INNOVATION BEFORE INVENTION

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The word “invention” conjures up all sorts of burden and pressure in Australian companies. There are roughly 14,000 companies with typical R&D departments in Australia. So how do SME’s take the first step to the growth opportunity that new thinking can deliver?. ?Begin with innovation not invention. If innovation is redefined well beyond the narrow confines of “invention”, you don’t need to come up with the next Iphone to reach stretch growth targets in 2025.

?If your organisation can solve problems and not feel like they have to invent new products, then the company can exhale and open its mind to alternative futures for the organisation.

?Ai has substantially changed the innovation process. It allows for better assessment of business plans, data insights, trend analysis, non biased ideation, and mitigates the risk of “Go – No – Go “ decision making.

?The current low growth settings known as the “permacrisis” means you cannot out wait the economy to see growth. Innovation can be like printing new money for your company. There are “black light” leaders hiding in plain sight in your company who are the right fit for an innovation team .

?Australia has all the right inputs for innovation ranking 23rd from 150 countries according to the Global Innovation Index, but we lag dreadfully when it comes to outputs. We don’t implement well. We get innovation fatigue.? Cost, time and lack of focus means we abandon opportunity. One of the greatest drivers of innovation success is persistence.

?You don’t need to be “creative” to innovate. Many times, the source of ideas will come from outside your company, if you have a growth mindset not a fixed mindset. Issues based innovation can lead to “subtraction” innovation. “Your call is important to us”, is a classic case of something that needs to be removed from an enterprise, to reduce customer irritation. The issue of airline rage ignited by simple things like pushing your seat back on short haul flight, could be eliminated by disabling the seat back mechanism on short haul flights.

?So begin by selecting your SEAL team, widen the brief, solve problems not invent products per se, and use ai in the process to accelerate innovation and steal a march on your competition. You can hit 2025 running instead of first quarter lag.