Innovation can deliver significant benefits. It is one of the critical skills for achieving success in any business. In many industries, companies seek competitive advantage primarily through product innovation.Product innovation offers compelling advantages to firms, enabling them to maintain their position in a competitive market, exploit new technologies developed internally, respond to the introduction of new technologies from others, and keep existing businesses viable.
The world is getting smaller every day as globalization and technological advancements are taking bigger shapes. This is the need of the hour for every organization to hold strong their grounds in today’s extremely competitive era by introducing innovative products like Alexa, Kindle by Amazon, services like creative website design and development, and digital transformations like AI, IoT, AR, VR to their portfolios.
Let’s have a look on some of the key practical ways how innovation can benefit businesses-
1. Improved productivity and reduced costs
A lot of innovation is about reducing unit costs. This might be achieved by improving the product/service capacity or flexibility of the business – to enable it to enhance the productivity in low cost.
For example , transforming your existing website into more innovative, creative website design will prevent you from having any additional cost of developing one from scratch.
2. Increased competitiveness
Your company fits inside of a specific niche or industry, and it’s far from alone. Let’s say, for example, you manufacture light bulbs. Tons of companies also manufacture light bulbs, and you need to stand out in some way. You can do that through innovation. The right innovation will allow you to offer something unique to your customers. For instance, what if you managed to create a light bulb that automatically turned off when people left the room? That’s a crazy example, but that’s how some of the best innovations work or how about an online website/app that shows your bulbs virtually in different environment & rooms setup?
Customers can get every detail of your product with almost real life like preview. They can configure and choose bulbs according to their requirements and order them online. Top innovators take popular products and make them even better. That makes brands stand out in the market and makes it easy for companies to increase revenue. The idea of creative website design by Bellroy is one of the good examples of how innovation can be beneficial in building competitive advantages.
3. Improved brand recognition and value
Effective innovation is a great way to establish a unique selling proposition (“USP”) for a product. It is something which the customer is prepared to pay more for and which helps a business differentiate itself from competitors.
4. Building a product range
A business with a single product or limited product range would almost certainly benefit from innovation. A broader product range provides an opportunity for higher sales and profits and also reduces the risk for shareholders.
5. Improve sales and customer relationship
Failing to improve your products and services can put you at risk of losing customers to more innovative competitors. Timely transformation/ innovations as per the trends, customer demand, competitors can be a great move. If you invest time and money in innovation, customers will notice and appreciate the extra value you’re bringing them. That should translate into more sales. You can start with simple steps. This include regularly surveying customers to identify potential product improvements and setting up an innovation team to spearhead your efforts. The way Brickfielderhas brought innovation in presenting their product with a creative website design, would help them in attracting more customers and hence leading to more sales.
For introducing innovation in any form in an organization whether digitally through innovating UI/UX of a software product or through a creative website design etc., the refinement of ideas and their public acceptance decides the future of an organization and its success. The path is full of risks. But organizations should step ahead cautiously by investing majorly in product innovation and deploying the best minds, in order to succeed and sustain today’s market.
