Innovation is the key to staying relevant
Does everyone remember back to last year’s Federal election? I think we all remember the often-repeated focus around “innovation” and how it is our future. Regardless of your political leanings, there’s little doubt that innovation, especially around technology, is gaining more and more importance in our lives. Just look at the recent debates around the future of work, there’s no doubt that the nature of work today will change and probably change quite rapidly.
If we think about it in business, innovation is absolutely crucial. The interesting thing about it is that its not limited to just one area of your operations, it’s absolutely vital to pretty much everything in your business.
Innovation to reduce cost and improve efficiency
This is something close to our hearts at Inland Digital, not just because it’s a key component of what we offer our clients. There’s no doubt that technology is driving down cost in the backend operations for all businesses. With information now doubling at rates never seen before, it’s not only a cost saver but also a core component of your business strategy.
We have an approach to this problem ourselves internally. We could see the rate of information across all areas of our business growing in volume year on year, so we factored it into way we looked at our operations. The key to this is not so much information, but ensuring we have the right information available. We take a forward thinking approach to this, which is to say that we set ourselves the challenge: ‘What’s likely to be happening in the next 5 years that will affect the way we use information?’ It’s a good starting point to challenge yourself on the way you view information in your business.
Innovation in the way you deliver
Innovation isn’t just limited to your internal operations; you need to think about it in terms of how you deliver to your clients. There are huge technology advancements that can make it easier than ever before to deliver a better experience.
However don’t just look at delivery, think about the entire way you build your offering. We had to do this over the past few years as we diversified our approach to the market. Like everyone else, we always have to look at what we’re offering our clients to see that it still meets their needs, both now and into the future. We were lucky enough to be rewarded for that a few weeks back, something that we’re incredibly proud of.
The key for me is to challenge yourself to look at your offering critically. As the market changes are now so rapid, its worth investing your and your team’s time in constantly evolving the offering you take to market.
Innovation in planning
What’s the best way to be innovative? Make it a part of the way you do your business planning. It’s something that’s worked incredibly well for us.
Keep your employees in the loop; ask them to think outside the square. Everyone comes at a problem from different angles so using their skills and expertise to help change the way you do business is an excellent way of ensuring you’re focus on being innovative.
Steve Jobs is quoted as saying “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”. He was right: if you’re not thinking innovatively in everything you do in your business, chances are that you’re going to be left behind.