How to Grow Your Business Through Idea Innovation
When developing new enterprises and products, companies and organizations will first conceptualize strategies to address why there is a need for such development. Innovation, or the ability to think outside the box, has an indispensable role in the formulation of these strategies.
Popular methods for strategic formulation
Various kinds of analytical methods are utilized in strategy formulation. Two of the most popular are as follows:
SWOT: The name of this method stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Many people use this method and it's considered to be a predominant one; however, while it's easy to use, it doesn't always work. Logically speaking, opportunities and threats can't always be differentiated in such a straightforward manner.
It is often said that from disaster comes good luck and that change creates opportunity - a business's vitality stems from how a crisis can be transformed into chances for growth. Additionally, the ability to detect and create chances in the midst of threatening situations is intricately linked to innovation - which is why idea innovation practice is crucial, as stepping outside of a situation and looking at it from a new perspective is the only way to create growth out of challenges.
PEST: Standing for Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis, PEST is a convenient framework to analyze the macro environment. Recently it has been expanded to incorporate the analysis of Environmental factors, thereby extending it to PESTE through the insertion of the letter “E”. This is a perfect illustration of how we must not limit ourselves to the confines of existing frameworks. We must think out of the box and consider standpoints beyond those included with these frameworks—it is important to capitalize on strategies and innovation in this manner.
The value and danger of frameworks
Apart from the above-mentioned models, other analytical frameworks are also used. It is the norm to use these frameworks in order to logically brainstorm ideas for the formulation of strategies. However, keep in mind that there's a danger of developing an over-reliance on such frameworks.
It's possible that taking a break from these frameworks and developing idea innovation practices instead will lead to the conception of new ideas. It's important not to be fixated with usual practices but instead consider issues from varied angles. The reason why this is the case is due to the many options we can choose from at the ideation stage, be it strategy, new enterprises or products. Hence, adopting the best option for the final plan is paramount.
The more ideas, the better
In the event that your organization wishes to canvass ideas during the ideation stage for new enterprises and products, how many ideas are typically gathered? There must be a disparity in the quality of ideation between companies who conceive tens of ideas in a year and their counterparts who galvanize their entire staff to come up with hundreds, even thousands of ideas within a few months. Leveraging logic and frameworks to conceive ideas as well as searching for solutions by critically reviewing such logic and frameworks will not only bring about more options for you, but will also likely enable you to choose from a better pool of ideas.
This explains why it is crucial to consider issues from varied angles and why idea innovation practice is so crucial to a business's growth and success.
Learn More:
