How do you create innovation in a turnaround?

1 Assess your core strengths

Before you start innovating, you need to identify what makes your business unique and valuable. What are your core competencies, assets, and capabilities that give you a competitive edge? How can you leverage them to create new products, services, or markets? Conduct a SWOT analysis to evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Focus on your strengths and opportunities, and look for ways to address your weaknesses and threats.

2 Involve your customers

Your customers are your best source of insight and feedback. They can help you understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. They can also help you test and validate your ideas, and provide referrals and testimonials. To involve your customers in your innovation process, you can use methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, co-creation workshops, or beta testing. Listen to their opinions, suggestions, and complaints, and use them to improve your value proposition and customer experience.

3 Empower your employees

Your employees are your most important asset in a turnaround. They have the knowledge, skills, and creativity to generate and implement innovative solutions. To empower your employees, you need to create a culture of trust, collaboration, and experimentation. Encourage them to share their ideas, opinions, and feedback, and reward them for their contributions. Provide them with the resources, tools, and training they need to execute their ideas. Allow them to learn from failures, and celebrate their successes.

4 Partner with others

You don't have to innovate alone. You can partner with other organizations that share your vision, values, and goals. By partnering with others, you can access new resources, capabilities, networks, and markets. You can also leverage their expertise, experience, and reputation. You can partner with suppliers, distributors, customers, competitors, or other stakeholders that can complement your strengths and fill your gaps. Look for win-win scenarios that benefit both parties.

5 Experiment and iterate

Innovation is not a one-time event. It is a continuous process of learning and improving. To innovate effectively, you need to experiment and iterate. Experimentation means trying out different ideas, hypotheses, and prototypes in real-world settings. Iteration means measuring the results, analyzing the data, and making changes based on feedback. By experimenting and iterating, you can test your assumptions, reduce risks, and increase your chances of success.

6 Align with your strategy

Innovation is not an end in itself. It is a means to achieve your strategic objectives. To create innovation in a turnaround, you need to align your innovation efforts with your overall strategy. Your strategy defines your vision, mission, values, goals, and priorities. It guides your decisions, actions, and resource allocation. It also helps you communicate your value proposition and differentiation to your customers and stakeholders. Make sure your innovation initiatives support and reinforce your strategy.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?