3 ways to generate innovation in difficult times

When there is economic uncertainty and the entire business world is concerned about the near future, focusing and increasing your innovation process can help your organization increase its competitive advantage. Becoming an innovation leader in tough times may not seem like the most ideal solution, but by taking advantage of the relatively small amount of ground you’ll lose in a down economy, you’ll position your business for explosive growth during the boom ahead. At a minimum, your organization will be able to weather the storm of any other downturn by coming up with innovative solutions to whatever problems or challenges arise. While it’s not an easy decision to focus on innovation when the rest of the industry is focused on cutting costs and making their organizations more efficient, here are 3 ways you can build innovation in tough times to weather the storm. and position your business. company for success.

1. Understand what a good process looks like

Take the time to look at and study the innovation models of other companies, even in other industries. Find out what has worked for them, and then start developing an ideal scenario for your own process. Take the time to analyze innovation processes that are proving successful even when tough times put them to the test, and then extract the most valuable components to build your own.

2. Innovate with value intent

Make sure you align your business process with your mission or value proposition to your customers. Having an innovation process that can produce great ideas is only as valuable as its success in implementation. By keeping them focused on helping the customer succeed or deliver the most value, you’ll ensure that you only spend resources, which can be even scarcer in tough times, on testing the innovations that align with your larger goal.

3. Create ownership and enable collaboration

Harnessing the creative powers of your entire organization and network as input for your innovation process can help make your ideas more effective and much less expensive. By empowering your employees and even your customers to contribute to your innovation process, you can tap into a bank of creativity that far exceeds the capabilities of any small innovation team. Give them a reason to contribute, and then collect as many ideas as you can.

By using these three ways to increase innovation, you can ensure that you are competitive in tough times and ready for explosive growth when the economy recovers.