Innovation and productivity: 3 signs that your company needs to focus on them

Innovation and productivity are closely connected. To escalate and elevate production quality, increasingly, companies must create ways to organize their activities with creativity and differentiation value.

In this article, we are going to dwell a little on this. Keep reading to understand what are the clearer signs that innovation is needed to enhance productivity on your business!

The challenges of innovation and productivity in organizations

Innovation usually indicates change or the creation of more effective processes, products and ideas. To companies, this might mean to implement new ideas, create dynamic products or enhance their already existing services.

To invest in innovation might be a catalyst to your business’ growth and success, besides helping with the necessary adaptations in a market that is more dynamic and challenging each day.

To be an innovative organization is not just about creating from scratch. Innovation can mean changing the business model and adapting to market environment’s changes to better assist the clients.

When the innovation is successful, it is an incorporated part of the business strategy. That is to say, it is part of the culture that leads the way of purpose thinking, allowing everyone involved to do more and better, adding value and generating more profitability.

Companies that innovate create more efficient work processes, have better productivity and performance. Therefore, are more remembered by its target audience, sell more and obtain more sustainable payback.

However, to reach innovation and productivity, specialists point to some challenges that business owners and leaders in businesses need to overcome. They are:

• Develop holistic thinking: to encourage integrated thinking, in other words, the one who sees the business as a whole and not only the activities of each professional, organizations must foster engagement, offer incentives (individual and for the teams), and, overall, open space to collaboration;
  
• Make sure that the team members understand the importance of roles: people and teams usually work better when they receive special tasks or duties. It is necessary to boost those roles, making sure every team member understands that they will provide a unique perspective about a certain topic or issue;
• Get over the fear of failure: well established businesses often feel that they have a lot to lose, in terms of reputation, brand and finances. That is why they don’t innovate for fear of failure. One way to overcome this challenge is to set aside part of the revenue to test new ideas and venture.

Look at this data: a research from McKinsey has shown that 94% of the interviewed managers said that they were unsatisfied with their companies’ innovation performance. Alarming, right?

3 signs that your company needs to overcome innovation and productivity challenges

Innovation requires some daring. That is why a cultural shift needs to be worked on before setting off to innovative goals and actions.

And, one of the smartests ways of taking the first step is to recognize in which aspects innovation and productivity are running short in the company. Check out, below, some signs that it is necessary to take action!

1. Collaboration does not have a clear value to the teams

If people work in a very individualistic way, if they do not interact aside their own team and if there is divergence between departments, subsidiaries and business partners, it is necessary to turn on the warning signs.

There is no corporate innovation without continuous exchange of ideas, without the knowledge share, without multidisciplinary teams, without global challenges and actions - that involve everyone.

2. People leave for other companies too frequently

If the competitors are “stealing” the best professionals that you hire, you must ask what is going on. Many organizations find out that they lose their employees for matters related to innovation than due to the salary they offer.

In the erratic world that we live in, it is normal for people to look for more exciting challenges. Maybe it is the case to investigate how the competitors are working to draw and retain more clients. Are they being more innovative?

3. There are still no clear digital transformation strategy

We can’t resist anymore, digital transformation is a reality. It needs to be faced in a conscious way, that is to say, systematically and strategically.

If the processes, communication and management of your business are still done in a traditional way, without the inclusion of innovative technological tools, that is a clear sign of little innovation.

The good news is that it is getting cheaper, simpler and faster to implement digital applications in the corporate daily routine. With cloud computing, it is possible to receive resources that upgrade the operational daily routine and also in management, in a virtualized form. Without the need of long implementation periods, with manageable costs, among other benefits.

Do you identify any of these signs in your company? Need new insights to develop innovation and productivity in your business? Get in touch with our experts here at Gentrop and let’s figure out together how we can transform your organization!