You’re a leader in your industry. How can you stay ahead of the curve in business innovation?

I believe that in order to stay ahead of the curve you need to collaborate with like minded people and businesses. We are always better working together for a common goal. I also feel you need to lead with LOVE internally and externally. Your employees and customers all have voices and Listening to what they need and want can direct you in a winning lane.

The market will show you what problems it needs solved. Understanding the market, tracking niches, and aligning with the present is what makes space for the future to open areas of innovation. It is important to note how your organization maps to current trends, as it will streamline innovation. You can have an extremely innovative product, but if you have to push yourself into the market, you'll be climbing an uphill battle. Time to market can make or break an organization, especially if you work as or in a start-up.

To stay ahead of the curve in business innovation, it is essential to stay informed on industry trends, technologies, and market developments through attending conferences, networking, and reading publications. Foster a culture of innovation within the organization by encouraging creativity, investing in research and development, and collaborating with industry leaders. Embrace technology, adapt to changes, listen to customer feedback, and hire top talent to drive business growth and maintain competitiveness.

Na minha opini?o, antes de definir metas e ter clareza dos problemas e objetivos, é saber exatamente qual é o planejamento estratégico da empresa. Nenhuma iniciativa terá recursos e apoio suficientes se n?o estiverem conectadas ao todo, a estratégia macro.

Before defining innovation goals it’s very important to have the buy in from the key stakeholders as they are the ones who will not only give a nod to go ahead but also support it financially. One should also take precautions to preempt any roadblocks which may come on the way, while SMART goals are being set up, a smarter approach is what we need.

Mere involvement of the team members will not serve the innovation objectives. The innovation leader needs to take the time out to discover what motivates the team to innovate. The leader needs to create an environment which nurtures the motivators. Rewards and recognition can definitely bring more excitement and engagement, the mantra remains “motivate to innovate”.

The best leaders have the best teams, employ people with specialist skills and never worry that your team may know more than you. Proactively ask for input from your team and from customers as they will have ideas you may never have thought of. It is always more interesting to find what are the negative points so you can work on them.

It’s hard but: show everyone you value their input, while at the same time not getting distracted by it. Bet your money on senior people you can learn from… and once you hired them, give them trust, resources and let them take the wheel. Keep partners, customers, coworkers in the loop (past, potential ones) about developments in your company - ask them what they found good, what didn’t they understand or expected differently - no matter if you have 50 or 500 customers. It’s easy to get lost in something that doesn’t take you anywhere - keeping everyone in the loop will create a sort of “accountability group” checking on you and your execution.

It’s hard but: show everyone you value their input, while at the same time not getting distracted by it. Bet your money on senior people you can learn from… and once you hired them, give them trust, resources and let them take the wheel. Keep partners, customers, coworkers in the loop (past, potential ones) about developments in your company - ask them what they found good, what didn’t they understand or expected differently - no matter if you have 50 or 500 customers. It’s easy to get lost in something that doesn’t take you anywhere - keeping everyone in the loop will create a sort of “accountability group” checking on you and your execution.

It’s hard but: show everyone you value their input, while at the same time not getting distracted by it. Bet your money on senior people you can learn from… and once you hired them, give them trust, resources and let them take the wheel. Keep partners, customers, coworkers in the loop (past, potential ones) about developments in your company - ask them what they found good, what didn’t they understand or expected differently - no matter if you have 50 or 500 customers. It’s easy to get lost in something that doesn’t take you anywhere - keeping everyone in the loop will create a sort of “accountability group” checking on you and your execution.

One of the most important measures that can keep a company ahead from competitors is analyzing what customers need. To do that we can take 3 important action: 1.talking to customers and listening to them. They can give lots of information about what they like or dislike about your company and your competitors. 2. Interviewing with the ones who are near many customers and can give valuable informatoion about them Such as dealers or sellers in sales side and call center in service side. 3.understanding economical, geographical, and social situations and extracting implications from them for next steps.

While environmental scanning is considered a good practice, it doesn’t guarantee any success in the ever changing business environment. What is needed is ‘scenario planning’ as this will help an organisation to develop a ‘strategic foresight’. Based on this strategic foresight, organisations can develop a longer term outlook and calibrate their response to full proof the success of their innovation success story.

Whilst doing this exercise its very important to adopt a child like or student like mindset so that you can learn effectively. Sometimes the answers that we are looking for maybe found in strange places

Making sure you stay ahead of the competition, you can do this by making sure you are developing continuously. If you are researching competitors and finding better features then you probably need to look at your own product team. Catching up is always harder as the competition are already working on the next step

One of the things I love doing as highly effective approach is an on-going innovations and experimentation labs. Innovations take a lot of time, but so does relevant for your industry & brand trend spotting. It is also very important to spot the trends when they are in formation phase, because it becomes too late when they have already formed. Additionally, inviting people from all walks of life but as far from your core employees is also important as they are more objective than your company.

'The secret of getting ahead of the curve?... is getting started,' (Mark Twain). Taking the first step is often the most difficult part of any journey, especially in innovation.

The innovation team should be open to an idea of “constructive destruction” and should be willing to adopt a more detached view towards our own ideas to create new and improved versions of our products/ service solutions. This is a definitely a tough call.

If it can’t be measured, it can’t be changed. In order to make improvements in business to ensure that the innovation is sustainable and driving business success, it is crucial to determine a metric or KPI (or a few) that can be quantified and prepare to measure it over time. One key thing to remember when implementing for the purpose of innovation, the KPI you set out to influence may not be the one that ultimately changes the most - so tracking other secondary metrics can be beneficial to get the bigger picture as well.

To me, the most important step. Every operation, mission, task, or whatever is to be accomplished, must be concluded with an after action review. No exceptions. During the AAR, what went well is acknowledged, but the real learning focuses on what didn't go as planned, and why. No plan will ever be perfect. What fell short during the execution can always be categorized as some kind of shortfall in either planning or preparation. The plan didn't account for this enemy action or that, or it was inadequately resourced, or contingencies weren't developed as part of wargaming the upcoming action, etc. In terms of prep, the rehearsal was poor, or coordination was lacking, etc. A good AAR will draw these out, and that's when the learning happens.

To establish yourself as an industry leader and stay ahead in business innovation, you must continually seek fresh insights, embrace emerging technology, cultivate a culture of creativity and experimentation, encourage varied cooperation, and remain flexible to change. We can learn from our mistakes by studying the underlying reasons, admitting faults, extracting lessons, and incorporating those insights into future tactics and decisions.

Always acknowledge failure but never let it be anything more than a learning experience. Don't look for blame look for how you move forward from it. I dont know that failures are inevitable but things dont always turn out as you expect and at the best partial successes. Or they lead to greater success down the line. Everything you ever use in your day to day life will have had several failures before the perfect item was made. If you are a business, look at how many fail and if you are still trading see that as a positive because it takes a lot of effort.

In my experience, leaders tend to stay 'in their lane.' They go to industry group meetings, they talk to peers in their organization, etc. But they rarely venture out, into the wild. What do I mean? If they're in manufacturing, check out what is happening in professional services. In hospitality but want to improve the customer experience? What are car dealerships doing? By reading and interacting with content outside of their lane, they might pick up on something they never thought about before. It takes one spark to light a fire when it comes to innovation.

Pour rester en tête sur le front de l'innovation commerciale, adoptez une approche proactive en surveillant constamment les tendances du marché et en restant à l'aff?t des nouvelles technologies. Cultivez une culture d'innovation au sein de votre entreprise, encourageant les idées créatives et la prise de risques calculés. Collaborez avec des partenaires et des experts de l'industrie pour élargir votre perspective et explorer de nouvelles opportunités. Enfin, soyez prêt à adapter rapidement vos stratégies et processus pour répondre aux besoins changeants des clients et aux évolutions du marché.

Zoom out! It's a waste to innovate on a system or a process that can be streamlined just by taking a good look at what's flawed upstream.

Never stop learning! A growth mindset is where it's at my friends. I know some successful people who believe they know it all. Please don't be that person. The science is behind me here, overwhelmingly, the most successful people never stop learning. Personally, if there is one thing that I am easily distracted by, it is learning. I have had to limit my research time to avoid going down that rabbit hole. Lol. Equally important in my opinion is making sure you stay connected to your client/customer. I advise all business owners to interact as much as possible and ask questions about what they want or need from you. People love to feel needed. Take notice, when you post on social media, the posts that get the most attention are questions.