Innovation
In some of our previous blogs, we’ve emphasized on the importance of innovation and the role it plays in helping companies stay afloat and ahead in today’s competitive market.
Whether it is a new product, or a service, or a new idea to begin with, merely innovating is not enough. It is imperative that innovation is made a habit within organizations, especially the ones in the business of IT. Making IT innovation a key skill set or part of the operating culture within an organization will provide the workforce with necessary encouragement to be independent while coming up with creative ideas and to voice them sans any inhibition.
So, how exactly can organizations make IT innovation a part of your organizational ethos?
Firstly, put yourself in your end user’s (customer, partner, supplier, consumer) shoes to delve deeper into their concerns and the issues that they constantly face. This will help you center your innovation around addressing your end user’s issue, thereby helping your IT innovation strategy and your innovation outcome leverage maximum potential. For this, it is key that organizations seek regular feedback and conduct surveys to understand their end user’s needs. A regular and continued network of communication will help organizations stay abreast of their end users’ wants, needs, likes and dislikes.
Secondly, focus on transformation and not change, make that a part of your workforce’s daily routine. When you talk about transformation, you are talking about ways to invent/reinvent, discover and help evolve an existing idea or practice with a vision for the future. When transformation is deliberately made a part of your daily work conversations and discussions, your team and employees will be compelled to develop a thought process that is by default inclined towards finding innovative solutions that hold a future value for your end users.
Thirdly, know that innovation is never limited to a product or a solution. You can innovate a service or come up with an innovative idea to improve the existing processes within your organization. Limiting the idea of innovation would mean limiting the scope of IT innovation. So go ahead and explore innovation beyond its known limits!
Lastly, solving a problem innovatively takes a creative mind, and it could be anywhere in the world and in any industry! So, try to look for inspiration and ideas beyond the IT industry.