Innovation has become a fundamental business necessity because of the rapid pace and frequency of change. It is the only component that can ensure sustainability. The “Disruption, Digitization and Connection Age” is now. Businesses should focus on improving flexibility, innovation, creativity, and client empathy. Randall Castillo Ortega is an entrepreneur and the founder of SME investor RACO Investment. He understands the importance of innovation in maintaining the organization’s momentum and ensuring that it can keep up with changing times. Here are eight reasons innovation is essential for a business.
Innovation is simply introducing value-adding change. Entrepreneurs must be able see, sense, and perceive new opportunities. They then have to solve them in unique and creative ways that will improve people’s lives. To create a solution that is beneficial to the consumer market, this requires additional senses, such as the ability to recognize necessity, possibility and wonder.
Both the business and personal environments are becoming increasingly volatile and uncertain. These changes are fueled by many factors, including technological and social developments. Businesses still need to expand, be more competitive, and improve efficiencies.
It takes agility to grasp innovation and push it forward. Castillo asserts, “It takes the talent to recognize and change a certain way of thinking or doing that can disrupt status quo, create opportunities, and use intelligent decisions and solve problems.”
Entrepreneurship is becoming a global endeavor. This is especially true in emerging markets. Innovation is what enables and drives entrepreneurship. Innovation allows individuals to control their lives while generating new or improved ecosystems that will lead to economic growth.
The Internet of Things (IoT), which has enabled digitization to a large extent, has allowed the sharing and association of information between computerized devices – from vehicles to household gadgets – to an enormous extent. This network and subsequent aggregate pooling information are creating completely new business plans and income streams for both new businesses and established organizations that make use of existing resources in new, energizing and profitable ways.
Castillo emphasizes that people are important. The business will thrive if it focuses on creating a positive organizational environment and fostering a culture that encourages innovation.
Adds Castillo, “It’s important” to recognize the importance of making employees matter. Employees – who are the source of talent and customers for a business – want more control over how they are treated. This will ultimately lead to a more innovative environment and help ensure the company’s sustainability for many decades.
Castillo also points out that being able to anticipate and manage risks related to future trends, while focusing on those risks, will enable an entrepreneur to continually evolve the company in a way that is consistent with positive growth. It helps being passionate. You must have an urgency to invent and create clear strategic plans. You can make a positive impact on the world if you are able to think and act differently.
How the value of the product or service is communicated to customers is important. It must be consistent with the company’s overall vision. Duarte says that it is important to define your North Star metric when you launch a new company. The metric will help entrepreneurs keep an objective view and make rational decisions.
Innovation and invention are two different things. This idea has led to much confusion among entrepreneurs who have created new products or services and then looked to other people to see if they were successful. Innovation is about understanding the market, customers, competitors, and opportunities.
This setting is crucial for business success and continuous improvement. Castillo explains that if an organization doesn’t improve, it simply means that there is a huge open door for a new or current competitor to enter the market and cause a lackluster continuity in the market.
