What is Business Innovation?

Innovation is about developing your business in new ways that will yield benefits. It's about a mindset, a managed approach and a culture that maximises value from new ideas.

Innovation covers any new improvement to your business, be it incremental or a more dramatic step change. Innovation can include introducing new products and services, re-engineering your business processes, re-positioning your business in the market or developing a completely new business model.

What are the Results?

Effective innovation provides measureable business benefits:

• It increases value to your customers or clients through new or improved products or services.
• It improves the effectiveness of your operation through re-engineering your business processes.
• It makes your organisation stand out from 'me-too' competitors.

Aren't we Innovative Enough?

In a word: no. Even the Googles of this world continually work to improve their innovation effectiveness. Many organisations are good at some dimensions of innovation - such as new products, but poor at others, such as process innovation. But even more organisations struggle to be systematically and repeatedly innovative – instead innovation happens occasionally, if at all. These businesses risk becoming roadkill on the highway of competition.

Businesses that can develop an effective system and culture for innovation will be the ones that survive the tough times and continue to grow through distinctive, competitive positioning.