You may have seen the 40th annual release of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report in October ranked the United States as the world’s most competitive economy.
The report looked at 98 criteria involving social, political and economic factors for 140 different countries and ranked the United States as the #1 country because of its high capacity for innovation, dynamic business environment and entrepreneurial culture.
This year the report expanded its evaluation efforts to include examining each country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the degree that it embraced disruptive ideas (innovation).
Relatedly, Saadia Zahidi, the managing board director of the World Economic Forum said, “opportunities for economic leapfrogging, diffusion of innovative ideas across borders and new forms of value creation… can level the playing field for all economies”.
Innovation at a Macro and Organization Level
At a macro level this report recognized two keys of strong economies – an innovative orientation and an entrepreneurial mindset. But these elements are also critical at an organization level.
As we discussed in the October Newsletter, to foster innovation an organization must make sure that their staff members think in entrepreneurial ways. This will result in employees operating with an innovative orientation and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Therefore, let us look at how an innovative orientation and an entrepreneurial mindset function at a company level regarding two essentials:
- Knowing what your customer truly wants
- Enticing them with your product or service
Understand Your Customer’s Aspirations
Once staff have insights into the mindset of its customers, they can see things from the customer’s perspective, thereby stimulating their desire to innovate.
Entrepreneurially oriented employees are keenly aware of who their customers are and why they purchase its products. For innovation to flourish, this knowledge and a commitment to fulfill their customers’ needs must be effectively ingrained in a company’s staff.
Most employees are consciously aware of the surface reasons that cause someone to purchase its products, but few are cognizant of the deeper, more visceral reasons that influence their customers’ purchasing decisions.
For staff to effectively put themselves in their customer’s shoes they must be mindful of 1) their customers’ short, intermediate, and long-term goals, and 2) the emotional state customers want to be in as a result of making a purchase. This creates a much deeper level of connectedness of personnel with the customer, which in turn fosters innovative thinking.
An example of this is the airline JetBlue which has demonstrated a consistent track record of innovation built upon understanding its customer aspirations, and in keeping with that, it published a “Customer Bill of Rights” in 2017 to be more responsive to its customers.
Develop the Attractiveness of Your Product/Service
For a company’s staff to effectively innovate, they must not only fully understand what customers are trying to accomplish in buying the organization’s products, but they must fully believe their products fulfill these needs.
If employees don’t truly believe in the attractiveness of the company’s solutions for its customers (i.e., its products or services), employees won’t put their full heart into their work; they become weary in their work efforts, and as a result will not think in innovative ways. This is because, just like a person trying to push a rock up a hill, at first, they do okay, but after a while they lose momentum. The same goes for asking people to take innovative actions when they don’t truly believe in the organization’s product.
A person who came to us with their new business is a good example of this occurring. They worked for a large, international vacuum manufacturer, but they felt the company’s product quality had dropped over a number of years. Because they no longer believed in the attractiveness of their employer’s solution, it was emotionally very hard for them to come to work each day. So, they used innovation to develop a new product for the vacuum marketplace, one they personally believed in, and left to start their own company.
Where to Start
Educate your staff about why your customers purchase your products and their aspirations with regard to these purchases. The goal is that by instilling this knowledge in your employees, they will become customer-focused and entrepreneurially oriented. This will then lead them into thinking of innovative ways they can serve your customers better.
Next, start a dialog with your personnel regarding the attractiveness of your solution so they come to fully believe in the solutions (i.e., your products and services) for your customers. This includes “selling” your product/service to your employees by sharing how it admirably meets your customers’ needs and asking for your staff’s assistance in improving it.
If you need assistance with understanding your customer’s aspirations and/or developing the attractiveness of your product/service in a way that will transform your organization into a fountainhead of innovation, please contact us using the below information so we can be a resource to you in this crucial area.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17 years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.
Office: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
Tags: entrepreneur, innovation, small business consulting, small business planning, start a business
