Innovation - Business Lift

Innovate or Die!

There are not very many ways to succeed as a business. Given that it is well managed, in order to create, retain and increase its market it can compete by being:

Unique, for example a local monopoly;
Cheap, competing on price; or
Innovative, competing on product and service differentiation.

Local monopolies do not normally continue for long, unless the local market is too small to attract competitors, or there is some external reason (such as legislation or regulation) why others cannot compete.

Competing on price will enable rapid growth, but also rapid demise as:

Cheaper competitors enter the market, especially via the internet;
Corners have to be cut to maintain margins;
Quality and/or service are hard to maintain due to slim margins;
Input prices rise, quickly eliminating profitability;
Margins are insufficient to cope with shocks.

What is Innovation?

Innovation can be in products, services, systems, processes or any way in which the business is run. Whichever is / are your Key Selling Points (or Propositions), if you are successful there will be imitators – even imitators who become better than you!

For an innovation to succeed, it has to:

Address a perceived need in the target market (though that need can be created by marketing);
Work as advertised;
Be usable and attractive – the simpler, the better;
Be made known to, recognised and appreciated by, customers and clients.

What and Where We Have Innovated

Renewable energy technologies, business, markets, regulations, strategies;
Technologies in non-destructive testing, condition monitoring, electrical cabling and harnessing, machine cell design;
Services in warehousing and distribution, non-destructive testing;
Business strategies and plans in warehousing and distribution, equipment overhaul, OEM manufacturing, contract manufacturing;
Processes and systems in aircraft design, real estate management, equipment overhaul, process / cemicals manufacturing, railway wheel manufacturing, procurement for power station equipment manufacturing and an integrated electricity grid;
Energy efficiency in brewing, poultry farming, steel rolling mill;
Public queue management in banking;
And so on.

I like to think that I can find improvements in almost any real-world business, incrementally and/or transformationally. And the longer and more deeply I work in each business, the more I tend to find.

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