a systematic way.” The result of the study? A company’s innovation success was higher if they had a system for innovation in place. Build organisational capacity for innovation One of the biggest obstacles to innovation is simply a company’s own creativity. There are so many amazing and smart solutions that can help a business grow and thrive through innovation, but sometimes all they need is to be pointed in the right direction. As you can see from the great examples in this past section, if you have a problem with innovation, there’s an organisational solution that you can try. So don’t be held back by that overwhelming feeling that taking the first step toward innovation can bring. Be proactive and bring some of these examples and ideas to the table the next time that your business seeks some creative solutions. Let’s finish off this section with a summarised lesson: Lesson 6: Don’t let innovation fall to the bottom of your to-do list. There are organisational opportunities to overcome any barrier to innovation that you face. So don’t be discouraged! 18 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323018119_Innovation_management_techniques_and_tools_Its_impact_on_firm_in- novation_performance 27© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 28. In the last section, we covered some great strategies for how to instill innovation excellence in an organisation. The solutions presented there, however, are not the types of activities that you can do overnight. Planning an ideation workshop, the right way, can take some time. Researching, picking out and implementing the best ideation or innovation management software can also be a significant undertaking. In this section, we want to provide you with some quick-win activities that you can do yourself. You can even work through them as you learn about them, so grab a paper and pen! In doing so, these activities are excellent practice for the kind of creative thinking, trend- watching and obstacle-jumping behaviour that’s needed to be truly innovative. Exercise 1: Think like your customers When times are tough because your sales are slow, your industry faces tax or trade challenges, or a global recession is happening, it’s definitely a cause for alarm. However, even during the tough times, you can take comfort in the fact that you got to where you are today through some force of will or sheer effort. Likely, you impressed some customers along the way and you have an established brand at some sort of local or regional level. If so, even if times feel disappointing to you, be comforted by the fact that your customers still exist. You have an established brand and you have built trust with some customers. Part of the problem, either during recession or some other reason, why sales might be slow, is that the needs or preferences of your customers may have changed. How are you going to rise to meet that challenge? There’s an easy way that you can adapt to a changing business environment. It all starts with thinking like your customers. Sure, the chips are down for your business, but what about your clients? Try to imagine the daily life of your average customer. How have things changed for them? In 2020, the world is faced with a unique case study to test this out. What’s changed because of COVID-19? Practical Exercises For Innovation0606 28© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 29. What are in people’s delivery vans, their supply closets, their toolboxes? Generally, there’s been unprecedented purchases of sanitisation and cleaning products. Businesses and consumers alike have taken a whole new interest in cleanliness and sanitation as a result of the global pandemic. So, make a list of the products or services that your customers are using BUT are currently not sourcing from you. Think of these as your opportunity offerings. Make a grid of three to four columns. In the rows, you’ll list the products or services that your customers are buying. In the columns, list some ways that you can do those things either better, faster, cheaper, or (especially for the COVID-19 scenario) safer! Like so: BETTER FASTER CHEAPER SAFER Product A Product B Service X Service Y Protect and Pivot Similar to how we saw, in an earlier section, how your core competency is one of the keys to help you get ahead of your competition, this exercise is a way for you to build on your strengths. As our friend and trusted business coach Roy Newey19 puts forward in his book Ready, Set, Grow, you can out-innovate your competitors by protecting your core competency (that’s what you’re good at, remember?) and then, once you’ve reached a certain business maturity, pivot to neighbouring markets or services that are similar enough to your core competency that the transition won’t bog you down.20 This exercise - thinking like your customer - is an excellent way to utilise your strengths and then pivot to similar marketplaces to meet the needs of your customers and provide them value. 19 https://www.roynewey.com/whoarewe/ 20 https://innovolo.co.uk/webinar-recording-ready-set-grow-with-innovation-with-roy-newey 29© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 30. Let’s look at an example of a business that, in 2020, is doing just that: Think like your customers (a case study): When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020, entire industries were disrupted. None more so than the wedding industry. With national regulatory restrictions on the amount of people allowed at events, it forced thousands of couples-to-be to cancel their ceremonies altogether. That’s bad news for event planners, interior designers, entertainment venues and virtually all businesses who make their living in the wedding industry. For one Seattle-based wedding dress designer, Luly Yang Design, the unique challenge of by COVID-19 was viewed as an opportunity. The designer focused on its strength - making high-quality and hand-made boutique wedding dresses - and pivoted their product line to meet the needs of their customers. Their lovely Couture Face Masks provide thousands of customers a new way to stay safe in public and also feel confident and get the unique look they crave.21 They’ve even released an effective engagement campaign online to drive traffic and provide value even for web users who are not necessarily paying customers. You can learn to assemble your very own Luly Yang-style face mask through their instructional blog and video.22 This exercise might not seem like much. You might be thinking that “anybody can do an activity like that! That’s too simple for my sophisticated business needs.” Well, you’d be surprised by how many companies don’t put in the time to do exercises like this. Do you remember the first obstacle to innovation that we covered? That’s right - time. This exercise, as simple as it is, is an example of how you can start to systematize innovation at your company and move up the Innovation Value Pyramid. It’s all about making deliberate efforts to improve the way you do business and adapt to meet the needs of customers. Talk about innovation at its finest! 21 https://lulyyang.com/products/zoom-i-face-mask 22 https://lulyyang.com/pages/test-face-mask 30© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 31. Exercise 2: Discover new trends New trends emerge all around you. They can happen as break-neck speeds but have a huge impact on your business sustainability. After all, how can you continue to provide value to customers if what’s fashionable or desirable changes so rapidly? This business predicament may be as old as time, but the dilemma has taken on some new twists in the last few decades. Especially with internet and social media, trends can originate from virtually anywhere - from a bored employee’s office workstation to an angsty teenager’s antics in public. Innovation, as defined as a way to improve your business, has a very important aspect of adaptation to it. In order to survive in a rapidly-changing world, you need to be able to adapt. Here’s some simple ways you can discover new trends: 1. Be a reader. You have to have a deep knowledge about your industry and the market. Things like industry journals, influencer blogs and the social media accounts of business leaders are great places to watch the trends. 2. Look internally. Even some of your own metrics that you track for your core business functions can tell a story about what’s happening to the market or industry around you. What are you selling? What costs are rising or falling? Recognising these trends early can help you adapt. 3. Get involved. Socialise and network with others in (and outside) your industry. 4. Study statistics (from reputable sources). It’s important not to get scared into making a decision based on something you saw in the media. Instead, find a good source for metrics that are as unbiased as possible. These often come from think tanks and public agencies and can help you stay on top of the large-scale trends. 5. Use digital tools. It’s amazing how much content gets published online (for free!) every day. There are simple ways to facilitate your data searching. Social media aggregators help condense and organise the important posts that matter to you. There are also trend-spotting tools that use predictive data and search queries to provide a wealth of information about emerging trends. 31© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 32. We’ve compiled a list of some great online resources, in the Appendix, that you can use to discover new trends. Trend discovery (a case study): Because of recent COVID-19 related events, the sales of stay-at-home products have increased dramatically. Who would have been able to predict that there would be a 400 percent year-over- year increase in the sales of bread makers?23 It’s left even some large retailers, like Bed Bath Beyond, scrambling to meet the demand. In the UK, the demand for baking flour rose to historic levels.24 It’s all evidence of changing consumption patterns as supermarket shelves struggle to keep stock of in-demand goods. It also reflects a shift in preferences. The average consumer has discovered new pastimes at home, a trend which is set to perpetuate into the future even as the world recovers from COVID-19. If you were to use a digital tool, like Exploding Topics, you could see the rise and sustained pace of the stay-at-home product market. Exploding Topics is a web tool that analyses millions of searches and conversations on the internet to suggest the fastest-growing topics before they take off into the general public’s watchful eye. By that time, the opportunity may be lost to gain an edge. With this digital tool, you can always stay on top of trends, before everyone else. Some estimates say that the global bread maker market will grow by over $4 billion (US) between 2020-2024, evidence that it’s a trend that’s here to stay.25 At least until the next big trend takes over. 23 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bed-bath-beyond-bread-maker-sales-rise-400-and-vacuum-sales-double-amid-covid-19- stay-at-home-orders-2020-04-16 24 https://theconversation.com/why-flour-is-still-missing-from-supermarket-shelves-137263 25 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200720005546/en/COVID-19-Impact-Recovery-Analysis--Bread-Maker-Market Lesson 7: if you ever feel stuck or unmotivated to practice innovation, then try an innovation quick-win. It can even be on the back of a sticky note or a napkin. They’re a great way to get your creative juices flowing and think up new ways to add value for your business. 32© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 33. Conclusion We’ve covered a lot of ground in this informational guide. By now, you probably realise why innovation has become one of the top priorities for businesses all over the world. Estimates predict that the global market for innovation management is set to grow by 12.5 percent from 2020 to 2024.26 It’s a market worth hundreds of millions of pounds and it’s not expected to stop growing any time soon. Some of the biggest drivers of its growth are to be the development of brand new innovation methodologies and the importance of work culture in enterprises. Innovation will remain especially important as the world recovers from a global recession, customer preferences change and industries are forced to evolve as a result. You don’t want to be left behind, do you? We’ve seen it time and time again - the best businesses utilise innovation as a fundamental growth factor and embed it as a strategic priority. On your path to discovering innovation at your workplace, if you focus on learning the fundamentals, covered in this guide, you’ll be far ahead of your competition. Even simple exercises and a little awareness for improvements can go a long way. On the next page, you’ll find a full list of all the lessons we learned. Feel free to print them off, post them at your office, in the lunchroom or at your desk - anywhere that you can get a conversation about innovation happening! 26 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/innovation-management-market-238981272.html 33© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 34. Lesson #1: Your business has to stay alert to trends and how customer preferences shift. Lesson #2: Innovating your business = making improvements (no matter how small)! Lesson #3: Innovations should add business value by strengthening your core competencies and/or enhancing your market position. Lesson #4: Your ability to focus, your resources and your business systems all play a role in how innovative you can be. Lesson #5: The goodwill value of your business is the hypothetical value of what you could sell your business for, including the intangibles such as organisational value. Lesson #6: Don’t let innovation fall to the bottom of your to-do list. There are organisational opportunities that can overcome any barrier to innovation. So don’t get discouraged! Lesson #7: If you ever feel stuck or unmotivated to practice innovation, then try an innovation quick-win. You can even jot something down on a sticky note or the back of a napkin. They’re a great way to get your creative juices flowing and think up new ways to add value for your business. Innovation Lessons 34© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 35. Exploding Topics Exploding topics is a website that scours the millions of search and online conversations that happen all over the world. Then, it aggregates and summarizes the data so that you can discover trends and topics that are on their way to becoming super popular. It’s a great way to monitor trends and stay ahead of the competition so you can innovate in ways that interest consumers. If you browse nothing else, at least check out their great newsletter which delivers amazing new trends to your inbox every week. Check it out here: https://explodingtopics.com/ 1010data 1010data is for your company if you love spreadsheets. It’s a data discovery platform that lets you access some amazing business intelligence. You’ll find consumer data, industry insights and more - all of which can help you stay on top of big trends and better understand how to add value to your customers. Check it out here: https://1010data.com/ Statista Statista is an online statistics platform. It provides facts and figures in a wide variety of fields and markets that can help your business with its decision-making and innovation efforts. It excels at offering you business-friendly graphics, compelling statistics and condensed research reports that are based on your preferences. That way, you can utilise Big Data without having to employ a PhD statistician on your teams. Check it out here: https://www.statista.com/ Visual Capitalist As its name suggests, Visual Capitalist is a very visual information platform. It can help you stay on top of important business trends. It provides itself on offering data-driven stories that feature powerful visuals. The user-friendly graphics help make complicated topics easy to understand so that you can focus your time and energy on innovation. Check it out here: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ Appendix A: Additional Resources 35© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 36. Here’s a quick list of 8 common ways that businesses can employ innovation at their workplaces. 1. Strategy Innovation Try to create options about the possible future direction of your team, department or organisation as a whole. That includes important business decisions such as your direction, growth activities, collaboration initiatives and how you position yourself in the market. 2. Business Model Innovation How do you make money? The answer is normally your business model. Try investigating new revenue streams like fee for service, subscriptions, direct sales or offering different pricing points for different premium services. 3. Product or Service Innovation These are the kind of improvements that most people think about when they think of innovation. New design ideas for your products or services can help attract new clients, increase customer loyalty or break into new markets. Just be sure to focus on what you’re good at (your core competencies)! 4. Process Innovation Anything that falls under the systems- based innovations that we cover in this guide are normally process innovations. They’re improvements that enhance the way that you do business internally. 5. Marketing Innovation Even the way that you promote your products or services can be innovative. This includes the way that you differentiate your business from others, position yourself in the market, advertise and use social media or other marketing channels to increase the public interest in your brand. 6. Technology Innovation Technology can have a disruptive effect on innovation and entire markets. In the consumer world, it’s been a powerful driving force for innovation over the last few decades. Just look at Silicon Valley. It’s a flexible (though sometimes expensive) option to automate your processes or go through transformational change in your business model. 7. Supply Chain Innovation Your supply chain involves everything from your supplier inputs, manufacturers and logistics companies, all the way to your end consumer. At every stage of your supply chain, you can encourage innovation either directly through your suppliers or by how you manage it yourself. 8. Organisational Innovation This is where you innovate the ways that your company and its people behave, think and feel. It’s all about encouraging innovation and ideation through a change to the workplace culture. Appendix B: 8 Ways to Innovate 36© Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020
  • 37. Innovolo Ltd www.innovolo.co.uk 0333 011 1771 © Copyright Innovolo Ltd 2020