What makes a truly innovative company?

Five principles for success 

A key objective for most businesses is the ability to retain a long-term competitive advantage and successfully differentiate themselves by introducing new concepts, products, services or processes. However, this journey to ‘future-proofing’ the business and mapping out a sustainable strategy for growth and expansion, starts with one fundamental mandate: the commitment towards a culture of innovation.  

In today’s hyper competitive environment, many companies have started implementing innovation focused programs or a dedicated team that oversee this subject. While this is a good start, it only scratches the surface - what is really required is a major overhaul, with large-scale cultural changes that transform the entire organization into an innovation engine. To survive in the 21st century’s creative economy, you need an innovative mindset that transforms challenges into opportunities and failures into successes. Here are some key building blocks that are fundamental in re-engineering your organization into one that practices a culture of innovation: 

1. Ensure diversity to drive disruptive innovation 

Over time, an organization falls into a pattern – Employees follow the same protocols, use the same vendors, go to the same conferences, talk to the same experts and after a while, stop innovating. Innovators, by virtue of their nature, are ‘contrarians.’ They challenge the status quo and question the unwritten rules, thereby going against the norm, and advocating for new ways of working and creative thinking. To ensure a healthy mix of people who will challenge the rules and lead others down a new path, companies must ensure diversity within their employee pool. Innovation is akin to problem-solving and by having a diverse team with varying life experiences, companies can ensure a path of discovery towards disruptive innovation. 

2. Be systemic and adopt a wholistic approach 

Innovative companies have one common denominator – they have a commitment from the whole organization and an integrated approach to innovation, that spans across the organization. 

It involves a complete reset for the way a company thinks and a re-engineering of its ‘innovative architecture,’ which includes fostering everyone’s innovative skills, ongoing personal development, agreeing on what counts as innovative solutions, establishing comprehensive metrics, and most importantly, revamping management processes, so they instill a shared value system that fosters and rewards innovation and creative thinking. Interestingly, while many companies now have a “Chief Innovation Officer” to push new strategies, the ideal goal is to move towards a setup where innovation is instilled in the culture, rather than being mandated or forced.   

3. Recruit lateral thinkers 

The term “lateral thinking” was coined by British inventor Edward de Bono in 1967 and since then has become the backbone for some of the most successful inventions and scientific discoveries of the 20th century. Lateral thinking is the essence of creativity - it requires an innovative mindset and any company that wants to stay ahead of the competition, needs to ensure its employees develop the capacity to look at things with new eyes.  

The creation of the ‘post-it’ notes by 3M is a great example of this thought process, where a ‘failed’ product was powered by the ingenuity of lateral thinking, into one of 3M’s best-selling hero products. Dr. Spencer Silver, a chemist at 3M Company was trying to invent a super strong adhesive, but instead developed a very weak one - an adhesive he had no use for. However, it was thanks to the ingenuity of Dr. Spencer Silver and his colleague Art Fry, that instead of cancelling the adhesive or revising the formula, it was in fact, launched as an adhesive for small notes, and ultimately became a flagship product for 3M.   

4. Never forget the customer 

The expression “the customer is king” is a universal truth and everything a company does is to ensure that the customer stays happy. Thinking about customer needs is critical for innovators and it’s important to remember that they are a great source of new ideas. Products and services that have been successful are the ones that adapted to customer needs, so it makes sense to involve customers from the initial stages of the innovation process. By talking to customers, analyzing their choices, tastes, preferences and wants, innovators can not only find fresh ideas, but also be inspired.  

Moreover, customers can be involved at any stage – from idea generation through the innovation process until the launch stage. Having real conversations with your customers about your products will provide valuable feedback and insights, improve the quality of ideas and make customers feel valued and connected to the brand. 

5. Foster an environment of trust and openness 

The flip side of lateral thinking is a high degree of risk. People who engage in ‘out of the box’ thinking are often particularly vulnerable to organizational or management critique; where in theory, all ideas are welcomed in the pursuit of innovation, but in reality, people still fear voicing their ‘unconventional’ ideas in case they are ridiculed or publicly rejected. 

Because there’s a direct relationship between organizational trust and innovation, it is critical for innovative companies to create an environment of trust and acceptance. When employees fear a negative response to sharing unusual ideas, they will not do so, thereby stunting the innovation process. However, if employees know they can be creative and take risks without fear of a backlash, then employees will be creative and ensure they are driving the company's innovation agenda. Trust is very fragile and building it is a long-term process, but if a company succeeds in cultivating a high level of trust, then the sky’s the limit.