Keeping a business fresh and innovating...

One of the greatest dangers for a successful business is that it rests on its laurels and gets complacent.

This could lead to it losing ground to newer, hungrier businesses that continue to innovate and are able to respond to changes in market conditions or simply take away its core market, leaving the old stuffy business finding it difficult to retaliate.

Therefore what can be done to keep a business fresh and ensure that it is constantly innovating and looking ways to improve, streamline and develop new products and hone existing ones to ensure that it always at least has a good chance of staying one step ahead of the competition?

Re : Keeping a business fresh and innovating

I think encouraging members of staff to submit ideas and not being afraid to say what they think is a great way.

Those on the frontline are often best placed to see how customers are reacting to products and to come up with ideas for modifications, innovations and other improvements.

Re : Keeping a business fresh and innovating

Lots of interesting questions you ask there startupbiz I see that most of them have not been answered yet.

In terms of keeping a business fresh I think you always need to review processes and work out what has worked and what has not worked.

Then work out how to address the bits that haven't worked and improve on them.

Sounds easy I know and to be honest I have never actually done it myself, but hey I think that is what I would do if I was disciplined enough

Re : Keeping a business fresh and innovating

Look at all the things your competitors change and ask yourself why they are doing that, and whether you should be doing it too.

Or perhaps look at what your competitors are doing and see what elements of that you could do better.

I think those are a couple of ways of getting ideas as to what to do to your business and that should at least help to make it fresh or at least keep things ticking over rather than the cobwebs getting too entrenched!

Re : Keeping a business fresh and innovating

There are three "horizons." Because all businesses mature and decline. This is a well established business process. See Guerrilla MBA at http://www.clickok.org

a) You have to innovate with your present business.

b) You have to innovate with business ideas that will provide income in the near future.

c) You need to seed and nurture ideas that will provide income in the distant future.

The processes of business creativity and innovation are taken seriously by Ivy League type institutions such as Harvard, London Business School, Wharton etc. Don't underestimate it.