What is business innovation?

Stepping into business innovation requires both an equal dose of talent, bravery, and teamwork. Talent can be technical expertise or creative artistry to device an improvement to an existing element or design a completely new experience. Bravery is the guts to go all in, ready to stomach the multiple failures and many frustrations on the road to business innovation. And teamwork, collaboration, idea exchange and brainstorming, constructive internal criticism understanding what is working well, what needs improvement, always considering everyone’s input. 

Innovation feeds off experience. However, breaking old paradigms is what drives growth. That’s why business innovation is so important because it opens new worlds of products and services, challenging the market and the competition and catering to a new scope of user and consumer needs that wasn’t there before. Organisations and companies can get an edge over the competition by coming out with innovative breakthroughs, supporting strategic growth and unlocking new value for clients and partners.

Innovating in the business environment can also include sustainable practices at the root of the new product or service, offering added value from the start. A resilient organisation and a strategic roadmap usually accompany business innovation, satisfying current and future needs considering the environment and even disruptive events.

It can be difficult to think outside the box when the tried and tested have delivered well in the past. Here are three approaches that have helped us in creating a culture of innovation within GHD:

1. Creating the right mindset

By empowering everyone in an organisation to think about how one can improve what is already there and promoting an open exchange of ideas, we can all help one another grow and through innovation. Leaders can connect the new ideas with those who can study their feasibility and help with implementation. It may be a slow start, but its results will be worthwhile.

2. Working with tried-and-tested methodologies

Innovation shouldn’t come at the expense of completely throwing away experience and methods that work. Using conventional methodologies as a foundation for innovation helps lower potential risks. This also makes it easier to assess our approach strategically. A few fundamental steps to innovation include framing focus, identifying the problem desired to solve, and developing the means to test ideas or solutions.

3. Involving people with the necessary skills and expertise

Ambitious innovations require collaboration. The team working on a solution must have the right skills and experience. A diverse group of entrepreneurs, engineers, creatives, and managers can help get the job done better than someone working alone ever could.

We are committed to building an innovative culture here at GHD. By doing so, we continue to achieve strategic growth and unlock new value, not just for ourselves but also for our clients and partners. This is anchored on protecting the natural environment and strengthening our community.

Under D-Lab, our innovation consulting practice, our team of innovation specialists and intrapreneurs are eager to help you in your innovation journey, whether you’re starting or already established. Through a business-first perspective, we will co-design with you a path forward to achieve your transformation ambition.

Articles referenced

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