5 Steps Of Innovation

In this content, we will learn about 5 steps of innovation. Before starting we should know what innovation is. Innovation is simply new creative thoughts, ideas, or, new imaginations in anything. This can be better understand as innovation is the application of better solutions or ideas that will meet new requirements and enhance the betterment of that particular thing.

So we are here with 5 steps of innovation-

? Analyze the customer’s need

? Create a pipeline of promising ideas

? Pilot experimentation and validation

? Commercialization launch and ramp-up

? Improvement cycle

The first point is the customer need. You can say that customer’s need is the food for the development in your organization or business. You need to understand what the need of your customers is. If you want growth in your organization this need of customers will give you lead for your business. Innovation is always need-driven. You cannot innovate anything that does not require your customer because they are not going to show any interest in that innovation because that is not required by them or it is not going to create any better options or solutions for them. You need to analyze what are the needs in the market or what is the most required thing in your target audience.

For example- In the kidney sector, no medicine cures kidney diseases of the root cause and gives the permanent solution to kidney patients. So B. K Arogyam which Ayurvedic healthcare center analyzed the need of its customers that there is no permanent solution or cure for kidney diseases. So they developed an Ayurvedic treatment procedure and medicines to cure kidney disease permanently and became the most growing Healthcare Centre in India. They have focused on the need of the market and developed an Ayurvedic treatment for this disease. You need to understand what the need of your customer is. Once you have analyzed the need of your customers you need to have a reverse production. In this you will start your process and production for this you will have to find your manpower then you will start production, so you can start operating the whole process in your organization. Always start working from analyzing the need of your customers.

The second point is to create a pipeline of promising ideas. To do so first create a meeting or a conference amongst your best management team members. You need not speak your ideas first and ask every member of your management that how you will achieve your goals, what process you should adopt to reach that goal, you should ask to them and try to get out all the ideas your management team has. Give them a chance to bring a game-changing idea. You never know what you can get from your management. This process is called brainstorming and this can only happen when all your leaders, your management, senior persons, your Board of Directors, other departmental heads, and managing directors, all sit together and discuss in detail the research work that you have done on the customer’s need. Then you will be able to get a pipeline of promising ideas.

The third point will be pilot experimentation and validation. When you are done with the meeting to get the pipeline of promising ideas, select the best two or three ideas from it, and create a prototype of it, to do experimentation of that Idea. If you have planned to spread your idea in whole India then don't start it in the first step to circulate in whole India but start with a small region or a small city. Start with a small prototype in a small city. This process is called the pilot experimentation of Idea. This will give you a rectification and verification of your idea. Also, this will give you feedback on your customer’s reaction in the market that how the people are adopting your new product or service in the market, and after that, you can work on this, analyze, research on the customers, and see how validating your idea is.

The fourth Point is the commercialization launch and ramps up. Commercialization simply means launching your program on a large scale. Once you have done pilot experimentation and validation of your Idea and if it is successful in that particular small region then this is the time to commercialize it on a large scale. In the third step, you have already tested your idea in a small region and this has given you an idea that if you have done a mistake by adopting that particular idea then you are not going to lose a lot of profit through that idea because we have invested in a small area. That is why a prototype test is said to be done in a small region because if the idea fails then your organization should not go in loss and lose a huge amount of investment. After you have checked your ideas in small cities i.e. one or two different cities then you can start commercializing and ramping up. You can start creating a supply chain, your network your distributor dealers, and distribution partners to give it a huge expansion on a large scale.

After doing this you have to focus on 5P’s that are price, product, process, promotion, and people. Price means what amount of money you are going to charge for that product or service from your customers. Product means to design the product accordingly to the needs and the analysis you have concluded from the pilot experimentation. Do a huge promotion of your product. Find the best process to produce that product or service and get the best people to implement that process. If this will be a process-oriented then you will gain more scalability.

The fifth point is the improvement cycle. No one or no company gets successful in first experimentation. To maintain all this process in balance you need to reward your bright employees. Once you have started this rewarding process and it comes into action, there will be a time when all the employees will always be thinking about the innovations and game-changing ideas for your organization. You have to always focus on changing for improvement and betterment. This is an on-going process. This reward giving method not only increases the morale of your employees but also increases the energy of your organization. After some time this will become a culture in your organization.

For example, B. K Arogyam is a well-known name in the field of Ayurveda which is specialized in kidney diseases. They are always motivating their employees to bring new innovative and game-changing ideas and reward and appreciate their employees who can do so. This way it increases their motivation level changes the culture of their organization and leads the organization to grow and develop in the path of success. So this was all about the 5 steps of innovation.