Innovation is creating, introducing, or using something new and better than existing products in a market. It typically involves creative individuals and organizations that offer alternative solutions to problems by imitating, challenging, or rejecting established ideas, methods, and cultural norms.
The many benefits of innovations include:
- Lower Cost.
It can sometimes be cheaper to develop an innovation than to maintain similar performance levels using the same or similar products.
- Increased Quality.
It can be easier to make a product with fewer defects and better quality, especially if there is a desire to keep costs low or expand markets to new customers.
- Improved Functionality.
Usually, it takes relatively little effort and money to make something as good as new, even if it comes from the same source or is introduced by the same person as an existing product.
- Brand Recognition.
Innovations are often seen as more prestigious than existing brands because they are new and creative. Adding a new product to an established brand is often seen as more important than a minor improvement to an existing one.
- Brand Expansion.
Innovations are often more likely to be found and accepted within the target market than the existing product because they are typically better made or cheaper and better for customers to use.
- Increased Sales Efficiency and Productivity.
In some businesses, it may be possible for employees to create new products that can be sold directly by some departments. It may also be possible to sell innovative products to more customers without increasing costs.
What Are The 4 Key Elements of Innovation?
- Collaboration. Businesses have to work together across different divisions, such as R&D, packaging, delivery, and marketing, to make sure that the new product is suitable to be sold by the business.
- Communication.
Businesses have to keep customers informed about their innovative products before they are released onto the market, or they may lose interest in them and choose not to buy them.
- Ideation. Businesses have to get ideas about how their products should be made to be innovative.
- Implementation.
Businesses have to make sure that they deliver innovative products in a way that satisfies customers. The innovative product may need additional changes once it is in production.
Innovation is a differentiating activity in business, and it is a process that every organization needs to have to be successful. Innovation does not happen by accident; businesses need to employ strategic systems and processes for innovation for them to compete successfully against non-innovative businesses.
