One standard feature of leading brands and companies is their ability to change with the times and innovate their businesses for success. Google, IBM, Tesla, Amazon and Apple are some of the best ambassadors for business innovation and the results amply reflect in their growth sprouts. Innovation is not only possible for big brands, in fact, but it’s also easier for entrepreneurs to adopt innovative business practices. Innovation for an entrepreneur is simply making changes either in your business plan, product development, strategy execution and dispensation of resources in a way that will make your organization more accessible and useful to the public. The more indispensable your business becomes to people the more your brand will grow and this should be the ultimate goal of any enterprise.
As regards the operational sector of your business, innovation takes into account the workforce and focuses on building the best work environment to drive performance. Here are six innovative practices of big brands that we can all adopt.

 

  1. Innovation is the foundation of their business philosophy

 

One factor that separates successful startups from failures is that the former sees innovation as a critical business value while the latter does not. What follows is that the former effortlessly flows with the continuous changes in the business environment by remaining flexible in their practices. Failures, on the other hand, see innovation as a need-based practice and scramble to find creative ideas when they observe their company’s stagnancy. To become an innovative business, you will need to make innovation a part of your core business principle.

 

  1. They create the innovative path for others to follow

 

Apple is one of the most successful organizations in the world, and most of its success is owed to its bold innovations. Founder Steve Jobs was a creative powerhouse and just when the business was on the brink of failure made a decision to create something visually and functionally different from what the world has seen, and today many follow his lead. Henry Ford is another brilliant example of an innovative leader. In a world where cars were luxuries for the wealthy, Ford Motors took the bold step of pioneering the line assembly method that allowed the mass production of cars and inadvertently its availability for everyone to use. The core lesson here is that to succeed you have to be willing to take the risk of acting on innovative ideas. Jobs and Ford were probably not the first people to conceive those ideas, but they were the first to put them into action, and that is what counts.

 

  1. They implement technology in their Business

 

Whether you like it or not technology is here to stay, and it is permeating into every aspect of today’s world. To become a successful innovative business, you will need to integrate IT as a part of your business infrastructure. Technology enables a steady flow of information and gives access to a world of ideas and potentials that can transform your organization. Connect to the world around you and tap into the mind of consumers and other industry leaders so that you can be at the forefront of change.

 

  1. They create innovation-friendly environments

 

Successful innovative brands build environments that foster creativity. They do not impede the creative banks of their employees rather they encourage them to present solutions to business problems, as well as ideas on how to improve sales, marketing, customer outreach and more. Furthermore, they provide all the resources their workers may need to implement creative ideas successfully. Product design cannot be carried out efficiently if the budget for it is not provided at the same time marketing cannot do their job without resources and IT experts cannot work without infrastructure.

 

  1. They are not afraid to experiment

 

It is true that not every innovative change leads to success. In fact, a lot of creative ideas may be faced with challenges and even result in temporary setbacks. But this, however, should not dampen the flare for experimenting in your business. Successful companies do not let failure kill their creative spark; rather they are fueled even more to discover what their consumers want. Apple is a perfect example of this practice, even after breaking creative boundaries, the company still continue to look for other areas of innovation. In the process, they have experimented with a number of ideas some of which were failures. This, however, does not deter them from making innovation their number one principle.

 

  1. They reward creative talent

 

Industry leading companies search for and greatly reward creative talent. Today’s system of education does not do a lot to boost creativity; as a result, a lot of people only do what technically works. While this is important, having outside the box thinkers on your team is even more vital. These are the ones who solve problems that require imagination and risk-taking. When you find such people at your service rather than curb their creative zeal by tasking them with methodical work, put them in aspects where their ideas are needed and welcome. Also, acknowledge their talent and appreciate their effort both verbally and otherwise; this will not only encourage them it will also drive others around them to become more innovative. Let it be known that your company rewards innovation, this way your workers will get the incentive to unleash their creativity.

 

By implementing these practices, your business can also be well on its way to becoming a world innovative leading brand. The only constant in life is change, and the question remains if you want to be a source of change or just another enterprise struggling to catch up.