Build an Innovation Culture

  Innovation   Manufacturing   Strategy   ProjectsAtWork  

How do you spark new innovation in an organization with set ways? Start by making innovation part of everyone’s job description. Provide the training, time and space to do it. Fight fear and resistance early and often. Lastly, recognize and reward innovation every chance you get.

Is your organization a blockbuster? Not a blockbuster hit; rather, Blockbuster, the company that owned the video rental market until it was upended by an innovative competitor, Netflix.

If a company isn’t innovating, all of its products or services eventually become commodities. When that happens, you have no margin left to spend on research and development, new product initiatives, or anything else that could provide a competitive advantage. Then, your customers will start playing you against the competition, and it’s just a race to the bottom for further price concessions. By that point, you’re left with reducing costs, overhead, or profit — you’re now in a death spiral toward that going-out-of-business curve.

So how, exactly, do you spark new innovation at a company? What’s more, how do you do it at an already established business?

1. Make innovation part of everyone’s job description

The first line item on every job description should state that a primary duty is to introduce innovative ideas into the company. Job descriptions of all employees …

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