Are You Ready to be a Disruptor?
“It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin
The world is in an aggressive digital transformation and it is changing faster than ever. Everyone is innovating and doing new things every passing day.
Market competition is at its highest since the world is open for new technology and affordable to all. Technology changes by the day and organisations are investing heavily in new ideas, new technologies and changing the way of conventional business.
This 21st Century is an era of Disruptors. The world has refined its offerings by innovative products and services. These disruptors answer for the questions often asked in an innovative way. How do we do things differently? How do we make things easier and more convenient? Or, how do we redefine what’s being offered already? Some of the answers to those questions have changed the market significantly.
The largest taxi company – Uber, doesn’t own any vehicles. The most valuable photo company – Instagram, doesn’t own any photos. The largest accommodation provider – Airbnb, has no accommodation. The widely held media provider – Facebook, does not create any proprietary content. The most valuable online retailer – Alibaba keeps no inventory of their products. These giants started their innovative ideas as amateurs and now the world has a new meaning for our transportation, healthcare, media, accommodation and anything that makes life easier.
Researchers say half of the world’s population cannot live without a smartphone. Is your organisation tech savvy enough and catering to the need of the hour? Conventional banking has evolved to Facebook banking, Twitter banking, FinTech solutions. Is your organisation up to date with the speed of the world? Most companies are adopting a customer ecosystem into their organizational culture. Is your organisation keeping in line with these trends too?
In this innovative era if companies do not adopt innovation into their culture, those companies are predicted to be the next dinosaur which will vanish in the midst of all the change taking place.
So how do we incorporate innovation into our culture so that we can be the next disruptor?
Strategic Innovation
- Top management has to lay the foundation for building up new assets and revenue streams. This would create room for investment in innovation.
- Prepare the organisation for 360-degree competition. Companies should be aware of the market changes and equipped with an updated competitor analysis.
- Revisit and review the current company strategy and brainstorm for a new strategy to sell your organisation’s offerings in a more appealing and exciting way to your customers.
- Develop the ‘design thinking’ approach. This is an approach where you adopt a solution-based approach to solve the problem. Take a deep interest in understanding the customer and raise questions about the problems they face, developing assumptions on what is the most suitable way to solve the problem and coming out with the best implementation process. This approach also involves experimenting, sketching, prototyping and trying new concepts and ideas.
Functional Innovation
- The world is constantly in a hurry. People want to get their work done faster than ever. If an organisation wants to remain in the market it must attain faster clock-speed within the functions of the organisation.
- Identify the pain points of customers when they deal with your organisation and innovate to simplify the process.
- Be adaptive to change.
- Break the traditional cubicle office structure. Allow team members to interact with each other. Let information flow throughout the team. This would allow the employees to have a 360-degree view of the organisational process flow, thus leading to innovation.
People Innovation
- Knowledge is power. Develop a learning environment in the organisation which would pave the path for creating new products and services.
- Find new ways to attract, retain and train employees. People, especially millennials no longer seek just good perks in a company; they need more challenging tasks, excitement in the work and innovation. When the work becomes routine, employees lose their spark in the job.
- Don’t only check paper qualifications when recruiting, also check the creativity pulse of a potential employee when hiring.
- Encourage innovation among your employees. Recognise those who stand out with appropriate rewards.
Intellectual Property
- Differentiate your unique spot in the market and be known for that.
These are a few techniques which you can use to inculcate innovation in your organization, which in turn will lead your organisation to be a disruptor in the market.
Ideas are always free. Don’t hoard your ideas, express them often. What matters is the way you monetise your ideas. That is the secret recipe for your success. Analyse the success stories of others and customize them according to your organization. Do not try to mimic them.
“Never before in the industry has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short time.” – Bill Gates