Good to Great: How to Scale With an Outsourced CFO

Innovation has become the main driver of success in business, but innovation is tricky. It’s not one straightforward concept, methodology, or idea. It’s not a static set of skills. If you were to take a course called Innovation 101, it would be nothing like Accounting 101 or Marketing 101. In fact, such a course would be different every semester as technology changes. 

The key to business innovation is to combine 3 crucial elements: people, product, and process. Let’s take a look at each component:

The Importance of People in Innovation

Each person in your organisation came to you with a unique background. Even if they have similar educations, they have different experiences, different talents, and different points of view. This diversity of thought and background can give your organisation a huge advantage if you pay attention to it and use it wisely.

When you see your people as your greatest assets—and they truly are—you treat them differently and see them as essential to business innovation. Asking for ideas and feedback, creating cross-departmental teams, and giving adequate opportunity for your employees to contribute are all ways to build up your people. This will help them become the engine of business innovation for your organisation.

Why Product is Key to Innovate

Consumer demand changes along with new technologies, lifestyle changes, and consumer interest. In order to stay innovative and relevant, you’ll need to evaluate your products on a regular basis and ask the following questions:

• Do we need to update our products to keep them relevant?
• Are there new products we can introduce that will be attractive to our market?
• Can we reach new markets by innovating existing products?
• What will our consumers want tomorrow?

Big data and analytics can be incredibly helpful in answering these questions. Keeping track of conversations and trends among your consumers or other industry contacts on social media can also help with innovation in your products.

The Relationship Between Process and Innovation

The process of innovation involves attention and resources. Innovation doesn’t just happen on its own. It takes initiative on the part of management as well as ongoing support. Do you have processes in place to re-evaluate your products and services on a regular basis? Have you provided ways for your employees to suggest ways to improve your current systems?

Job coaching contributes to innovation in that it opens the lines of communication between the employees in the trenches and the managers and executives with power to make decisions. If your employees don’t currently have a consistent, regular way to offer feedback and suggestions, think about how you can improves that process as well as other processes that contribute to innovation.

True business innovation incorporates people, products, and processes to keep organisations moving with the times. In our rapidly changing business world, those who do not innovate find themselves left behind. Don’t allow this to happen to your organisation. Listen to your people, innovate your products, and improve your processes.

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