Innovate... Innovation!

Henry Ford once stated, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Is it ever disputed that, in business, growth only occurs as a result of innovation? In fact, the absolute answer to business growth is that innovation is the only solution. That being the consensus that every business and businessperson must be innovative, how does successful innovation occur? Is it the perfectly written business plan, the investors and the money they’ve invested, or the time spent planning the perfect product or service that will generate sales? Although with effective time management all of those must also occur, those processes are not the selling point to customers. The customers’ interests and buying habits ARE in fact THE bottom line factor in successful business and the innovative presence of the product or service. Let’s examine how two immensely successful and familiar companies attempted their own innovation strategies and the outcomes of each that impacted their innovative business decisions.

In the early 80’s the Pepsi Company was capturing a significant market share of beverage sales and seriously encroaching on the king of sodas, Coca Cola. This fell on the heels of a masterful marketing plan, initiated in the mid 70’s, that was executed by Pepsi called the “Pepsi Challenge.” Pepsi demonstrated the perfect plan to instill effective innovation. They were reaching out to customers of soda products by providing them with a blind sampling of both products then asked them to indicate their preference. The result was increased sales that led to an encroachment on the sales of the Coca Cola market. The implication from this strategy on the onset is that it is a method of sampling, which in fact it is also sampling and it quite possibly the inspiration behind the influx of product sampling that is widely utilized today, but more importantly it demonstrates an innovative approach to innovation. Pepsi reached out to their customers to determine the likelihood of their future buying habits and to gain insight to customer taste preferences. This strategy was also somewhat risky because it also provided Coca Cola with valuable information about customer taste preferences. The innovative route Coca Cola took was based on the results of their competitors’ research, they revamped their product to accommodate the results of the research and thus “New Coke” hit the shelves in the mid 80’s. Their miscalculation of customer loyalty was temporarily compromised when the loyal Coke customers could no longer purchase their preferred soda. The company responded to their customers complaints and brought back the “Classic Coke”.

Not surprisingly the secret to Business Innovation is the customer. So the question that must be asked is how do we tap into that knowledge and determine what our customers are willing to purchase? That question can only be answered by deciding to again initiate innovative ideas, which is synonymous with the age-old metaphor of “Think outside of the box.” When embarking on Business Innovation the following concepts should be considered:

• Companies are good at making rules that minimize risk, but rules can also diminish Innovation. Innovation is about breaking the rules utilizing calculated risk.

• Individuals breaking the rules…make the new rules.

• Individuals inspire Innovation; companies need to hire the right individuals.

• Promoting an employee in order to inspire innovation is ineffective, as a general practice, however the result of producing successful Innovation should dictate a positional/financial promotion.

• Utilizing the out of the box thinking should be utilized when hiring someone new to the company that is expected inspire Innovation. The right person for the job may be someone that does not possess experience in the same industry and therefore assumes no biases that may exist with someone within the company or industry.

• The Merit Group is a source for inspiring business Innovation.

• Challenge ideas that are known with certainty either in the industry or individual business.

• Be willing to take risks.

• Consider an idea of business that is “Un-usual”.

• Consider the business trends that result from infinite and constant technological resources.

Unless you want your business to fall into the trap described by Henry Ford and continue to get what you’ve always gotten then Innovation is a must. If you would like support in developing your Innovative strategies, we are eager to team together with you to get the results you desire. Visit our website at www.themeritgroupindy.com or call 317-805-4896 today!