Innovation can help businesses achieve a number of key objectives which include boosting profits, creating innovative products and services, as well as creating a distinctive customer appeal. It also helps companies keep their competitive edge in a dynamic marketplace with a growing number of industries being impacted by technological advances.
Business innovations come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They could include the development of new services and products, improving processes, launching campaigns, or changing the company culture. They can also be a result of changes to existing products or services, for example, adding features or upgrading customer service. The most successful innovations are those that are innovative and practical.
Novel ideas alone rarely lead to breakthroughs in the absence of practical solutions to the real-world issues. A novel idea must be beneficial for both the business as well as its customers to be considered an innovation. A business innovation is deemed successful if both it is innovative and beneficial.
A successful business innovation won’t just generate new sources of value as well as improve decision-making, solving problems and communication within the organization. It is essential for businesses to be constantly monitoring market trends and customer feedback in order to identify opportunities for business innovation.
It is generally best to look beyond the field in which a company is operating to find innovative ideas. For instance, the creation of the modern accounting machine was a business idea by IBM when the company realized that banks would not purchase new machines in 1933 since they were in a financial bind.
Another example of business innovation is the introduction of the scleral lens in eye surgery. Alcon added the preservative ingredient to an enzyme that doctors had been using for over 50 years to eliminate cataracts. This was a breakthrough in business that led to a completely new product, and the creation of an international monopoly on the company.