Is Innovation The Key To A Successful Business? Not Necessarily!

Tuesday, 4 December 2007 at 20:30 EST, by Mark Garland

Most business people know that being innovative is getting to be more and more important for a business to stand apart from its competition. But is it a necessity to be innovative to be successful online and offline? The simple answer to this is no. Many companies worldwide are successful by imitating the actions larger more successful companies.

If you are a brand new company looking to break out into an industry though, an innovative concept can be very profitable for you. However, there are multiple risks that go along with being innovative. It is much easier with less risk involved if your company is already established prior to promoting a highly innovative idea or product. A big reason for this is that the established company already has a customer base to work from. I will now go over just a few important things to know that can help you when brainstorming new innovative ideas. Please note: Being innovative drastically increases the chances of failure if you do not do your research. So the points below all build from research or current knowledge you may have for an industry and is why the first point is what it is.

1. Do Your Research- In my opinion, being innovative ultimately means using one's creativeness to build on what you already know and develop something that is unique in todays marketplace. Whether that be a product, a service, or even an entire business mission, it is important to do research.

2. Look for problems - Do you know of a problem that hinders something form working properly? Well, work with it and try to think of a way of correcting the problem in your own way. This is great because you already know the problem exists for many others, and you can build very profitable business ventures by fixing problems that others have. That is ultimately what business is all about isn't it? Simply finding solutions to problems people have.

3. Tap into Known Environments - You know a lot, even more than you can remember at any one time, so the second tip I have for you in brainstorming new innovative ideas is to evaluate things you are familiar with. Chances are you will think of a few ways that you can enhance something that you are already familiar with, with just a little bit of thought.

4. Tap into Unknown Environments - It can be scary to think of entering unfamiliar territory, but sometimes it is a great way to generate ideas that are highly innovative. This is largely due to your unfamiliarity with the market you are looking to enter. Let’s just say someone doesn't have a previous knowledge of animals but knows that people dislike how much their pets shed hair as it leaves fur lying all around the house. (I don't know why I thought of this as an example, but let’s run with it!). The person could then research the industry and realize somewhere that something could be improved on, and boom! An innovative idea pops into his head! The main point I’m trying to get across in this point is to not be hesitant to look in places you are unfamiliar with because you might just see some way that something could be improved upon that others who are familiar with the industry may have overlooked.

5. Like/Dislikes - I have no doubt in my mind, that whoever you are, where ever you are, you know something that you like or dislike about some product/service/or even business. For example: myself, I like interesting articles, which is why I attempt to write interesting articles. I have read many articles on many different things, some of them being so boring to me that I didn't even finish reading it, while others may keep me reading interestingly right to the final word. What does this have to do with being innovative you may ask? Well, evaluate your likes and dislikes and think of ways that you can improve them for the better. This is a great starting place for brainstorming new innovative ideas because you already have somewhat of a first-hand experience with the product/service/or business and you already are familiar with problems that you can build from.

So while being innovative can be good for your business, it can also be risky, so just make sure to do your research so you will know that your idea will be profitably adopted by your target market.

I hope this article has been informing, maybe you are already familiar with what I talked about, but this is the type of information that is good to constantly being remembered because you never know the next time you find a problem, you may think of a way that you can fix fit it yourself!

If you have enjoyed this article, then you'll also enjoy all of the information and products available to you at my website:

http://www.analyzedmarketing.com

| Posted by Mark Garland | Categories: Other |