When developing an innovation strategy, it is important to discuss ways to innovate internal business procedures. Spend time brainstorming on the various steps in your internal business procedures and look for ways to simplify or eliminate steps to streamline those procedures.
However, before getting to the issue of innovating a business procedure, there’s a critical preliminary question: Is the procedure necessary?
I recently worked with a company that performs repair services on electronic appliances. The company had a detailed “inventory procedure” that was completed every morning before the store opened. The procedure required an employee to print a report of all “open” repair orders from the computer. Then, the employee handling the inventory procedure that morning checked to be sure that every appliance in for repair was actually in the store. The employee manually checked off each appliance on the list. read more »
December 23, 2011 – 7:38 am
Many businesses limit innovative activities to particular individuals or particular departments in the organization. However, this approach may miss many valuable innovations that could strengthen the business.
A better approach is to involve people throughout the organization and start building a culture of innovation. Think of your business as an “innovation team”. People from different parts of the company and with different job functions can work together as a team for purposes of generating innovations. Everyone has creative ideas, so everyone should be involved in the process of generating innovations. By involving people in different parts of the company, you benefit from the different perspectives and experiences each individual brings to the creative process. read more »
November 2, 2011 – 7:38 am
Identifying creative ideas is a great way to grow your business. Using innovation contests and other activities, your organization can and develop a culture of creativity that generates plenty of creative ideas. These creative ideas can be developed into innovations that provide considerable value to the business.
However, creating a list of innovative ideas is not enough. You must take action!
Here are several ways to start taking action:
1.Evaluate the ideas on your list. Get a group of people from different parts of your business (different job functions) and review the ideas submitted. Perform a cost-benefit analysis on the most promising ideas. Initially, look for ideas that can be implemented quickly and are likely to produce a significant result to the bottom line.
2. Prioritize the ideas. Perform an initial ranking of the ideas – be sure to include ideas that are “short term” projects as well as “long term” projects that take more time or resources to implement, but can provide significant long-term growth for the business of cash advance.
3. Take steps to implement one or more of the ideas on the list. Take steps to begin implementing at least one of the ideas on your list. The first step may be to perform further investigation into the feasibility of the idea – such as seeking input from various groups in the company to determine costs, timing, or potential obstacles to address when implementing the idea.
Track the results of the innovative ideas implemented in your business. For example, you can track increase in revenue, reduction in expenses and customer growth. Celebrate the positive results of your innovation to encourage further creativity and innovation throughout your organization.