Businesses Seek to Innovate - Management Tasks

There are many different reasons that businesses seek to innovate. Whether businesses are looking for growth, standing out from competitors, meeting customer needs, or attracting the best talent, innovation is what will get them there. The first reason organizations seek opportunities for innovation is for growth. Innovation assists organizations to scale up and hire more employees. In turn, this allows the organization to increase its customer base and take over a larger share of the market. Innovation helps companies of all sizes grow. Whether the organization is a small startup with 1 employee or a fortune 500 company, innovation will help the business capture a larger portion of the market. A second reason organizations seek opportunities for innovation is to stand out from competitors. Most businesses are in a market with heavy competition. Using Burger King as an example, they are in the fast-food market. In this market, there are multiple competitors such as Chick-Fil-A, Dairy Queen, and McDonald's. For Burger King to capture more market share and growth they need to use innovation to stand out from the competition. Through innovation, businesses can offer something “unique” to their customers. For instance, a few years back, Burger King announced that they would start serving burgers on their breakfast menu. They continue to do this while the competition does not. When businesses take the time to make popular items better, this is innovation, and it helps brands stick out in the market and increases income. A third reason organizations seek opportunities for innovation is meeting customer needs. In today’s world, customer needs are always changing. Innovators can predict changes to these needs and come up with a solution before the customer realizes that their needs have changed. For a business to continue to meet customer needs, innovation is a requirement otherwise they will not be able to meet customers’ needs in the long term. Failure to innovate and meet customer needs will eventually cause a business to fail. As with the previous examples, for a business to take a larger portion of the market and increase revenue, they must be willing to innovate to the ever-changing customer needs. Lastly, the fourth reason organizations seek opportunities for innovation is to attract the best talent. Innovative people want to work for innovative companies. A business is going to have a difficult time attracting talent that will create the “next big thing” if they do not have a reputation of being an innovative company. It’s not enough for a business to just innovate once or twice. They should be promoting a culture of innovation within the organization to recruit top talent. If a business can prove they can innovate and develop a reputation of being an innovative company, they will start seeing more resumes submitted from top talent who want to help the company grow and meet their goals through innovation. By hiring innovators, the business becomes even more innovative, and you experience growth, stand out from the competition, and meet customer needs. It’s easy for a company to stick with a current business tactic and never change. A lot of business owners think that because something has worked in the past, it will continue to work in the future. With the world we are in today, this tactic is almost a death sentence for any business. If a business wants to continue to be relevant in the market, it must be willing to innovate. Taking the risks of innovation will ensure your business can reap the rewards. With innovation, a business can grow, stand out from the competition, meet customer needs, and attract the best talent.