The 28th Advantage of Innovating

“Don’t follow a trend... follow your heart.”

I know that you understand the value of innovation. Perhaps it’s because you believe in its benefits or maybe because you’ve heard everyone everywhere confidently proclaim its importance. If you dare to question this, you might be labeled as closed-minded, rigid-thinking, or even living in the Stone Age. Nevertheless, let’s take a page from American activist Krist Novoselic and choose not to follow the trend. So, get comfortable because I’ll share with you my list of innovation outcomes.

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I - Disadvantages of Innovating

First, let’s discuss the downsides of innovating. Yes, innovating has its cons. If you don’t believe me, consider why not all companies are innovating. This is because the journey of innovation involves certain pains and uncertain gains. Inputs include effort (training innovators and managing innovations), money (R&D, legal, and marketing expenses), and time (data collection and experimentation periods). The outputs are product, service, process, marketing, and administrative innovations that have a modest chance of success. That said, if you’re a business owner with good enough sales, then I understand your temptation to stand up and skip the rest of this article. However, my permission comes with a condition—your sales must be impervious to the three Cs: country-wise changes (economic interventions and/or cycles), competition-wise changes (new competitors and alternative products), and customer-wise changes (new trends and preferences). If your sales aren’t, then get back to your chair and join me on a quick journey through 28 research-proven advantages of innovating.

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II - Seven Advantages from the Government’s Perspective

1- Growing the economy: It’s evident that countries fostering innovation are among those experiencing significant yearly economic growth.

2- Diversifying the economy: Rather than relying solely on one industry, for example, agriculture, a nation can explore innovative business models, such as agritourism, and create new sources of revenue.

3- Enhancing productivity: Countries equipped with information, agricultural, and/or manufacturing innovations have shown to produce more with less resources.

4- Creating jobs: A quick look at your social network will prove to you that shared taxi apps, such as Uber and Lyft, have created thousands of jobs, outweighing the unemployment in traditional taxi markets.

5- Utilizing untapped resources: Innovations in desalination and recycling turn sea and wastewater into economic assets.

6- Mitigating crises: In times of unexpected economic, health, environmental, and political crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, innovative countries respond more quickly, effectively, and efficiently.

7- Promoting the country’s reputation: Think of the top 5 innovative countries and the top 5 stone-age ones based on what you’ve heard from your friends and the media. Now, tell me, in which group of countries would you prefer to study, work, and invest?

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III - Seven Advantages from the Society’s Perspective

8- Ensuring survival: Do you know that if the innovation regarding the use of nitrogen fertilizers in farming hadn’t occurred over a century ago, several nations wouldn’t exist today because they would die from starving?

9- Solving problems: The primary objective of innovating is to solve complicated problems that regular people cannot solve effectively and efficiently using obvious solutions. Innovating presents a limitless possibility of finding solutions to tackle complex issues in the health, environment, social, and security domains…etc.

10- Advancing quality of life: Do you know what is common between water coolers, express shipping, WhatsApp, and live TV shows? They represent innovations that would have made our ancestors envy us.

11- Enabling disabled segments: Affordable Internet and accessible Mobile Apps are innovations that enabled a poor teenager in Africa to attend online courses at Harvard and a blind person to travel alone to another continent and reply to emails on the way.

12- Opening new opportunities: Without the unbelievable accelerated pace of innovating, it would be difficult to justify the conferences that are currently discussing spending holidays on Mars, building friendships with AI robots, and creating meat slices completely in the lab.

13- Motivating learners: “Being the creator of something new in the future” is the primary motivating factor for countless school students, and perhaps for a good number of college students too. This motivation, built on a community innovation culture, could help passionate students endure the burdens of their long learning journey.

14- Spreading optimism: When members of a community leverage the power of innovation in solving their problems and easing their lives, they will face their other unsolved problems and life challenges with an optimistic attitude, knowing that one day someone will innovate something to solve each of these problems and challenges.

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IV - Seven Advantages from the Company’s Perspective

15- Strengthening competitiveness: In a market saturated with several similar and alternative products, a small improvement in one company’s product could have a significant impact on the company’s survival in this intense competition.

16- Upgrading profitability: A company that innovates or adopts innovative ideas in its processes to increase efficiency and quality is more likely to witness positive impacts in its financial statements.

17- Building adaptability: An innovative company is highly capable of riding favorable waves in the market and less likely to drown in its tsunamis.

18- Enhancing the brand: Customers are willing to pay a premium for products from companies known for innovation.

19- Attracting passionate employees: Ask some of your smart and self-motivated friends about the global companies they are dreaming of joining. You will definitely find that innovation reputation is one of the main factors that influences their choices.

20- Improving the work environment: Valuable employees, especially younger ones, tend to run away from routine-based companies that have rigid processes and offerings and favor those that offer a dynamic and creative work environment.

21- Achieving business sustainability: Forecasting and innovating are vital for long-term business success. In the absence of these, companies might find themselves out of the race in the blink of an eye.

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V - Seven Advantages from the Innovator’s Perspective

22- Gaining financial income: It’s no secret that many innovators reap financial rewards through product sales, acquisitions, royalties, or prizes.

23- Getting recognized: There are at least 5 innovators in your mind whom you have heard about in the news, on YouTube, or in your general readings. Believe me, they would not be recognized by you and the media if they weren’t innovating.

24- Doubling brain capabilities: The brain is like a trainable muscle that can be strengthened via exercises, and solving several complicated problems through out-of-the-box solutions will stretch almost all of its right and left halves.

25- Aiming for better jobs: During this age of intense competition and technological race, having “innovating skills” in the CV would substantially improve candidates’ career prospects.

26- Dealing with mental problems: Studies have shown that creative tasks can stimulate the release of endorphins, the natural chemicals that make us feel happy, and reduce the levels of cortisol, the hormone that causes stress and anxiety.

27- Joining positive communities: Innovators are optimistic people with a positive attitude, and staying caged in negative social circles kills their creative spirit. Fortunately, there are various physical and virtual clubs, events, gatherings, and exhibitions restricted to innovators that can help them nurture their positivity.

28- Reaching self-actualization: According to Maslow’s pyramid of needs, reaching happiness in life is conditioned by satisfying the desire to accomplish all that a person can and unleash all his or her potential. If using the innovator’s ability to add a positive change to his or her organization, market, society, or the entire world will not satisfy this need in him or her, then what will?

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VI - Final Thoughts

Before falling in love with innovation, remember that some innovations have unintended harmful consequences, such as petrol engines contributing to global warming. In the wrong hands, dreamt-up innovations can become nightmares, such as the internet’s use in cybercrimes. Furthermore, great innovations, such as automated manufacturing, can displace workers. So, as we conclude, let’s heed the quote we began with: “Don’t follow the innovation trend... follow your heart.”