Innovation - is it Life or Death of a Business?

A interesting discussion came up recently. Is Innovation the life or death of a business?

Many business people consider innovation as the creation of a new product or service, but it many instances it can be simply the incremental changes in the production, delivery, marketing or sales of an existing product.

Innovation does not have to be a new product or service.

Many of the best innovations are just a new way of delivering, supporting or marketing an existing product or service. Innovation can be a system for handling customer inquiries or new client setups or how a product or service is delivered.

Many businesses are continually looking for the next product that they forget to optimise their existing business to its full potential. The process of optimising of their current business is innovation. It is important to spend time on all aspects of your business not only innovation.

The real key to innovation comes from really understanding your customers and potential customers - what they want and need, what turns them on - that understanding will lead to innovation.

An interesting book on innovation is "Blue Ocean Strategy" by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.