APPLY INNOVATION IN YOUR VENTURE

Accelerate your business with these expert tips on "Apply innovation in your venture". Analyse and discover this TIP!

One of the most commonly used terms nowadays in practically all fields is innovation. It is a term that is especially linked to the world of business and therefore to entrepreneurship. The concept of innovation has multiple meanings, but a starting error would be to associate innovation with technology. Technology is, as we shall see, an important area of innovation, but not the only one.

Let's look at what innovation in entrepreneurship means

Concept of innovation

Innovation does not mean inventing but "constantly searching for what is new". From a technical-business point of view, innovation is a a process that modifies existing elements, ideas or protocols, improving them or creating new ones that have a favourable impact on the market. To innovate is to change. Meaning to adapt and ultimately improve what already exists in the area of company-market relations.

Let's look at the areas in which innovation manifests itself

Innovation is for the Most companies a key aspect of its growth and consolidation. That is why it is always necessary to think of an innovative strategy that provides new solutions "outside the box", i.e. outside what is known, outside the way things are normally done.

To do this, it is necessary to, promote creativity among all your employees and generate channels for it to manifest itself in the form of ideas. The objective must be boosting competitiveness of the company generating differentiating values. A new company that incorporates innovation is known as a startup (see+ TIP).

• Internal processes in your organisation or business model

Innovation in this aspect seeks to redesign the processes on which the organisation relies in order to gain in effectiveness. Reducing costs and bureaucracy, seeking customer proximity and computerising processes. (purchasing, quality control, safety at work, etc.) are manifestations of innovation applied to internal management. Getting innovative ideas to automate processes will enable you to turn your business model into something much more scalable (see+ TIP).

• Innovate in the product area

It appears when you are able to generate imaginative and well-differentiated ideas and translate them into new products or the improvement of existing products. Toyota's Prius was a breakthrough in the automotive industry with the use of hybrid engines that reduced pollution and fuel consumption. Thirty years later, many other brands have started to produce hybrid cars. Take the principle of innovation in entrepreneurship and take your product or service and create a group of customers and workers and let the imagination flow about changes, new uses, ...don't hold back creativity and listen.

• Innovating in the commercial area

The areas of marketing and sales represent a very extensive field for applying innovation criteria in entrepreneurship. By innovating your sales process, you can achieve a great deal of new customer acquisition that will help you grow. growth hacking (see+ TIP) are moving in this direction.

Sales and commercial management have undergone a process of transformation in recent years, driven by the need to meet the increasingly pressing challenges of the market. CRM programmes, remote sales administration systems, online sales, the adoption of the new digital marketing, the reorganisation of sales departments, the outsourcing of certain functions are among others. clear innovations in the commercial function of companies. 

• Innovating in technology

Technological changes allow you to do things that would be unthinkable or impossible to do by hand. Keep an eye out for technological innovations that you can incorporate into your company in order to differentiate yourself (see+ TIP)to increase the customer satisfaction (see+ TIP) or to become more competitive by saving costs, by creating a model more scalable (see+ TIP) or by finding new competitive advantages (see+ TIP). 

Not all innovation is technological, but the contributions of technology can help you in many areas of your business to achieve success. Technology is therefore a horizontal variable that affects the entire organisation.

Data processing, artificial intelligence and the blockchain (see+ TIP)Cloud solutions or open innovation are emerging technological tools that have various fields of application.

WE REVIEW SOME EMERGING THEORIES:

The artificial intelligence (see+ TIP) has been defined as a simulation of human intelligence applied to machines that would have the ability to deduce, reason, learn or make predictions. AI is often associated with robots in human form. The reality is not quite like that.

Artificial intelligence is a IT branch whose objective is reproduce the functioning of human neurons in machines in order to provide solutions to concrete problems by means of mathematical and logical mechanisms. 

EXAMPLES OF THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The identification of spam mails, personalisation in social networks, suggestion or recommendation systems in Spotify or YouTube (watch+ TIP) music or in e-commerce. Google makes a massive use of artificial intelligence; AI is used for personalisation in cancer treatments, GPS applications and customer care.

BLOCKCHAIN:

Known for being behind the so-called cryptocurrencies, Block Chain is becoming more and more present in companies because of the The great advantages it brings:

• Security in financial transactions.
• Data transmission speed.
• Data is unforgeable.
• Information always remains.
• It is an inexpensive technology that allows to shorten times.
• Streamlining communications.

SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS:

• DECENTRALISATION OF SERVICES

The block chain allows decentralised services and greater user participation, allowing someone to produce solar energy for their neighbours without the intervention of any electricity company.

• PRODUCT TRACEABILITY

Thanks to the inviolability of data, the blockchain makes it possible to guarantee the traceability of products, preventing fraud and payments for services not provided throughout a process. Security and trust in the world of insurance or digital registration of suppliers with real and updated information about them are some additional advantages.

TO COMPLETE THE CONTENT OF THIS TIP ON APPLYING INNOVATION IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP, WE RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING READINGS THAT DEAL WITH INNOVATION FROM DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW:

• DISRUPTION (SEE+ TIP).

• INNOVATION HUBS (VER+ TIP).

• DIGITAL INNOVATION (VER+ TIP).

• OPEN INNOVATION (VER+ TIP).

• INNOVATE TO BE COMPETITIVE (SEE+ TIP).

• FINTECH (SEE+ TIP).