Igniting innovative strength

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The ignition key for the engine of success

What is the future made of?
What drives people and what are the most groundbreaking solutions based on?

In this blog post, you will not only find out why innovative strength is important for companies, but we will also take a look at methods that can increase your innovativeness.

You will receive clear and concise explanations on innovations and learn why innovative strength is important.

Innovative strength - what is it and why is it important?

Creativity, imagination, ingenuity, creative spirit - the list of synonyms for innovative strength could go on and on. All terms have one meaning: they describe the ability to develop new products, services or processes through creative ideas, flexible adaptation and a little bit of risk-taking.

Why is innovative strength important?

Innovative strength is crucial for personal and corporate growth, competitiveness and adaptability.

As an innovation or project manager, you should set the pace for the trends of tomorrow.

Can innovation be measured?

There are several key figures that you can use to measure the success of your work.

Innovation rate

The innovation rate establishes a link between the revenue generated by your innovations and the total revenue. The rate shows the percentage to which the innovative ideas have contributed to the total turnover.

Innovation quota

You can use the innovation rate to determine the proportion of innovations in the company's overall product range.

Innovation portfolio

Analyzing the innovation portfolio gives you an overview of whether the product range is outdated or driven by innovation.

Degree of innovation

How innovative is a company really? Relate the product to its purpose in order to determine its novelty. The renowned German economist Jürgen Hauschildt developed this indicator. It shows you whether innovations are incremental, purpose-induced, means-induced or breakthrough innovations.

True or false?

"New ideas are expensive"

121.4 billion euros were spent on research and development in Germany in 2022, according to the Federal Statistical Office. But that doesn't mean that you as an innovation manager necessarily need a large budget. Because anyone can use their innovative strength to be innovative. The important thing is to know what your target group really wants.

"Only true geniuses have the power to innovate!"

Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla - these are just three of the greatest innovators. But do you also know Josephine Cochrane? Josephine was not an engineer by training, she was just annoyed by the broken dishes when washing up. So she invented the dishwasher. Not a genius, but an ingenious inventor!

"First come first serve - innovations only work if you are the first to develop them!"

You don't have to reinvent the wheel, because there are different types of innovation:

• Revolutionary innovation: You develop a completely new technology, service or something else.
• Evolutionary innovation: Is the continuous improvement of existing ideas.
• Frugal innovation: Further development that focuses on core functionalities, e.g. to improve performance or reduce costs.

Explained clearly and concisely: How to increase your innovative strength through design thinking

Even if you are bursting with innovative energy, the brilliant idea can take a little work. That's why you should try out the design thinking method.

What is design thinking?

Identify new needs and develop new solutions and ideas as a team. The approach is iterative, customer-centered, problem-solving focused and relies on creativity and collaboration. Originating from the field of design, Larry Leifer, professor at Stanford, transferred the approach to other areas.

The problem-solving process

The design thinking process consists of six phases:

1. Understand
2. Observe
3. Develop concept
4. Develop an idea
5. Modeling
6. Testing

Once you have understood what the initial problem is and have defined it, you should support your understanding with observations. What do customers say, for example? Then develop a concept as a roadmap. Now comes the creative phase: put ideas on paper with your team, several at once.

Sometimes the ability to innovate means breaking new ground, even if it does not lead directly to success.

Have you identified a profitable idea? Put it into practice! A prototype can be tested extensively by your innovation team, but also by customers.

Analysis and data as a basis

Don't forget: It always starts with an inventory!

Use the key figures described to measure innovativeness and look for indicators that you can use to measure the success of your innovation process afterwards.

How many customers have complained about the product? How many different problems were there? How high are the costs due to these problems?

After the innovation process, you can compare the old status with new data.

Use tools to find new ideas, increase and channel your innovative power

AnyIdea is an AI innovation platform and offers you numerous opportunities to promote your innovative thinking and your innovative strength. Based on data and with AI, you can recognize important trends and develop fresh ideas, solutions and suggestions for specific topics. AnyIdea also helps you to find the most promising approach.

With AnyIdea, you can invite not only employees, but also partners, customers, experts, interested parties and many others to develop ideas together (open innovation approach). Because innovative strength always arises where people come together and dedicate themselves to a collective task.