The worst thing that can happen to any business is for their creativity and innovation to become stagnant. Even the strongest companies cannot afford to rely on established products or services over the long haul unless those products have been transformed or improved. That makes supporting an innovation culture so important for any type of business if they want to grow or continue to sustain a long period of success. The problem is, so many companies simply do not know how to go about nurturing an impactful innovation culture.
EarlyBirds is a company specializing in connecting start up, scale up and mature innovators and early adopters based on their respective industries, business functions, and desired outcomes. As such, they have witnessed first-hand how important it is for organisations to create an innovation culture. This looks to be even more important for businesses in 2021 given the economic impact created by the ongoing pandemic. EarlyBirds provides self-service and assisted services specifically designed to support the acceleration of actionable innovation. They thought it would be helpful to share some of their thoughts on how an organisation can go about establishing a more robust innovation culture.
EarlyBirds Cofounder, Kris Poria, says, “The worst thing that can happen to any business is for their creativity and innovation to become stagnant. Even the strongest companies cannot afford to rely on established products or services over the long haul unless those products have been transformed or improved. That makes supporting an innovation culture so important for any type of business if they want to grow or continue to sustain a long period of success. The problem is, so many companies simply do not know how to go about nurturing an impactful innovation culture.”
Fellow EarlyBirds Cofounder, Jeff Penrose, went on to say, “before he discusses how a business can establish an impactful innovation culture, a business first needs to know why this is so important”. He says “for one, it’s by far the best way for any company to get ahead in their niche market. All it takes is one unique product or service to help a company get to the forefront of their industry for decades”.
They also pointed out that the best way to come up with breakthrough technologies and improved business models comes from a business having an active innovation culture. On the flip side, those businesses that do not have an established innovative culture are likely to suffer greatly in the long-term.
In particular, any company wanting to know how to establish a more innovative culture must first empower their people or employees to share ideas. It’s also very important to reward those ideas as extra encouragement for employees to come up with them. A business’s innovative culture must be inclusive, where everyone from the CEO and throughout all levels must be encouraged to undertake innovative thinking and be eligible for the same across the board rewards. Poria added, “establishing an innovative culture is so important to a business, that any business should seriously consider making it a performance requirement for their employees. A company also must be able to give its personnel the freedom to implement and try new disruptive solutions allowing a fail fast, learn faster approach. He stated, ‘any business's innovation culture must also be nourished in a way that it becomes organic throughout the organization”.
Poria added, “many companies also find it difficult to establish an innovation culture even if they know how to go about doing it. Those companies can benefit from having a partner in that endeavour. This is exactly why EarlyBirds created their Open Innovation Ecosystem”. “The process we use are very simple but effective and it’s the best way to bring together innovators, early adopter businesses, and consultants who are experts in a particular field. We find this model often leads to success for the people and companies using EarlyBirds services.
it is not important whether an innovator is a startup, scaleup, or mature venture. Once an innovator is matched with a business that thinks their product or service is actionable and a SME consultant assists the people and businesses to bring their desires to fruition, the rest takes care of itself. Poria says, their Open Innovation Ecosystem and services often helps organizations and leaders transform their businesses in a matter of weeks as opposed to years with actionable innovations from disruptive Innovators.
Those who would like more information on EarlyBirds Open Innovation Ecosystem can refer to this webpage here at https://earlybirds.io/en/early_adopter.