Benefits of innovation

Benefits of innovation
See also
Innovation platform Brand innovation Relevant information Make-Or-Buy Decision Intercultural management Organizational innovation Competitive disadvantage Innovative leadership Activity center

Innovation is a process of introducing something new, generating ideas, and implementation into a company's activities. Doing something new and outside of the box might seem risky and it is to some extent, but in today's world innovating is essential in the day-to-day operations of most organizations, especially to stay competitive. People come up with genius ideas every day, turning ideas in to new products or further developing already existing ones. Therefore, a much bigger risk for business is the lack of innovating.

Advantages of innovation in business

1. Stay ahead of your competitors. In every industry the biggest threat to a company's growth and profitability is competition. The entrance of new competitors can be overwhelming in many markets as they grow and evolve. New customers is vital to the health of the business along with maintaining customer loyalty. Innovation is the key to keeping a business competitive regardless of the market. Creative thinking, improved products, new designs always draw people's attention. A good example of a business process innovation is Amazon Prime, as they are adding new customers to their base and their innovation has helped them to maintain customer loyalty.
2. Marketing your business. Such aspects as brand image, reputation, business personality is important for attracting customers, partnerships, and collaborations with other companies. People generally forget the majority of advertisements and commercials, so innovative marketing gives a new and fresh way to remember something unique about the business and keep coming back to it when in need of a particular product or service.
3. New business angle. Another benefit of innovation is an opportunity to look at difficult problems from a new angle, which allows to opportunity to solve the given issue. Maybe the answer lies just a little outside of the box and all that is needed is creative thinking. Maybe there is a better, more efficient, way of delivery, production process, operations management, storage or customer service.

Innovation in the workplace

Innovation in the workplace is becoming more and more mainstream in Europe according to the study conducted by Stan De Spiegelaere, Guy Van Gyes, and Geert Van Hootegem. They used the data from a large-scale Belgian employee level survey in five different industries and focused on the connection between mainstream innovation and workplace learning. Their research states that innovation from lower-level employees is a rare occurrence. Despite that fact, workplace learning, which consists job trainings and inhouse trainings, is potentially a strong factor of motivation for all types of employees. Additionally, the article notes that successfully developing and implementing innovation depends on various conditions. One of the most crucial is consistent involvement of every stakeholder whereas initiative should come from all hierarchical levels of the organization The study highlights three types of innovation: top-down innovation, bottom-up innovation, and employee driven innovation; a company will be more successful if they utilize more than one area of innovation. Employee driven innovation can be found in several different scenarios. First it is consistent with the bottom-up innovation, when an employee takes full initiative and takes over the innovation process and development as a whole. Secondly, employee driven innovation may be a situation where the efforts are divided, so the initial idea comes from the employee, but is further passed to managers, supervisors to introduce to the organization. The third type of employee driven innovation covers a case when the employees develop the idea, which came from the higher levels of the company, management for example. Further distinguishing factors between the several types of the third employee driven innovation are proposed in the research:

1. Delegation - Management invites employees to take part in the innovation process, so generating ideas, developing them, testing and finally bringing into life. Higher levels of organization still stay in control of the process to a particular extent.
2. Ideation - This type is limited to only suggesting ideas and giving personal opinions concerning workplace innovation to management. A classic example of that would be brainstorming.
3. Execution - This type allows employees to introduce their innovative ideas on the work floor. Therefore, employees do not possess any influence on actual development of the innovation and final decisions, but it is a good way to change up work practices with a potential of further integrating innovations into the workplace.

Conclusion

The benefits of innovation to any business far outweighs the risk required. In today's business world, innovations are not only beneficial but are crucial to keep the organization's customers and employees satisfied. Innovation can be a catalyst for growth and success of the business helping to adapt to a particular marketplace, lead the market in a new direction, and discover solutions.

References

• Dahlander, Linus, and David Michael Gann. “How Open Is Innovation?” Research Gate, Research Policy, July 2010,
• De Spiegelaere, Stan, et al. Mainstreaming Innovation in Europe- Findings on Employee Innovation and Workplace Learning from Belgium. Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 24 Dec. 2012
• Kappel, Mike. “4 Benefits of Innovation in Business.” All Business, Dun & Bradstreet
• Lewis, Jared. “Advantages of Innovation Companies.” Small Business - Chron.com, Chron.com

Author: Daria Boiko, Kaleigh Krieger