Building an Innovative Enterprise

It is every entrepreneur’s dream to penetrate the market faster, stay in business, discover new opportunities and have a competitive advantage in the market. The world has been changing, and since the birth of some start-ups, big companies have lost market share or in the worst scenario, have been forced out of business. But what does it take to build an innovative enterprise? Let us dive in.

Focus on the customer

The first rule is to be customer oriented. I have shared this a number of times, always relate to the customer; that’s is the recipe to innovation. As you will be relating to the customer, relieve them from the pain of accessing goods and services you offer. Having a complicated system makes the customers hate doing business with you. It is also important to work on eliminating the barriers faced by customers when accessing your services and or products. This has been made easy by digitization, has your company adopted that? Get customers’ feed backs from time to time and find time to go through them. Customers are the end user of your service or product and they know what they hate about your services, create a platform for them to communicate and you will hear their worst experiences and above all, think of how to improve your services or goods.

Build a great team

In building an innovative organization, having a great team is of great importance. This starts from sourcing talent. In employing, you should probably ask yourself these questions, do I admire him or her, is he or she eager to change the world and is there passion? Passion can be tested by finding out how much one understands his or her field. Talent has to be continuously groomed through workshops, networking and educating your employees. Develop your employees like they will forever work with you for the sake of adding value in the organization. It also comes a time when employees have to be assessed and probably be grouped in three quadrants; excellent performers, good performers and poor performers. Excellent performers have to be continuously promoted, good performers reminded that they can do better and poor performers have to part ways with the organization so as to pave way for fresh talent.   

Empower co-workers

Co-workers sounds to be a cooler name than employees or boss, this reminds everyone that we are working for a common goals and vision, hence that has to be achieved through teamwork. Having this mentality creates a good working environment that promotes fun and innovation, yes co-workers should enjoy working for the vision. This comes from rewarding the efficient co-workers, listening and considering their ideas as well as having them own the company’s vision because it is theirs as well.

Curb bureaucracy 

Building a strategic organization structure is also key in building an innovative organization. There are some positions which doesn’t in any way contribute to the organization’s growth, some wont even be in line with the company’s vision, those have to be removed. A strategic organogram must foster efficiency, creates a relation between every co-worker and above all curb bureaucracy. Bureaucracy limits innovation, slows down growth and above all create a boring working environment.

Invest in research

In connection to creating a strategic structure, it’s high time every organization has a team that focuses on research and innovation. This helps the Organization to familiarize itself with the market, predict potential challenges and come up with possible solutions. Know of emerging opportunities and strategies on how harness from them and easily predict the future and start preparing for it. Entrepreneurship isn’t the game of the ignorant, know your market and continuously research how the marketing is evolving.