Could innovation readiness be the key to long term business survival? In the cross roads of commodity and niche markets opportunities arise for turning a business into new dimensions by simply remake your business model. Do you really want to see your company become a commodity business player with slim margins where only volumes are the name of the game? Or, do you see the opportunities emerge by simply rethinking your business model to satisfy the deeper and more sensitive needs expressed in the hearts of a niche market?
Continue to do what your business is best at. But place yourself outside the box for a moment and rethink the real values you are bringing to the market. Remember, we are now rapidly moving from a world driven by ‘hard’ values towards a world governed by ‘soft’ values. This means that a ‘product’ might not only be a ‘product’ defined by its obvious technical functionality – but rather it represents some essential new values for the customers or users, that you haven’t grasped before. In this simple fact lies the opportunity for ‘cheap’ differentiation and reach of premium prices markets.
Innovation readiness is all about understanding those mechanisms and the ability to swiftly adhere to the new opportunities that now are brought to the business arena. Acting methodical, swift and fast in the response to these changes in attitudes and consumer behaviour is imperative in order to stay in the market and continue keep margins up at healthy levels over time. This is Innovation Readiness. Do you feel confident your company is ready and geared to cope with these challenges?
I’m pretty confident in the innovation that are taking places in my department here. I think it’s a matter of keeping what is workng and doing some AB testing with new stuffs to see if it’s worth keeping or try something else.