7 Reasons Why Innovation is Important

Lisa Caprelli is featured in FORBES magazine article by Stephanie Burnes, who covers female entrepreneurship

Why innovation is Important in 2020 and Beyond!

By Lisa Caprelli, Author of Unicorn Jazz children’s unicorn book series; Director of Unicorn Jazz Presents The Thing I Do – now on its first season on Amazon Prime!

Innovation is the cornerstone of sustained economic growth and prosperity.

It is the using of new ideas that lead to the making of any new products, services or processes. Remember Blockbuster?

It could have remained innovative, yet is no longer around.

Netflix began a small business and today’s  Netflix’s market value now stands at $32.9 billion.

Not only is the invention of something new important, but getting it out into the marketplace is just as important. This can involve management restructuring and technological transformation.

 

Innovation means using new technology and using new ways of thinking to add value to an existing idea or product and to make substantial changes in society.

 

Innovative women entrepreneur, Lisa Caprelli, directs and writes UNICORN JAZZ PRESENTS THE THING I DO – on Amazon Prime, a kids show created at the onset of social distancing.

Where do good ideas come from?  I use this video with business people as well as in my talks to elementary school students!

You may enjoy this explainer video by Steven Johnson:

Most exhilarating is Johnson’s conclusion that with today’s tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. 

Different studies have confirmed that businesses want to be more innovative.  In my studies I found on average that almost 90% of businesses think innovation is a priority for their success.

In my book, Skip a Step: Imparting Wisdom for Young Entrepreneur Minds, all the interviews I conducted led to innovation, creativity and vision being important to business success!

WHY INNOVATION IS IMPORTANT?

The different types of innovation that you are likely to run across include product, process, supply chain and marketing. Here are 7  reasons that businesses should incorporate to remain innovative.

1. Creative Development – Qualities of innovative nature are essential for new businesses today. You can achieve growth by learning how to be creative. You need to learn this business skill to help make things of value from your creativeness. When you have this business skill you will find that it opens up all kinds of opportunities and gives you the potential for a new market and helps you to keep up with the current trends.

2. Continuous Improvement – Innovation gives organizational sustainability when you are making continual improvements and repackaging and re-branding. Any good manager will recognize the need to innovate and grows the business skills to increase their creativity.

3 .Reinforce Your Brand – Development branding is popular in organizational leadership. This process reveals information to help leaders to learn other ways to be more innovative. It is important because it is recognized as one of the main drivers for success. It gives organizational sustainability such as brand maintenance.

4. Making the Most of What You Have Already – It is not all about creating a new product or service which you can sell, but you also need to focus on your existing business procedures to improve your efficiency, find some new customers, increase your profits and cut down on the amount of your waste. When you are continually innovating and improving on the practices of your business you will likely also attract better staff and keep more of your existing staff. This is detrimental to the health and performance of your business in the long-term.

5. Responding to Competition and Trends – Innovation can help you to see what exists now in opportunities or which ones will likely pop up in the near future. Businesses which are successful don’t only respond to the current needs of their customers, but usually predict the future trends and come up with an idea, service or product that can meet the future demand quickly and effectively. In this way you can stay ahead of your competition as trends, technology or markets shift.

6. Having a Unique Selling Point – Generally, consumers will see innovation as something which adds value to products or a company. When this is used the right way, it can give you an advantage commercially, especially in a market that is saturated or shifting rapidly. It can get your more positive exposure in the media and your customers will be more willing to pay the extra money for something that is well-designed and new, rather than picking the less exciting and cheaper rival.

7.  The Use of Social Media – Including the use of social media in your innovation campaign is great for managing, motivating and getting focused in your business. When you use it in your business, you are drawing ideas from a wide range of people on the social networks, giving you a successful outlet to find new ideas for your business. You can also use social networks to see what customers are saying about your services, products or company. In business today, we need to be innovators now more than ever. Each business and organization is feeling the impact of globalization, technological and knowledge revolutions, migration and climate change issues.  Innovation can bring the added value you need to your business plus widen your employment base.  It is detrimental for the quality and growth of your business.

The ability to be innovative is a major factor that influences strategic planning and it has also been acknowledged that it leads to creation of wealth.