Why Is Corporate Innovation Lacking?

The modern era has seen a lot of growth in the private sector. There are thousands of new startups that are disrupting different industries and markets, and large corporations are laying dormant.

Though it is great to see a lot of new companies come in and dominate in a niche market, and at times, compete with larger companies. Large enterprise is still the driving force of a global economy, and offer opportunities to give a lot of people sustainable jobs with growth.

Corporation innovation is lacking because of the current startup ecosystem, archaic leadership styles, and pace of growth — both product-wise and employee growth.

The great, traditional companies of the past are losing out to the new up-and-comers in some industry, but with the amount of resources a corporation has, all it will take is a change in the right direction in order to get things going, from an innovation standpoint.

Can Corporate Innovation Improve?

Innovation within a large enterprise can change, but the change has to start at the top and trickle-down.

The traditional style of management is known for having a lot of hierarchy and bureaucracy. Though the added layers of management are good for some industries, if done wrong, it will restrict the decision-making abilities of the people who worked hard make decisions in the first part.

Innovation can improve by giving a voice to employees and hearing more ideas that will make the company succeed. A hiring process is tedious.

Corporate Innovation Management and Ideas

A company has to look at the bigger picture and give more power to managers, employees, and even hearing out the expectations of entry-level employees. Obtaining continuous feedback from all employees can be an excellent way to have a record of what can be changed in the long run.

Managing ideas, or instituting idea management technologies can help with the implementation of new processes that will help businesses excel and take strides toward new, creative initiatives.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, so it’s important to tread carefully whenever going all-in on an idea and using a systematic, yet, agile approach to having an innovative atmosphere.

The other thing to take into consideration is change management, and new processes come with new initiatives. Regardless of how quick a change occurs, having t the company’s management adjust is still a major key to productivity.

It’s safe to assume that corporate innovation is lacking because the people at the top are worried about the lag that will come from trying something new and innovative. And in a society that values fast results and instant gratification, not seeing an immediate return on investment could leave a decision-maker peddling around a new idea for months.

The Strategic Issues In Managing Technology And Innovation

The main issue is fear of failure. Companies do not want to fail at a project, or under-deliver on an idea that could cost millions of dollars.

The main reason that there’s been a large tech boom in recent years is because founders are working for low wages and making a product succeed in a lean fashion, with little-to-none financial resources, partnerships, and creativity.

The lean startup strategy hasn’t cracked it’s way into the corporate world simply because there would need to be more resources for employees, and it is extremely costly to run a new project as if it were a startup. Employees won’t work ridiculous hours for low wages, depending on the company, there won’t be stock options, and they won’t have the autonomy to make their own decisions.

However, there are a lot of software firms that operate as incubators, that are investing in people and projects that have potential.

What Are Some Innovative Management And Technology Services?

The best practice that will help with corporate innovation is to run a company like a massive research & development department.

The best example would be Google. They managed to have some of their biggest projects come from employees’ 20 percent time. Which is essentially a day of the week that employees devote time to work on other projects.

They were able to come up with Google Maps, Mail, Docs, and hundreds of other gadgets that helped change the web all in their free time.

The best practice to develop new ideas and products it to let them come organically and from the people. If the company wants to invest more time and resources on it, having a suggestion or voting tool would be ideal to see where employees would love to take the company and new products.

How To Develop A Good Product Innovation Strategy

Simply put: people have a lot of good ideas and if a company isn’t capitalizing on hearing them out, they will miss out.

The aforementioned 20 percent time is a good way to not only come up with new ideas, but to come up with strategies that will help the company in the long run. Management strategies, creative product innovation strategy, and more.

In giving employees the autonomy to make things happen, companies can reach new heights and branch out to different industries.

Some companies like Google, IBM, SAP, and Intuit, not only use their innovative projects to help fulfill their company mission, but create new technologies that end up helping the company. And in doing so, they monetize it and provide the technology to the market in hopes of making it a sustainable subsidiary.

How Can Project Management Benefit From New Technology?

A lot of the new projects that are infiltrating the tech market ecosystem are either the cause of new technologies needing more software, or old softwares that are being re-done. Or as some entrepreneurs say; “disrupting” the industry.

Project management and product development can benefit from some of the systems that are currently in the market to help guide the direction in which they are going.

Having a virtual suggestion box or online project management system can help make company-wide decisions for future projects, instantly. Moving from the slow pace of a large corporation, to a fast, lean, startup pace is a shock to the system. If done right, the results can help disrupt an industry and help “create” more for the company.

Managing projects has to be done for the people and by the people at a company. The holacratic method of management is now being used in the product development process, as it ensures that everyone is all in, and everyone can have a say in the future of the project.

So using an idea management tool will only help make things easier for people to gather their thoughts and bring it on to a project management tool, so that teams can put their ideas on paper and make the right data-driven decision to help the company grow.

How To Get Innovative At Your Company

No matter what the circumstance may be, don’t think about the bottom-line. Think innovation first and then the financial goals and gains will come.

It’s similar to when people chase their passion, and they rarely look at how much money they have coming in. They just see the final product and work with it.

The best way to encourage innovation is to have a data-driven approach, while giving full autonomy to people that are in charge of the new initiative. Let the people that are passionate about a subject pursue it, and at the end of the day, those workers are going to be engaged with their work and give a great final product.

Is Your Company Having Problems With Innovation?

We’re making it possible for large companies to innovate more with our innovation software tool. Let us know some of the problems that arise and if you’re having problems with innovation in your department.