Innovation is what makes the world grow and develop.
In companies innovation can be worth a mountain of gold as a single innovative
idea could turn a company ready to go bankrupt into a star performer. Just look
at Apple and the development of innovative products that helped transform the
company into a cash cow. To improve innovation in your company consider three
different human capital areas of focus.
There are a few good reasons why a company should
develop innovation that includes stagnation through lack of new products and
processes. Most companies will eventually move into a period of stagnation unless
innovation is given appropriate weight. Companies must change the way they
operate if they want to continue to grow.
Innovation has many different factors that range from
culture to compensation. However, it is sometimes beneficial to think of broad
areas of improvement thereby leaving the details to the uniqueness of each
company. At a minimum innovative implementation should consider teamwork,
management, and employees as foundational aspects.
Teamwork:
Ideas develop in a body of knowledge through social learning. Science requires
the free exchange of ideas that allow new ideas and concepts to come to the
forefront. In companies, teamwork allows people to share multiple vantage
points and perspectives to come up with new and unique solutions.
Having well balanced teams with different skill sets
and diversity of people all focused on the same goal is important. Develop your
teams wisely and ensure all members are working on the same problem. Let people
free flow ideas and discuss them in an egalitarian manner until a final
solution is found.
Management:
Managers are one of the most important factors in the success of a company.
Hiring managers who are more interested in domination than performance is going
to have serious consequences for innovative development. Few employees will
bring forward ideas if they have been chastised in the past.
The manager determines the types of interactions
between those who can innovate and those who have the power to implement.
Encouraging employees to come forward with new and well thought out ideas is
beneficial. The manager should help inspire employees to develop and become
more innovative.
Employee: Innovative
employees are a slightly different breed than many other types of employees.
They are creative, risk takers, entrepreneurs, internally driven, theorists and
thinkers. They take pleasure in finding new ways to think about ideas and
concepts.
Hiring employees that are constantly learning and giving
unique responses to interview questions is important for innovation. Make sure
that such employees are placed in positions where these skills are enhanced and
toned for practical use is helpful. Like accounting, recruitment is a garbage-in
and garbage-out approach where poor employees create poor companies.
Innovation is a messy process and can be difficult to
implement in an organization that is stuck in rigid methodologies and
approaches. Rejuvenation requires the ability to find new ways of doing things
that have a financial and cultural benefits on the organization. Creating
higher levels of development requires thinking about the human capital of an
organization and how it is used.
