Business technology systems and innovation
Mark Sinclair

Tip for improving business results – Challenge the status quo!

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Interested in improving business results?  How does the saying go? If you continue to do what you have always done you will get the same result.  Well that may or may not be true in business. True, poor processes or poor service will no doubt lead to continued poor results. On the other hand, business results may have been very good but continuing to do the same thing may lead to future decreases in business performance and possibly even business failure. This could be due to factors like changing customer needs, habits or buying processes, new competitor offerings, competitor use of new technologies, new products or services displacing ours, supply chain factors, political changes, economic changes and more. Also, just because results are very good does not necessarily mean they could not be even better.

An essential skill for any small business owner is the ability to challenge the status quo with a view to improving business results, service, products, business processes, staying ahead of competitors, engaging staff or suppliers and ultimately ensuring ongoing success and more profit.

So, business owners and leaders should continually ask questions and seriously challenge the current ways of working. Who should they ask – themselves, their leaders, their staff, their customers, their suppliers and other experts. All of them! Questions for improving business results could include the following and many more.

  • Is there is there a better way to deliver our service or product?
  • How can we better serve our customers?
  • In what ways could we be more efficient?
  • Are we properly focused on market opportunities? How can we be better at maximising our market opportunities?
  • How could we better engage our staff?
  • What do we know about our competitors and what they are doing?
  • Do we understand available and potential new technologies and how they could benefit our business (or our competitors if not us)? Have we actually tried to experience these technologies.
  • How could we improve our processes to benefit customers, staff and management?
  • Have we identified critical risks and implemented mitigation plans? Are we truly prepared if they eventuate?

Here are a few suggestions:

  • Take a serious look at competitors and potential competitors. Look at their website. Call them. Visit their premises if they have one. Try buying something. Find their customers and ask them about their experience with the competitor.
  • Take a field trip. Go and spend time with customers, visit competitors, visit suppliers. Go to a different market or geographic region to see what they are doing.
  • Experiment. Try it. Experiential learning is critical. For example, if you don’t experience a new technology, service or product then how can you understand the potential uses, benefits and implications for your business or how it may be implemented?
  • Ask your customers.  Talk to them about their needs and their experience of your service or products. Conduct a survey (but make it brief and targeted – don’t bombard them).
  • Ask your staff. Engage them in the process. You might be surprised at the ideas and knowledge they have.
  • Talk to suppliers. They may have invaluable knowledge about opportunities. They are also likely supplying your competitors and have knowledge about them.
  • Look around. Look at other business and industries to see what you can learn from them.
  • Do some targeted research. Check out the web, YouTube, readings and other sources.

The capacity to challenge the status quo is a critical skill for business leaders in improving business results.  If you would like to find out more about how we can help, please contact Simulthink or click here for more information on our innovation management services.

Business innovation management
Mark Sinclair

The benefits of innovation may have no relation to the size of the innovation itself

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Innovation is simply the introduction of something new – e.g. knowledge, an idea, a method, a device or a technology. Innovation is at the heart of ongoing business and organisation success.  Business survival depends upon innovation, whether incremental or fundamental.  Importantly, the benefits of innovation may have no relationship to the size of the innovation itself.  Small changes to products, services or processes can sometimes deliver transformational business benefits.  So, business leaders need to be mindful of small changes that have the potential to deliver major benefits.

Business leaders should challenge themselves, their teams and their staff to innovate by questioning existing approaches to planning, resourcing, service, products, systems and technology and introducing new concepts, processes and ways of thinking. Innovation may be required to become the leader in a field.  Maybe, innovation is required to keep up with competitors.  Innovation may be small or possibly transformational.

As we have pointed out, an important point is that innovation can range from very small changes to major change.  The benefits of the change may have no relation to the size of the innovation and the level of work involved in implementation.  Very small changes can sometimes have business transforming effects.

Consider the successful organisations of today and the way they operate, the products they provide or the services they deliver.  We challenge you to identify any successful organisation that has not achieved its success through innovation – either as a leader of change or a follower.  On the other hand, there is a long list of organisations that no longer exist because of a failure to innovate effectively.

Here are some key questions to ask.

  • What creativity processes and tools do you use?
  • Do you have an innovation culture and, if not, how do you develop one?
  • How effective are your problem solving and decision making processes?
  • Have you performed a competitor analysis?
  • Have you searched for, and experienced, best practice?
  • How successful are you at converting ideas into results?
  • What processes do you have for idea generation and evaluation?
  • What attention are you paying to experiential activities – do you visit other markets, do you try to experience new technologies to understand potential uses and benefits?

Here is a reference to some ideas on innovation management.